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meeting, also held in London, between 19 to 21 September and was officially formed

on 1 October. 801 The Association’s resolutions can be summarised as follows: to aim

towards a solution to end the crisis; to support secure and safe transit in the Canal;

to collect and distribute the Canal’s revenues; to deal with problems that might arise

from failure of managing the Canal; and to reach a conclusion to the conflict which

should be adopted by the UN among others. 802 The American suggestion to first

organise a conference and then form a users’ club might have been a ploy intended

to delay (or even stop) military action against Egypt.

On 26 September during the Shi’ite celebrations marking the passing of forty

days following the anniversary of the death of Hussein and a day before Al-Bakir’s

return to Bahrain, the NUC held a public meeting. Only a thousand people attended

the meeting, an indication of the NUC’s loss of popularity when compared to

previous attendance numbers. In an intelligence tour d’horizon by the Acting

Political Agent D Blelloch he compared the recent figure with the five thousand that

had attended a similar occasion in 1955. A speech was delivered by Al-Shamlan

who criticised the Government for the Egyptian legal expert’s delay in coming to

Bahrain to review the Penal Code, although the delay, in fact, was from the Egyptian

side. He additionally criticised the Administration for not introducing new trained

judges and for press censorship. The meeting was also the Party’s first-known

801 H. Callender, ‘Suez Plan Omits Drastic Action; Parley is Ended: Proposal Urges Formation of User’s
Group by Oct. 1’, New York Times, 22 September 1956, 1; and K. Love, ‘Suez Users’ Group Formed in
London with 15 Members’, New York Times, 2 October 1956, 1.
802 ‘The Second London Conference on 21 September 1956’, in Documents of International Affairs
1956, ed. N. Frankland, (London: 1959), 234-40.

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