Page 64 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

50 Records of Bahrain

that the Commission of Enquiry was being set up. The

names of those appointee).were given a mixed reception,
though the mention of Judge Haines' participation was
applauded, At 2 p.m, the temperature was having its
effect and the crowd withdrew from the Agency compound,
loaded the bodies on to buses, and drove off to their
Villages to hold the funerals, saying they would return .
the next day,

7 The crowd did not return on Friday, July 2,
but hold the funerals in the villages concerned, The
Political Agent sent in the morning for the two older
leaders of the Shia community, and persuaded them to
try to resume control of their sect, since the "delegates"

he had been seeing were persons neither of much intelligence
nor influence and one or two of them, extremists. In
the afternoon the Political Agent saw a delegation of four
of theShias he had seen the previous day. The main
demands they put forward were that the Chief of Police
(Shaikh Khalifah) and an Inspector should be suspended,

and that the persons sentenced in the Sitra case should
either be pardoned by the Ruler, or allowed bail pending
appeal. The meeting ended with the Shias declaring that
if -the G 'vernment did not show evidence of their intention
to protect the lives of the Shias the Shias would continue
the strike indefinitely. At this stage of events, the

Political Agent and the Adviser managed to associate the
two pearl merchants who were former leaders of the Shia
community, older and more respectable, with the movement.
The suggested reforms they put forward in the meeting
/with