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dissolved in consequence of its ‘failure to observe the assurances given with regard
to the previous Friday’s procession and of the damage done as a result thereof’. The
homes of those arrested were searched and police seized a number of documents at
their premises. 851 In addition to these arrests, fifty other members of the Party --
described by Burrows as ‘trouble-makers’ -- were also apprehended. 852 Other
members of the NUC left Bahrain of their own free will to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and
Kuwait waiting to return when the situation had calmed down. The Administration
also announced the implementation of the new Penal Code without any further
delay or review. 853
As for the war in Egypt, all of the possible scenarios that it was feared would
come after Nasser’s nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company occurred during the
war and not in peacetime. The Canal was blocked, ships sunk, oil denied, Syria
sabotaged oil pipelines, and Saudi Arabia broke off ties and placed an oil embargo
on both Britain and France. Nasser’s stock rose considerably throughout the Arab
World as result of this miscalculated adventure. 854 The Baghdad Pact lay in
shambles. The Soviets warned Britain and France about its continued aggression in
Egypt. 855 The Americans, preoccupied with presidential elections, pressured Britain
and France to cease military operations in Egypt on 6 November. 856 Britain and
France later in December agreed to withdraw from Egypt. Israel, however, had
851 TNA, FO 371/120549, Gault’s Bahrain Monthly Intelligence Summary: November 1956, 5
December 1956.
852 TNA, FO 371/126869, Bernard Burrows’ Persian Gulf: Annaul Review for 1956, 15 April 1957.
853 ‘Government of Bahrain: Annual Report for Year 1956’, 1-111 (8).
854 Nutting, No End of a Lesson, 113 and 171.
855 ‘Russian Warning to Britain and France’, The Times, 6 November 1956, 10.
856 The Eden-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1955-1957, Boyle, ‘The Suez Crisis and Eden’s Resignation’,
149-53 (153).
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