Page 361 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

Administration, 1957 347

CONFIDENTIAL BRITISH RESIDENCY
BAHRAIN
1011/1/^570 April 17, 1957
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I.ly letter Ho. 1013./l/40/^7G of April'4 about the
situation in Bahrain.

2. At my farewell talk with Belgrave on April 16,
after discussing various other aspects of the political
situation here, I asked him whether he now felt that it
had been better to lot the political movement represented
by the Committee of Rational Union rim on as it did or
whether it would have been better to have suppressed it
at the beginning. He replied that looking back on the
matter now he thought it was probably better that it had
been alloy/ed to run on in order that people could see
for themselves what were the results of political controversy
here. Bel grave said he had held tho opposite view before
but had now come round to this view, which agreed with ours.
He said that the Ruler on the contrary still held firmly to
the view that it would have been better to have suppressed
them from the beginning. This seeras an interesting
commentary on the last part of paragraph 8 of my letter of
April 4«
3. I am sending a copy of this letter to Charles Gault.

II
-r-xTWrJ
(B.A.B. Burrows)

U.li.Il. Riches Esnuiro,
FOREIGN OFFICE,
8.W.I.

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