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succeeded in occupying the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula refused initially to

withdraw. 857 But with Americans threatening economic sanctions against the

Israelis, the latter withdrew its troops in 1957. 858

In Bahrain, law and order gradually returned to the islands and employees

resumed work both in the public and private sectors and no deaths were recorded

as a consequence to the riots. No major incidents followed the arrests, except an

attempt on 25 November by a lone Bahraini to set the Adviserate on fire. The

perpetrator was arrested. 859 As for the expenses incurred during the process of

transporting and landing British troops in Bahrain, the FO Grants and Services Vote

was to be charged. 860

In the House of Commons, Labour MP William Warbey enquired on 12

November if there would be a statement on developments in Bahrain. Dodds-

Parker replied on behalf of the FO. He provided an overview to the history of the

NUC and the demonstrations that had turned violent in early November. On the

dissolution of the NUC he concluded that he hoped that it would help to open the

way for moderate elements in Bahrain’s society to participate in their country’s

political evolution, as they would no longer be ‘intimidated by the Committee’. 861

Lord Glyn asked the Foreign Secretary in the House of Lords on 20 November

about the current state of affairs in Bahrain. Lloyd replied that the NUC had

‘assumed to itself the right to act as the mouthpiece of the people of Bahrain’ and

857 S. Yaqub, Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East (Chapel Hill,
NC: 2004), 65, hereafter Containing Arab Nationalism.
858 J.A. Hail, Britain’s Foreign Policy in Egypt and Sudan 1947-1956 (Reading: 1996), 141.
859 TNA, FO 371/120549, Burrows to FO, 27 November 1956.
860 TNA, T 220/538, W. Russell Edmunds’ Note for Record on Bahrain, 27 March 1957.
861 HC Deb 12 November 1956, vol 560, cols 9–11W.

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