Page 261 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

Administration council, 1956 247

SECRET
FROM FOREIGN OFFICE TO BAHRAIN

Cyphcr/OTl , and By Bag. FOREIGN OFFICE SECRET AND
WHITEHALL SECRET
DISTRIBUTION

No: 730 D: 12.34 p.m. July 13, 1956.
July 13, 1956.
EMERGENCY
SECRET
Addressed to Bahrain telegram No: 730 of July 13
Repeated for Information to: P.O.M.E.F • •
C.-in-C. East Indies.
A.O.C. Aden.
and Saving to: Doha.No: 9.
Muscat No: 22. Cairo Mo: 531. Dubai No: 21.
Kuwait No: 25. Bagdad No: 465.
Your telegrams Nos: 600 , 613 , 614 and 618 [of July 9,
10 and 11: Situation in Bahrain].

Please seek an early interview with the Ruler, if at
nil possible before he receives Committee's formal demands,
and speak in following sense.
2. In the circumstances the best thing the Rulor can do
is to see the Committee privately and begin by making it clear
that he will not yield to threats of a strike and certainly
not announce publicly this dismissal of a man who has been
such a valuable servant of Bahrain. Moreover if there is
any disorder the Committee will bo hold responsible. However,
the Ruler might go on to say it is possible that the Committee
are genuinely under a misapprehension about the Ruler's future
intentions. lie therefore wishes to tell them that, the plan
for administrative reorganization announced on June 9 stands.
If the Committee try to hasten Bclgrave's retirement, the
Ruler would feel inclined to postpone it. But it would
be foolish of the Committee to make an issue of something
which is already on the way to a solution. As for the
Administrative Council, he has already made it clear that it
must run its course as at present constituted.
3. You may at your discretion make a preliminary
approach to Bolgravo before talking to the Ruler, but you
should see the latter at the earliest possible moment, If
the Ruler. • • •

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