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with a new and strong labour legislation, Bahraini workers will ‘be swayed less by a

handful of ambitious would-be politicians’. 334

During the month of May Al-Bakir and Belgrave exchanged correspondence

and copies of those letters can be found at TNA. Al-Bakir had first forwarded a

request to Belgrave that his passport suspension be revoked. Al-Bakir told the

Adviser of his wish to travel abroad, particularly to Cyprus as he sought medical

treatment for an unidentified ailment and for two weeks of recuperation. 335

Belgrave replied to Al-Bakir’s request by saying that, as he had previously obtained

a Qatari passport before he had sought asylum in Bahrain and that the Ruler had

granted him a Bahraini passport instead. But since the Ruler had withdrawn it, ‘he

is not prepared to reconsider the matter’. Belgrave, nonetheless, offered Al-Bakir a

travel document but that did not grant him Bahraini citizenship. Belgrave sent a

copy of the letters to the Political Agency. 336 It was odd for Al-Bakir to request,

without a prior indication of an illness, permission suddenly to travel abroad. His

wish to visit to Cyprus was also a peculiar one. There are two possible explanations

regarding Al-Bakir’s sudden wish to travel. The first was his desire to use Cyprus as

an initial point that would enable him to travel later to Egypt, on the assumption

that if his original request was to go to Egypt it would be rejected. The second

possibility was that Al-Bakir desired to see at first hand the Greek-Cypriot armed

resistance movement that rose against British on the island. The resistance

movement behind the activities was an organisation named the National

334 TNA, FO 371/114587, Burrows to FO, 9 May 1955.
335 TNA, FO 1016/441, Copy of letter from Mr. Abdulrahman Al Baker, Bahrain, to the Adviser to the
Government of Bahrain, 11 May 1955.
336 TNA, FO 1016/441, Belgrave to Al-Bakir, 21 May 1955.

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