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Government’s (HMG) policy in the region. The representatives who reported to the

Residency were known as Political Agents and each maintained his own personal

staff headquartered in the Political Agency. The Agents interacted with the rulers,

each responsible for his designated region. The Agency was also responsible for the

affairs and wellbeing of the people who came under HMG’s responsibility. The

Residency’s offices moved from Bushire in southwest Persia to Juffair in Bahrain in

1946. According to former Resident Sir William Rupert Hay, the Residency
19

following India’s independence in 1947, was considered to be ‘subordinate to the

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in London’. The Resident enjoyed the status of

that of an ambassador. Both the Residency and Agency would later play a role as
20
mediators between the Bahraini Administration and nationalist movement.

A report despatched by the British Resident in the Gulf Stuart G Knox to Sir

Denys de S Bray, the Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, elaborated

further on the circumstances and steps taken towards political reform in Bahrain

that led to Belgrave’s appointment. Reform was initially imposed following a fight

that broke out between a group of Nejdis, dominantly Sunnis originating from the

centre of the Arabian Peninsula, and Persian Shi’ites on 10 May 1923. The fighting

developed alarmingly into a Sunni-Shi’ite quarrel throughout the islands that

demanded British interference on the ground three days later. It was estimated that

five died during the clashes. The incident provided a pretext to the Residency to

force the seventy-five-year-old Ruler of Bahrain His Highness (HH) Sheikh Isa bin

Ali Al-Khalifa to step down and allow his son to take over for the purpose of

19 TNA, FO 371/98459, A.D.M. Ross at FO, 26 March 1952.
20 Hay, The Persian Gulf, 19.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 5