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in order to get things done, acquired the habit of exercising more
executive authority than he should have done and at the same time
the Ruler has tended to shelter behind his Adviser when unpleasant
decisions had to be taken – making his excuse always that the Adviser
had wanted it this or that way. This in turn has brought the Adviser
the reputation among the Bahrainis for being the real ruler of Bahrain.

Furthermore, his hands-on, micro-management style, Gault believed, had

delayed some projects, adding to Bahrainis’ frustrations. 601

On 21 March an Air Ceylon flight was scheduled to refuel in Bahrain. It was

to carry the prominent Egyptian politician Al-Sadat as he was en route, this time to

Karachi, to attend Pakistan’s Republic Day celebration. To Burrows’ surprise the

nationalists seemed not to have been informed of Al-Sadat’s stopover and thus no

organised party awaited his arrival. 602 Nevertheless Radio Cairo reported,

according to the Residency’s monthly report, that Al-Sadat had awarded one

thousand rupees to the families of the victims who had fallen during the riot of 11

March. Burrows insisted that that no such incident had occurred. 603

Yet, on 1 May, the British Embassy in Cairo signed by the Chancery

forwarded a letter to the Residency in which it claimed that Major Amin Shakir, the

Assistant Secretary General of the WIYC, had confirmed the substance of Cairo

Radio’s broadcasts to the Embassy. Shakir informed the British that Al-Sadat

instructed him to distribute the amount of a thousand rupees to the family of each of

those who had died on 11 March. 604 Whether this was true or not and how Shakir

601 TNA, CAB 129/80, C.P. (56) 98, Bahrain, Annex: Extract from despatch No. 4 of 20 March, 1956,
th
from Political Agent, Bahrain, to Political Resident, Persian Gulf, 14 April 1956.
602 TNA, FO 371/120544, Despatch 252, Residency to FO, 21 March 1956.
603 ‘Bernard Burrows, Residency’s Report for the Month of April 1956’, 1-10 (5).
604 TNA, FO 371/120546, Chancery at British Embassy to Residency, 1 May 1956.

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