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overconfident and daring. The Party forwarded a letter to the Political Agency in

March announcing its intention to establish a trade union. 273

Early 1955 saw the appointment of a new Political Agent in Bahrain, upon

the completion of Wall’s services, Charles Gault. In February and after

approximately two months of service in Bahrain, Gault sent the Resident his views

regarding local developments for the first time since arriving in post. The Agent

viewed nationalists, like every Arab ‘a volatile creature and when his interest or

enthusiasm is aroused, wants the whole loaf at once, without pausing to think’.

From Gault’s perspective as a new diplomat in Bahrain he acknowledged the

Bahraini Administration’s work and progress over the decades but had also

affirmed that it was flawed. In Gault’s opinion the worst department operating in

Bahrain was the Police Force because of the poor training of its officers and men

who lacked professional crowd-control techniques. He also pointed to the new and

growing oil wealth of neighbouring countries (Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia) that

was attracting Bahrainis to work there for better wages and further adding to local

grievances. With these conditions according to Gault, ‘Bahrain has I feel reached a

turning point in its history’. In Gault’s opinion the driving force behind the recent

struggles in Bahrain was ‘nationalism, which has permeated Bahrain’ resulting in

the current political deadlock. The Agent believed that the time had come to

pressure the Administration into making even further reforms. 274 One of the first

suggestions Gault provided the Bahraini Administration with was the development

273 ‘Bernard Burrows, Residency’s Monthly Report for March 1955’, in Political Diaries of the Persian
Gulf, vol. 20 1955-1958, ed. R.L. Jarman (London: 1990), 1-4 (2).
274 TNA, FO 1016/386, Gault to Burrows, 10 February 1955.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 91