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which the prisoners had been handed over. 927 In Gault’s affidavit he claimed to have

received the order to remove the prisoners from Bahrain from Burrows following

the former’s working hours on 27 December at the Agency as he worked from 8.00

am to 1.30 pm. He did not see the point of publishing the order on the Agency’s

notice board in non-office hours and had published it on the following day at 8.05

am. 928 The Commander of the HMS Loch Insh was revealed to be Robert Barcham.

In his affidavit he claimed to have been informed via the Senior Naval Officer on

either the 26 or 27 December 1956 that his ship was to carry three prisoners to St

Helena. He confirmed to have received the prisoners at around 6.00 am. 929

In order to help sponsor the prisoners’ defense team, Bernard Levin claimed

in an article in The Spectator that a committee was set up to help in raising the

necessary funds. The committee consisted of Woodrow Wyatt MP, Jeremy Thorpe

MP, John Stonehouse MP, Donald Chesworth, and Bernard Levin. The committee

contributed to past funds, though it is unknown the date on which the committee

was first formed for the prisoners and in 1961 a new appeal was proclaimed in The

Spectator to help the three Bahrainis due to the ‘sheer lack of funds’. Levin urged

the readers to forward their donations to the magazine. 930 When the case concluded

with the release of the prisoners, Levin referred to ‘the considerable debts incurred’

for the cases, which some remained outstanding. Thus the committee announced

that it would withhold donations that had not been spent yet until further proposals

927 ‘Jassim Murad wa “Nishwar” Al-Sineen Al-Khamseen’ [Jassim and the ‘Elegant Words’ of Fifty
Years], Abwab Al-Wasat, 9.
928 TNA, CO 1026/238, Charles Gault’s Affidavit.
929 TNA, CO 1026/238, Robert Barcham’s Affidavit.
930 B. Levin, ‘Chalk It Up’, The Spectator, 4 May 1961, 6.

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