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 96 THE BRITISH EMPIRE : — BAHREIN ISLANDS

by sea, 6,580,474*.; by land, 295,495*. ; treasure (sea and land), 248,106*. ; total imports, 7,124,078*. (total, 1918-19, 5,470,743/.) Chief imports: Cotton, piece goods, grain, hides and skins, tobacco, coal, coffee, sugar, fruits, vegetables, and other provisions. Exports, by sea, 6,292,691*.; by land, 125,451*. ; treasure (sea and land), 98,862*. : total exports, 6,517,004*. (total, 1918-19, 4,573,916*.) Chief exports: Coffee, gums, hides and skins, cotton goods, tobacco, grain and pulse, provisions, sugar. These statistics are exclusive of government stores and treasure. In 1919-20, 1,066 merchant vessels of 2,736,839 tons (net) entered the port of Aden, of which 642 were British ; in the same year 883 country (local) craft of 36,569 tons entered. At Perim 430 vessels entered, of which 101 were Government vessels. Aden itself produces little, its chief industries being the manu- facture of salt and cigarettes. The trade is largely a transhipment one, and is divided into foreign, Indian, and inland. There is a branch of the National Bank of India, Limited, and there is also one firm of private bankers.

A railway was begun in 1915, for military purposes, from Aden to Lahej, 25 miles, and has now been extended a few miles beyond that oasis. The guage is one metre.

The island of Sokotra off the coast of Africa is under British protection, and the Xuria Mnria islands, off the coast of Arabia, are attached to Aden. Aiea of former, 1,382 square miles. Population about 12,000, mostly pastoral and migratory inland, fishing on the coast. Religion, at one time Christian, Moham- medan since the end of the 17th century. The island came under British pro- tection in 1876, by treaty with the Sultan. Chief products, dates and various gums ; sheep, cattle, and goats are plentiful ; butter is exported. The Kuria Muria Islands, five in number, were ceded by the Sultan of Muskat for the purpose of landing the Red Sea cable.

References. — Foreign Office Reports. Annual Series. London.

Return : India (Aden), Part I., containing Report on Aden Harbour by Aden Commis- sion appointed in 1901, and Figures of recent Trade in Aden (163). London, 1906.

Bent (J. Th.), Sokotra. In ' XlXth Century' Magazine for June, 1897.

Bent (J. Th. and Mrs.), Southern Arabia. London, 1900.

Bury (G. W.), Land of Uz.

Forbes (H. O.), The Natural History of Sokotra and Abd-el-Kuri. Liverpool, 190S.

Jacob (H. F.). Perfumes of Araby. London, 1915.

Kossmat (F.), Geologic der Inseln Sokotra, Semha, ic. Vienna, 1902.

Lucas (C. P.), Historical Geography of the British Colonies. 2nd. ed. Vol. I. London, 1906.

BAHREIN ISLANDS.

Group of islands in the Persian Gulf, 20 miles off the coast of El Hasa, in Arabia. Bahrein, the largest, is 27 miles long by 10 wide ; Muharrak, to the north-east of Bahrein, 4 miles long, £ mile wide. Other islands are, to the east, Sitra, 3 miles long and 1 mile broad, half its area being fertile ; Nabi Saleh, about 2 miles in circumference, very fertile ; Jezeyra, a small islet with a date plantation ; to the west are three rocky and uninhabited islets, Um Nahsan, Jidi, and Raka. The regular population of the islands is put at about 110,000. Manama, the capital and commercial centre, extends 3 miles along the shore and has 35,000 inhabitants. Muharrak on the island of that name has about 20,000 inhabitants. Other towns are Budaiya on Bahrein Island and lladd on Muharrak Island. There are about 100 villages in the islands. There are thousands of tombs in the shape of conical mounds situated in tho interior of the islands. They vary considerably in size, some of them being as much as 100 yards in diameter, and 40 feet in height, entaili»g vast labour of construction. Inside are regular masonry burial chambers. No certainty