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had been collected. The idea of collecting funds for Egypt, as Burrows noted, was

first practiced in the Gulf by Kuwait and only later adopted by Bahrain. However

the Bahraini involvement in fund-raising was grander. The concept later spread to

other Gulf States, such as Qatar. 436

A thank-you letter by Nasser was published to the people of Bahrain in Al-

Watan as acknowledging their support in financing Egypt’s quest for Soviet arms.

The letter, dated on 4 January 1956 said:

You had presented an amount of 44,366 Dollars as a contribution
from you to arm the military, in order to complete the means of
defence for the beloved homeland. Please accept my sincere gratitude
to your honorable feelings and true nationalism. 437

In the end it was Israel that benefited the most from Egypt’s arms deal with

the Soviets since most of the weapons purchased were cited in the Sinai Peninsula

and were captured by the Israelis during their sweep of Sinai later in the Suez War.

Other military vehicles also became easy practice targets, because Egyptian soldiers

were ‘riddled with disease and undernourished’ and incapable of properly

defending their positions. Thus Nasser’s mortgage to the Soviets of three years’

cotton harvest and external aid to purchase the arms benefitted the Israelis more

than it did the Egyptians as French journalists during the war Merry Bromberger

and Serge Bromberger testified in one of the earliest accounts of the Suez War. 438

Following the fundraisers by nationalists in Bahrain the Political Agent

considered the Movement now to be ‘encouraged by Egyptian precept to regard

436 TNA, FO 371/120561, Burrows to FO, 24 December 1955.
437 G. Abdel-Nasser, ‘Risalah min Al-Ra’ies Gamal Abdel-Nasser’ [A Letter from President Gamal Abdel-
Nasser], Al-Watan, 13 January 1956, 1.
438 M. Bromberger and S. Bromberger, Secrets of Suez, trans. by J. Cameron (London: 1957), 97–99
and 136.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 141