Page 144 - Records of Bahrain (5) (i)_Neat

132 Records of Bahrain

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Confidential
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D.O. No. C/691-l.b/5 Dated the 12th November 1938.

Subject>- Agitation in Bahrain

l (VV V is*
There have been quite considerable developments during
the last week in the agitation going on in Bahrain.
2. His Highness the Shaikh was much upset by various
offensive remarks passed about him personally by some of

the Arab agitators, and on Saturday he instructed Belgrave
to arrest a number of them. Thio was done and on Sunday
morning there was a partial strike in the Bahrain Petroleum
Company’s offices and in the Field, the leaders being the
transport drivers, the gaugers and the "office boys" (i.e.
the youthful semi-intelligentsia). There was a certain

amount of picketing on the road from Man am ah with the
result that Field coolies were turned back, but the picketers
wero arrested and the coolies immediately began to trickle
back to work. Shortly afterwards a crowd of young men
assembled in the Jbma1 Mosque and demanded to see me. As

they were all Bahrain subjects I naturally refused and they
went into the bazaar where they made themselves objectionable
and frightened the shopkeepers who immediately closed their
shops. A body of Police was taken into the bazaar to disperse
the crowd and a few people received injuries during a charge.
The main ring-leader was a man named Ali bin Khalifah al Fadhal
who escaped but gave himself up the 3ame night. Meanwhile
strenuous efforts were made to induce the Bahama to join in
demonstrations/-

nourable Lieutenant-Colonel
Sir Trenchard Fowle, K. C. I. E • i C. B. E • j
Political Resident in tho Persian Gulf,
Bushiro.