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Chapter Seven

The Municipality Incident, Official Recognition

of the Nationalist Movement, and the Belgrave Question

11 March to June 1956

After the sudden disturbance that accompanied the visit of Britain’s Foreign

Secretary tensions in Bahrain remained high. A minor incident at the local Manama

vegetable market resulted in a mass brawl that reached the capital’s municipal

offices -- hence the label the ‘Municipality Incident’. The latest episode would result

in a number of deaths followed by a strike with the very real threat to violence. The

incident pressed British strategy makers to re-evaluate their policy on Bahrain and

deliberate over the Belgrave question.

Frantic correspondence between the Residency and the FO ensued, as the

Residency continually updated the FO on developments in Bahrain and seek its

advice. On a broader perspective, events in Bahrain, together with Nasser’s gradual

rapprochement with the Eastern Bloc and Glubb’s dismissal, forced the strategists in

Whitehall to abandon the Alpha Plan and adopt a new one. Eden was even moved to

caution Khrushchev during the latter’s visit to Britain to stop interfering in the

Middle East.

Only minutes after the Administration had successfully met with the HEC on

11 March, the Resident had to inform the FO that an unplanned and unexpected

disturbance had occurred in the capital’s vegetable market close to the main souq

and municipal offices. It seems the cause was an approach by a municipal

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