Page 214 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

200 Records oj Bahrain

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Since my return I havQueen struck by the rapid strides
which Egyptian influence has made in recent months, not
only in Bahrain, but elsowhoro in tho Gulf. As Mr, Gault
recognises, and as I pointed out in my tolegram No, 771
of the 28th of October, the supervisory committoesJ^^A^

described in the enclosed Despatch are only too likely to
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sorye as now channels for the introduction of Egyptian
teachers, doctors and experts, while tho intention
which the Ruler lias also proclaimed of bringing foroign
Judges to help in the Courts will have the same result,
Nor is the introduction of Egyptian specialists the only
respect in which the now situation may favour tho growth

of Egyptian influence hero. The close links botween the
reformists and the Egyptian revolutionary movement to
which I have referred before, may oblige the Ruler in his
attempt to establish friendly relations with the former
to pose as a friend of Egypt as well. Tho immediate
usefulness of the time-honourod remedy of invoking foreign
affairs to cure, or obscure, internal dissensions, is not

lost upon the Ruler, although its longer term implications
probably are. The latest and most deplorable example of
this is tho success which has attended the collections in
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Bahrain for "Arms for Egypt” - a campaign in which tho
Ruler and his family playod a leading part not, I believe,
V
out of conviction but largely for considerations of
domestic politics.
4. The second danger lies in tho operation of the
supervisory committees themselves. Mr. Gault points out
that, although subject to genoral Government control of
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