Page 372 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

360 Records of Bahrain

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3. The demonstrations took the form of a procession, or
processions, of schoolboys and youths followed by a rabble
of women and loafers who marched round the town chanting
slogans. During the morning a few minor incidents took
place, two cars, one belonging to a Jew and one carrying
Jews were stopped and stones and mud were thrown at them.
Windows of the cars were broken and some damage was done to
them. In one case the car driver provoked the trouble by
refusing to stop to let the procession pass, he then ran away
and left the car in the middle of the procession. An elderly
deaf Jew was beaten by some unknown persons near the market,
Dr. Harrison of the American Mission was stopped in his car
by the crowd which shouted slogans "down with America, Zionists,
Russians and Communists" and mud was thrown at houses of Jews
and some Iraqi Christians. The crowd stopped outside the
Eastern Bank where most of the staff are Jews. The Jewish
clerks apparently laughed at the demonstrators and stones were
thrown from the outside of the crowd at the Bank windows where
a good deal of glass was broken. The procession went to one
of the Girls' schools, where work was going on as usual, and
shouted at the teachers to let the girls come out and join
them. The door was shut in the face of the crowd, but later,
by His Highness's orders, the girls were sent to their houses.
The procession then proceeded to the Juma Mosque where prayers
were said and the flags which were carried were deposited in the
mosque. The flags were those of Bahrain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt and other Arab nations. There was a similar procession
in the afternoon, but no incidents took place.
4. In the evening four Arabs went to call on His Highness
at Rafaa, they were: Saad Bin Shemlan, a negro foster brother
of the late Ruler, who was imprisoned some years ago for sedi­
tion, Khalil Moayad, a politically ambitious foxy Holi, by
profession a wood merchant, whose own family are leading lights
among the "shubaan" - youth movement; Jasim Kanoo, a nephew of
Yusuf Kanoo, a man of negligible influence, but fond of inter­
fering in everything; and Mohomed bin Mubarak Al-Faadl, member
of an Arab family allied to the Khalifah, persona grata with
His Highness but of small intelligence. These people asked
His Highness to close the schools on the following day and
suggesting closing the Government offices. His Highness gave
them more consideration than they deserved and decided to close
the schools on Wednesday.

5. On Wednesday there was a larger procession but no inci"
dents. Shops remained closed and all Jews stayed in their
houses, some of them moved during the night to the houses of
neighbours and a few left the town and went into hiding else­
where. The Jews by this time were in a state of panic. During
the morning the demonstrators in procession came to the open
market in front of the municipal office where His Highness was,
as is his custom on Wednesdays, sitting on the verandah. They
called for cheers for the King of Egypt, for Ibn Saud, and

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