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these movements and their Governments. The Foreign Secretary informed the
Sheikh of his original conviction that Belgrave would not stay in office beyond the
end of the year. He reminded Sheikh Salman of the steps taken earlier that involved
the appointment of Smith, as that was an indicator to the public that Belgrave was
on his way out. Lloyd observed that the best policy to be adopted by the Bahraini
Government was winning over public support and strengthening its Police Force to
assure public safety and welfare. 742
In response to the offer to withdraw finance of the Aswan High Dam and in
his usual rhetorical manner Nasser delivered a long speech on 26 July in Alexandria.
The name of the French Suez Canal developer Ferdinand de Lesseps was the signal
Nasser gave via his broadcasted speech for his army to take over the Suez Canal
Company. 743 The speech concluded with Nasser’s proclamation that the company
had been nationalised by Egypt. 744 Lloyd recalled in his memoir that he was at a
banquet hosted by Eden in honour of King Faisal II of Iraq and Prime Minister Nuri
when the news of the company’s nationalisation arrived. Nuri advised him, as Lloyd
noted, to ‘hit Nasser hard and quickly’. 745 Nasser intended to compensate the
foreign shareholders and then use the company’s income to build the dam. 746 Hugh
Gaitskell, the Leader of the UK’s Labour Opposition Party, noted what he perceived
742 TNA, FO 371/120549, Selwyn Lloyd to Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, 26 July 1956.
743 Heikal, Nasser: The Cairo Documents, 91.
744 For the nationalisation speech made by Nasser see ‘Speech by President Nasser at Alexandria
announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal Company on 26 July 1956’, in Documents on
International Affairs 1956, ed. N. Frankland, (London: 1959), 77-113.
745 Lloyd, Suez 1956, 74.
746 P. Catterall (ed.), The Macmillan Diaries: The Cabinet Years 1950-1957 (London: 2003), entry from
27 July 1956, 578, hereafter Macmillan Diaries.
© Hamad E. Abdulla 240
