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Bahrain had escaped serious conflict and sub rosa meetings were then held

between the HEC and the Ruler to see whether a compromise could be reached.

Although at first neither the Political Agency nor the Residency were informed of

the meetings by the Administration, Al-Bakir made the British aware of them as

minutes by an unnamed British official from the Residency reveal. 392 In the

meetings two draft agreements drawn up by the HEC were presented to the Ruler.

Further an unsigned note attached to the letters offered information as to the

proceedings of the meetings. The first meeting between the two sides was

conducted on 10 September. Al-Shamlan and Kamal-el-Deen represented the HEC

in the meeting, in which demands by the Party were presented to the Ruler. Sheikh

Salman displayed his willingness to accept all of the demands by the HEC, except

those regarding the formation of a Legislative Council and he also requested the

omission of the address to the HEC. Another draft of the demands dated 24

September was presented by the HEC and was also rejected by the Ruler mainly due

to written assurances the Sheikh had sought from the HEC.

According to a note attached to the drafts the source that had provided the

Agency with copies of the letters was Al-Bakir and the message being conveyed in

the note was that the Ruler was explaining to the HEC that the British who were the

ones obstructing reform in Bahrain. The last claim cannot be verified, especially

since the Ruler already had knowledge of the Political Agency and the Residency’s

open door policy with the HEC and would have known that such a statement might

reach British officials’ ears. The note also included a single comment by two British

392 TNA, FO 1016/387, Residency Minutes with Al-Bakir, 29 September 1955.

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