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Agent remarked to the Ruler that he felt obliged to receive complaints from the

general public, even from ‘troublemakers’. 305

By early March the HEC formulated a draft scheme to establish a trade union.

To counter this, and as advised by Gault, the Administration announced a project to

set up a labour law code and a Government Labour Committee. So, on 3 March,

Burrows invited Matthew T Audsley, the Labour Counselor in Cairo, to Bahrain for a

few days to offer his expertise in this field. Audsley met with Al-Bakir and managed

to successfully convince him to put off the establishment of his union until his next

(unspecified) visit to Bahrain.

Burrows summarised the policy that was to be adopted by the Residency in a

message to the FO on 5 March. Regarding recent internal developments the

Resident said:

In the light of our interest in its welfare, we would continue to watch
the progress of political developments here with sympathy and would
give advice if required. But we could not recognize, or have dealings
with, a committee which had set itself up without any constitutional
basis and which boycotted the democratic processes which had been
made available.

He also cautioned that any resort to violence by the HEC would result in the loss of

British and international sympathy for its cause. 306

The new proposed Government Labour Committee announced by the

Administration in March consisted of three government representatives, two

members of the ruling family, a British officer, three BAPCO employees of which one

would be a British or an American, the second an employee of a local Bahraini firm

305 TNA, FO 1016/386, Gault to Burrows, 2 March 1955.
306 TNA, FO 371/114586, Burrows to FO, 5 March 1955.

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