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Government should announce without delay an enquiry into recent events.

Burrows also asked the FO whether they would allow British forces to be deployed

in Bahrain should the HEC arrests take place. 537

Sheikh Salman expressed his earnest apology on 4 March to the Resident

about the imbroglio of the attack on Lloyd and laid the blame on the HEC’s agitation.

In response, the Resident suggested to the Ruler awarding the HEC its demand for

official recognition, provided it changed its name. To Burrows’ surprise, the Ruler

accepted his suggestion, adding his own quid pro quo – that Al-Bakir leaves Bahrain

for a fixed period of time. 538

Bahrainis at the time were probably unaware of the gravity of the situation

and that serious action was being considered by high-ranking British policy makers.

Shuckburgh noted in his diary on 5 March that,

The Ministers – led by the PM [Eden] – were made keen to land British
troops somewhere, to show that we are still alive and kicking; and
they thought Bahrain a good place because of the recent stoning of
Selwyn Lloyd.

During the same meeting plans were also discussed to deport Cyprus’s Greek-

Cypriot nationalist leader Archbishop Makarios. 539 British authorities showed their

determination in Cyprus on 9 March when Makarios and three others were arrested

and deported from the island. The Governor of Cyprus, Field Marshall Sir John

Harding, CIGS, made a statement saying that Makarios was suspected of supporting

EOKA’s radical elements. 540

537 TNA, FO 371/120544, Burrows to FO, 4 March 1956.
538 TNA, FO 371/120544, Burrows to FO, 5 March 1956.
539 Descent to Suez, 5 March 1956, 343-44.
540 ‘Archbishop Makarios Deported’, The Times, 10 March 1956, 6.

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