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accordance with the Convention of 1888, secure payments to the Canal Company,

and ensure Egyptian rights. 793

The day following the conclusion of the Conference a new Bahraini weekly

newspaper named Al-Shula (The Torch) appeared for the first time. However its

first edition proved to be its last as it was banned from publication following an

anti-Iraqi article in its inaugural issue. 794 No known copies of it exist today. Al-

Shula was an attempt initiated by Al-Mardi and Ebrahim M Al-Moayyed to revive Al-

Watan newspaper under a different title. 795

Concerned with the developments in Bahrain, two leading figures from

Bahrain’s community, Ahmed Fakhroo and Mansoor Al-Arrayed (a Sunni and a

Shi’ite respectively), visited the Residency where they met with both the Resident

and the Political Agent on 27 August. The minutes of the meeting provided insight

into how a sample of the population, non-aligned to the NUC viewed the political

situation. The two men feared a further deterioration was imminent of Bahrain’s

political scene and wished to see matters come to a resolution. A Fakhroo and Al-

Arrayed believed that the NUC had achieved a great deal of its original aims and they

felt that there was no reason for them to further complicate the situation by

insisting that the Government accept every one of their political demands. A

Fakhroo testified that his son Qassim ran for the Education Council on behalf of the

NUC in February. He said that he had spoken to his son in order further understand

the NUC’s point-of-view in its objection to cooperating with the Administration and

793 ‘The First London Conference’, in Documents of International Affairs 1956, ed. N. Frankland,
(London: 1959), 173-86.
794 TNA, FO 371/120549, Gault to Burrows, 31 August 1956.
795 Al-Maawda, Bahrain’s Press, 96-97.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 252