EASTERN TREASURE ISLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1082, 20 September 1930, Page 13

EASTERN TREASURE ISLES

PERSIA CLAIMS TO OWN ! THE BAHREIN’S £1,000,000 CROP OF PEARLS The little Bahrein Islands in the sun-drenched Persian Gulf are the subject of the latest questions to reach the League of Nations. The Persian Government has protested against the League’s publishing statistics of the islands “as though they were British territory.” Persia insists that the islands are Persian possessions. Wealth On Land and Sea Why there should he a contest for these islands is not apparent from a glance at the map of Asia. They lie 20 miles off the sand dune-fringed shore of Arabia in one of the hottest regions of the Near East, and might well be just another group of desert islands. But in reality these Islands are doubly blessed: with a wealth on their surface and a wealth under the ‘sea that bathes their shores. They possess the priceless asset in Arabia of great fresh-water springs; and they are the base of operations for one of the world’s most valuable pearl fisheries.

It is because of their under-sea wealth that the Bahrein Islands are best known. Ever since the dawn of history, naked men have gone overboard from boats in the Gulf of Bahrein, clips over their noses and beeswax iu their ears, to gather the great oysters that grow on the sea bottom. And from these meaty shells have come some of the famous pearls that through thousands of years have bedecked Indian potentates, and princesses and queens from Egypt to England.

Pearl fishing off the Bahrein Islands is a democratic and co-operative affair. Boats are permitted to use the waters and to operate the islands on the payment of a small fee to the sheik. From June to November often as many as 5,000 small boats, each carrying from six to 15 men, are busy. The divers work in water varying in depth from 30ft to 100 ft. Their only equipment consists of a nose clamp, ear plugs, a stone to drag them to the bottom, and a rope to serve as a signal cord and an elevator. On many of the boats, the oysters of the preceding day’s catch are spread out on deck and opened each morning betore the diving begins. All pearls are turned over to the captain, and at tne end of the season each man gets the share he has earned. The average value of the pearls taken at Bahyear i 5 more than

Of the five sizeable islands of the group, Bahrein Island is of dominant importance. It is approximately 27 miles long and 10 miles wide. On it is *?£ ama ' <>a Pi ta l and metropolis with a Poplation of 40,000. On Maharrak Island, across a narrow strait, is the town of Muharrak, with 20,000 inhabitants. The total ?jW ion ° £ the isla,ld group is about 100,000. The springs that gush out on the islands create luxuriant oases that produce valuable crops of dates. Manama. like tho city cf Victoria on the islands of Hong-Eong, seldom goes by its own name, but usually takes the name of the island. Like Hong-Kong, too, it is the island gateway for a large trade with the mainland. Millions of pounds’ worth of foodstuffs and merchandise are unloaded at the port annually to be exported later to tho interior of Arabia. Little was heard of the Bahrein Islands in relatively modern times until they fell into the hands of Portuguese adventurers in 1507. The Portugeuese were driven out in 1602 by Persian forces. It is on this event and the subsequent 180 years of occupation that Persia bases her claim. In 1752 Arab tribesmen from the Arabian mainlans took possession, and a sheik from this tribe has been the local ruler of the islands ever since. The British view is that Bahrein is an independent principality in alliance with the Indian Government and under the protection of Great Britain. Great Britain established treaty relations with the Sheik of Bahrein in 1820, and suppressed piracy in the nearbv waters.

Bahrein Island is low except for one rock hill about 400 ft. high. In the central plain of the island are numerous burial tumuli that have aroused the interest and curiosity of archaeologists. The earlier cities to be built in the world, so far as is known, were built in the Sumerian plains of Mesopotamia, a few hundred miles north of Bahrein. It has been suggested that the culture on Bahrein Island may have antedated that of Sumeria, but so far no exhaustive study of the island's tumuli has been made.