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The eight students on scholarships sent on behalf of the HEC to Egypt left

Bahrain on 22 August. 363 Four studied law, three specialised in engineering, and

one wanted to further his studies in agriculture. As a goodwill gesture to Bahrain,

Egypt had also sent a number of teachers and doctors to the islands without pay. 364

Egyptian teachers and educational missions to the Arab World, and

particularly those sent to the Gulf and Bahrain, had contributed to the growing

nationalist sentiment. In the second-half of 1955, as Macmillan observed in a paper

he submitted to the British Cabinet on Middle East Oil, these were [the educational

missions] the ‘main weapons’ used by the Egyptians in the area. Also in the Foreign

Secretary’s opinion the Egyptians based their attacks by using three categories: the

press, radio, and education. He compared the sponsorship of Egyptian teachers

abroad to a similar method used by the Greeks in Cyprus. 365 The Residency, for its

part, despatched a message by Burrows to the FO in 1955 on the ‘significance of

Egyptian influence’ in the Arabian Gulf region and in particular in the field of

education.

In Bahrain, the Resident wrote, there was growing Egyptian influence and

the local administration did not wish to associate itself with the process of

recruiting Egyptian teachers. Although the teachers and ‘experts’ had only basic

qualifications, in Burrows’ view, they were the only accessible source of Arabic-

speaking staff available. The Resident also informed the FO that the Bahraini

Director of Education, Ahmed Al-Umran had remarked during an official visit to

363 TNA, FO 1016/387, The Higher Executive Committee, Circular no. 25, 22 August 1955.
364 TNA, FO 1016/388, Residency’s Report of a Public Meeting called by the Committee, 7 October
1955.
365 TNA, CAB 129/78, C.P. (55) 152, Cabinet: Middle East Oil, 14 October 1955.

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