Page 373 - Records of Bahrain (6)_Neat

Anti-Palestine disturbances, 1947 361

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various Arab leaders and then moved on, the schoolboys called
for cheers for His Highness and for the British Government.
His Highness caine to the front of the verandah and acknov/1 edged
their salutations. By this time it was being said in the Bazaar
that His Highness and the Adviser were strongly supporting the
demonstration. Police arrangements had been made during the
previous night. Police patrolled the bazaar and as much as
possible the streets in which there were Jewish houses and
the neighbourhood of the Eastern Bank - which remained closed
as most of the staff did not appear. Police walked at the
head of the procession and at the side of the procession in
the way in which they appear in the Muharram procession. The
procession returned as before to the mosque for prayers. The
Sunni Qadi , Shaikh Abdullatif, gave sermon, which according to
some, tended to incite the congregation. When His Highness
heard of this he sent orders to Shaikh Abdullatif forbidding
him to speak to the demonstrators in the mosque. There were
no incidents during the day and no procession in the afternoon.
Additional guards were posted in the town at night and precautions
were taken in case of disturbances.

6. On Wednesday night the organisers of the demonstration
got in touch with the members of the Persian Matem (somewhat
similar to a churchhall) and with one of the Bahama (Shia)
matems. It was arranged that the demonstrators should visit
the matems during the next morning. Until now the Shia Bahama
and the Persians had taken scarcely any part in the demonstra­
tions. On Thursday morning although the schools were officially
open no boys attended them. The procession which formed was
very much larger than it had been during the first two days.
It included an open truck which was used as a rostrom in which
was carried a large coloured picture of Amin Huseini, the Mufti.
A number of people, including an Indian, made speeches from the
truck, using a megaphone. As before a number of police accom­
panied the procession which apparently gave some foundation to
the belief that it was organised and approved by the Government.
Police officers and policemen walked at the head of the proces­
sion and down the length of it but the number of hangers on who
followed the demonstrators was almost as many as the people in
the procession. The demonstrators proceeded to the Persian
matem, one of the largest rooms in the town. The police waited
outside. Here a number of people made speeches of an inflamatory
nature. A large crowd of Persians had assembled at the matem but
none of the older members of the community appears. Among the
Persians were crews of dhows which were in the harbour, water
carriers, small shopkeepers and bazaar riff raff. When the
procession left the matem it was followed by all the Persians
who had been inside and outside the matem.
7. The procession then proceeded towards the municipal
building. Until now the demonstration had been conducted in
/an