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the Municipality’s Offices nearby. The policemen remained at the offices until after

3.15 pm when the police started to shoot at the besieging mob. The crowd was

estimated at between four hundred and five hundred. The Board also believed that

‘There is evidence that a section of the crowd was excited and was being urged by

one particular unidentified man to affect an entrance into the Municipal Offices’. At

3.15 pm shots were heard that resulted in the police firing back. The shots later

were identified to be possibly the use of fire ‘crackers or squibs’. In the Board’s view

this level of reaction by the police was ‘grossly excessive’.

The Board was not satisfied with both claims that the initial shots were fired

from either the crowd or the police, as it was ‘unable to solve the mystery’.

Regarding the bullet retrieved from one of the victims’ body, which was not used by

the police, it was said to have struck the victim near to Ahmedi’s Factory, which is

some distance from the site of the actual incident. Most of the firing by the police

was into the air. Had it been directed at the crowd, it could have resulted in a

substantial number of causalities, the Board concluded. As for the Lloyd car-stoning

incident in Muharraq, the Board was unable to identify any individual guilty of

orchestrating the event. 693

The Residency continued with its arrangements to promote Smith to his new

post through the local administration. It was decided that Smith was to leave on 16

June and upon his return he would be appointed Secretary to the Government.

Sayed Mahmood would travel to Britain in July to interview candidates to work in

his department and meet an expert who would be assigned to review the country’s

693 TNA, FO 371/120547, G.L. Peace and W.P.R. Mawdsley’s Report of Board of Enquiry into the
Disturbances in Bahrain, 2 -16 March 1956, May 1956.
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