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Egypt that he was greeted ‘for the first time [with] an atmosphere of hostility and

suspicion’. 366 In a conversation between Nutting and Al-Umran, in one of the

former’s memoirs, the Bahraini official took measures to halt Egyptian influence in

Bahrain through education. Some of those measures included the reduction of the

number of Egyptian education staff in Bahrain. The Administration also sponsored

students being sent abroad to further their studies at the American University of

Beirut instead of Egypt. 367 Bahrain did not only just recruit Egyptian teachers and

‘experts’ but Arabs from other countries that had just escaped from colonial rule

were also employed. 368 In 1955 there was an estimated 33 per cent of foreign Arab

teachers to Bahrainis of all the educational staff in local government boys’

schools. 369

Objection to the Penal Code became more evident to the Resident in August.

He advised the Ruler to postpone its introduction until November and to set up a

committee to review the elements in dispute. A committee was duly appointed by

the Government on 20 August. In response, the HEC issued a circular further

attacking the Penal Code and advising those appointed not to participate in its

affairs.

The first meeting of the committee to review the code was a disappointment

to the Administration as only three members attended; they were: Sheikh Mubarak

Al-Khalifa (the Ruler’s brother), Smith (the Acting Adviser), and a Muslim Shi’ite

366 TNA, FO 371/120561, Burrows to FO, 24 December 1955.
367 Nutting, The Aftermath of Suez, 72.
368 Qubain, ‘Social Classes and Tensions in Bahrain’, 269-80 (278-79).
369 See Appendix III of ‘Teachers sources in Government Boys’ Schools’ in R.B. Winder, ‘Education in
Al-Bahrayn’, in The World of Islam: Studies in Honour of Philip K. Hitti, edited by J. Kritzeck and R.B.
Winder (London: 1960), 283-335 (327).

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