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Part IV: The Imminent Clash and Downfall

Chapter Eight

Belgrave’s Resignation, the Ghosts of Past Appeasers,

the Suez War, and Anti-British Riots in Bahrain

July to November 1956

The period between July and November 1956 proved decisive in the life of

the NUC. Political tensions rose again between the Administration and the

Movement. As war later erupted in Egypt the NUC’s declaration to opt for a strike

and its aftermath sealed the Party’s fate. The first major clash between the two was

the indefinite suspension in July of Al-Watan following an article it published

attacking a regional state the newspaper did not specify by name. The Residency’s

report for the month of July stated that the newspaper published the article in

defiance of recommendations not to do so. The account, however, failed to identify

the authorities that had told the newspaper’s editor to avoid publishing the

article. 717

In order for the Councils to commence operation the Bahraini Administration

decided to hold a meeting of the Health Council, with or without the NUC’s

members, on 8 July. With the announcement to convene the Councils by the

Government the Party invited all of its one hundred and twenty founding members

717 ‘Brooks Richard, Residency’s Report for the Month of June 1956’, in Political Diaries of the Persian
Gulf, vol. 20 1955-1958, ed. R.L. Jarman (London: 1990), 1-12 (4).

© Hamad E. Abdulla 231