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So the HEC officially formed its own trade union in early April. 311 The organisation
came to be known as the Bahra’ni Trade Union. 312
Gault also criticised the Bahraini Administration for its slowness in
responding to political developments. The Agent blamed the slow reactions of the
Adviser on his insistence ‘in trying to do everything himself – as he was able easily
to do years ago when government was simpler’. He was also critical of the HEC’s
policy in handling the internal political situation, as ‘Whatever the Bahrain
Government do will be found wanting by them’. Gault suggested to Burrows the
appointment of an assistant to Belgrave to aid the Government in its work, although
he doubted that Belgrave would accept the idea. 313
On 6 April Eden took over the British Premiership from Churchill. 314 On
Churchill’s last day in office, Britain officially joined the Turco-Iraqi Pact which
would soon come to be known as the Baghdad Pact. 315 The decision to join the Pact
was proclaimed by Eden earlier in the House of Commons on 30 March. 316 The US
did not join the Pact as it feared that its membership of the alliance would hinder its
relations with Nasser. Furthermore, the American Jewish lobby disapproved of the
US partaking in the coalition as long as Iraq was part of it and Israel was not a
member. 317
On the same day that the Government Labour Committee’s elections were
due, on 19 April, an article attacking the Adviser in Bahrain was published in Egypt’s
311 TNA, FO 371/114770, Burrows to FO, 7 April 1955.
312 ‘Itihad Al-A’mal Al-Bahra’ni’ [The Bahra’ni Trade Union], Al-Watan, 26 August 1955, 12.
313 TNA, FO 371/114587, Gault to Burrows, 30 March 1955.
314 Descent to Suez, 6 April 1955, 254-55; and ‘Eden at the Helm’, New York Times, 7 April 1955, 26.
315 ‘New Anglo-Iraqi Treaty’, The Manchester Guardian, 5 April 1955, 7.
316 Eden, Full Circle, 222-23.
317 The Eden-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1955-1957, Boyle, ‘The Issues’, 53-78 (71).
© Hamad E. Abdulla 105
