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WPR Mawdsley. The Board would look into disturbances that had occurred from 2

to 16 March and called on any witnesses to come forward and testify regarding the

incidents. 592

Recent events in Bahrain did not go without an Egyptian twist Trevelyan

posted to the FO a communiqué concerning Egyptian media coverage of Bahrain. He

reported being surprised that the, ‘Egyptian press devoted relatively little space to

Bahrain’s disorders’. However the small coverage of events in Bahrain that there

was portrayed the British as having attacked Bahraini citizens. For example, Al-

Akhbar (The News) newspaper recorded on 14 March that ten were killed in

Bahrain due to ‘British machine-gun fire during a British attack on the populace’.

Furthermore the paper blamed the start of the incident on British soldiers who

suddenly attacked Bahrainis avenging earlier anti-colonial protests and demands for

the removal of the British Adviser. Another account of events was issued by Al-

Gomhouria (The Republic) also published on 14 March that said that those who had

fallen had died following Belgrave’s own orders to open fire. The newspaper

maintained that Bahrainis were calling Belgrave ‘Glubb II’. Akhbar Al-Youm (News

of Today) in alluding to the attacks in Bahrain by the British said somewhat

strangely that they had targeted Bahrainis’ religious freedoms. 593 Angered by the

fabricated news in the Egyptian press, Riches suggested that the matter ought to be

raised personally with Nasser. 594

592 TNA, FO 371/120546, Government of Bahrain: Notice, No. 18/1956, 18 March 1956.
593 TNA, FO 1016/465, Trevelyan to FO, 17 March 1956.
594 TNA, FO 371/120545, D.M.H. Riches on Bahrain, 28 March 1956.

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