Page 131 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

Constitutional reforms, 1955 117
/ fiUiwtei.

CON i?TDKHTI AL
.T JUv a Ion?-; talk v/ltli tho Adviser
on i',ol)Xium,y 117 about tho general situation
In Buhrain.
3. .1 said that X v/no convinced by tlie
fact that tho Ruler had oo far done nothing
very' tangible to meet tho demands of the
x*ol’omicro, that In my view the latter
would continue to press for improvements
and that the rink then woo that the
Government and the Ruler would be over­
taken by events and perhaps have to give
away more than they otherwise would huve
had to do. I was also worried at the
state of the police force which was
generally regarded as unable to maintain
law and order. Sjr Charles had told me
previously of the existence in Buhruin
of Spnninh-made automatic pistols which
came from r.audi Arabia contrabrand. I
felt that even a few of these in the
hands of excited and volatile people
z could be very dangerous at times of tension.
o Tho police would not be much use at
C£
< dealing with the odd shooter. 1 felt
r that all tills meant that Her Mn.-Jenty's
Government would have to intervene at
£
I ii much earlier stage, in the event of <!
H disturbances, than would have otherwise it
been necessary and that, war, very undesirable
Z
I. also spoke of the lack of publicity
on the Government side for the things
Z
ID they had done. If, as the Adviser said,
t the Ruler was not prepared to allow the
5 two papers ho had suppressed to re^open
* could not the Government induce - if
necessary by a subsidy - someone else
UJ
CD to publish so that the Government would
have a vehicle X’or its own publicity,
O
h other tlian tho gazette, which was unsuitable,
and there would also be in fact a paper
O
z on the is Ip lid. We, tho British, could not
X really approve the indefinite suppression
of tho only papers there were.
0
z I
3. Tlie Adviser said that the Ruler
still flatly refused even to recognise
tho existence of the High Executive
Committee much less meet any of its
members. If.II. the Ruler was not going
to unower the II. 10.C. 'o last letter. The
Adviser went on to say that the Ruler
was exceedingly obstinate and, when I
said lie did not seem n good politician,
said that he would only talk to people
he knew to he on his own side lie would
never try to convince, or win over,
opposition. And in recent months he,
tho Ruler, hud been vory bad at talking
to people - even his friends - in order
to keep thorn on the right lines. He
would say ho would talk to so-and-so
but never do it. Also, now, the family
are more or less united behind the Ruler
which encourages him to be unyielding. .
h. As regards the police, tho Adviser
said that they had recently taken on about
50 recruits mainly non-Bahrainis (Baluchis,
I /Muscutis