Page 86 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

72 Records of Bahrain

7, There la still seme doubt ao to the Identity of
the organisers of tho constitutional agitation. Seorot
meetings ~ their eoourlty guaranteed by oatha on the Quran -
have boon hold parallel with tho publio mootings und it to
In tho seorot mootings that tho tootles havo apparently been
determined* Publio meetings were hold on the occasion of
the Fortieth Day after the Tonth of Muharroro (October 16 to
18), traditional days of commemoration for the Shiah, but
days which In the past have been observed only by tho Shiah
in Bahrain and by them only aa a religious oooaeion, Last
week, however, large numbers of Qunnle attended tho
services in the Mu'min (Shiah) Mosque and various p olitioal
orations and eccne announcements about tho political
programme were made,

8, Tho biggest meeting was on October 18 when a
mixed orowd which may have numbered something like three or
four thousand, gathered about the mosque. Half tho
1 speakers were Shi'is and these soon, on the whole, to have
kept to the subject of religion. The principal Sunni
speakers were Abdur Rahman al Ua'awlda, Bahrain's poot of
tho avant-garde, who recited a political poemj Mahmud al
Mardl, an enployeo of the British Bank of tho Middle East
in ul Khobar, who spoke explaining and advocating the idea
of a legislative councilj and Shlmlan, also cm employee of
the British Bank of the Middle East, v/ho dealt with the
familiar topics of the courts and the hospital, Abdur
Rahman al Bokir alao spoke and revealed some thing of tho
l opposition's plan of action.
9* From his remarks and from other sources it
appeared that the plan was to elect u gonerol committee of
one hundred persons to support a now petition of demands
for reform. Tills oomrilttoo would then uppolnt an
executive sub-committee of fifty men. who would uppolnt
eight delegates to present the petition to the Ruler, Then
if, as they expect, the Ruler rojacts the petition, the
eight will go to Cairo and thoro engage a wakll - preeumab ly
an Egyptian lawyer - to assist them in preparing a case
wiiioh one of their number will go to London to present, A
circular issued on October 22 by the 'High Executive
Committee' states that the identity of this coinmitteo will
!
bo kept secret but tho names of tho eight delegates will bo
published.
10* The petition will, presumably, be more ambitious
than that of July 3> for there io no doubt that through all
tho tulk that has gone on since then the idea of thorough­
going constitutional reform has taken precendenoo of
administrative reforms end the redress of speolfio
grievances, Abdur Rahman al Bukir leaves no doubt of thia
in his latost article (printed in Al Qafllafr since tho
eupprosBion of his own paper), tHo Higher Executive
Committee's oirculsr, also, states that the first of the
national demands la for a legislative council by moans of
I wlxich the people can participate in tho administration.
At the some time the leadora claim there that they are not
working cither for the deposition of Ohuikh nulman or
ugainst Great Britain, which they desoribo as 'Bahrain's

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