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had failed to provide the island with the range of services seen in other regions of

Bahrain, such as piped water. The Council for its part adopted the plan to improve

conditions in Muharraq and a scheme to build a fresh-water supply system. 685

In a striking development the NUC in a new circular announced publically the

formation of a Scouts organisation. Regulations of enrollment included a fee of 5

Rupees and a monthly subscription of 2 Rupees. Application was open to all Arabs

with a minimum age set at sixteen. 686 Al-Watan declared in June that the Scouts

organisation established by the NUC had already reached a total of five hundred

subscribers and that their numbers were expected to double. 687

The Resident saw the objective of the Scouts organisation was to form a body

able ‘to control its followers or oppose the police, as it may decide at the time’. Even

if the presence of such a force was genuine for the Party to control its supporters

during strikes and rallies, to the Resident it was ‘a serious threat to the authority of

the State’. 688 He doubted the Movement’s motives as it seemed to be imitating

dictators such as Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, who both formed paramilitary

units for their parties. Jassim Murad, a former member of the NUC, asserted that the

Scouts movement was the brainchild of a party supporter named Mohammed Kamal

Al-Shehabi. Murad also said that Al-Shehabi was influenced by Mussolini’s Fascist

Black Shirts organisation. 689

685 TNA, FO 1016/467, Gault to Burrows, 31 May 1956.
686 TNA, FO 1016/467, The National Union Committee, Circular No. 56, 4 June 1956.
687 ‘Al-Qafilah Taseer’ [The Caravan Marches On], Al-Watan, 15 June 1956, 7.
688 TNA, FO 1016/467, Burrows to FO, 12 June 1956.
689 ‘Jassim Murad wa “Nishwar” Al-Sineen Al-Khamseen’ [Jassim and the ‘Elegant Words’ of Fifty
Years], 9.

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