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Gault believed that the police felt during their enquiry that they were really

on trial and were not just being questioned. Further, verbal threats were made at

the police from crowds that gathered outside of the Board of Enquiry’s

headquarters. It was then that Colonel Hamersley’s decision came not to allow his

Police Force to be further demoralised by the proceedings. 649

On the second week of May two telegrams from the Residency grabbed

Eden’s attention. The first, dated 7 May, included details of a meeting between the

Resident and the Adviser in which the former discussed Belgrave’s retirement plans.

According to Burrows the Adviser ‘had expected to stay for another “couple of

years”’. When Belgrave enquired about the timetable the Residency had in mind,

Burrows informed him that he would discuss the matter with him on a different

occasion. 650 The other telegram of 9 May reported on a follow-up meeting in which

Belgrave was said to have expressed his concern about the effects his exit would

have on the Ruler in light of Sheikh Salman’s ‘general doubts about our support’.

Nonetheless the Resident urged Belgrave to proceed and raise the topic of his

departure with the Ruler. 651 Eden noted in a personal minute to Lloyd how

‘disturbed’ he was with the two telegrams. He referred to the Cabinet’s paper

presented by Lloyd in April in which it was decided that the initial move was to find

a replacement to Belgrave before taking any further steps. But Eden’s biggest

concern was that ‘the Ruler is beginning to lose confidence in us’. He furthermore

649 TNA, FO 1016/467, Gault to Burrows, 31 May 1956.
650 TNA, PREM 11/1472, Despatch 419, Burrows to FO, 7 May 1956.
651 TNA, PREM 11/1472, Despatch 426, Burrows to FO, 9 May 1956.

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