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McAdden, and Terry Clarke. Castle did not mention details of the visit, nor did she

proffer any comments on her stop in Bahrain. 111 Her diaries also included no

information on her trip to Bahrain but just gave general information on the

islands. 112

Sawut Al-Bahrain featured the news of the arrival of the MPs in a one-page

article. The magazine sent an unnamed representative to brief the delegation and

said that

When someone tried to get into contact with them [the British MPs]
from Bahrain’s men to explain to them the case of the Bahraini
populace, they pretended to be tied with pre-arranged appointments!

The magazine also noted that a set of queries was presented to the delegation but

got no answer. The questions focused on local and regional affairs that included the

wish to be allowed by the Administration to form trade unions. 113

The British Resident echoed the complaint that Bahrain did not have a trade

union in a report in 1951. Hay pointed to receiving ‘an anonymous circular’ with

abusive language towards Belgrave and the Government of Britain. One of the

demands (the only one mentioned in Hay’s account) was ‘the formation of trade

unions’. 114 It is probable that the source of the demand was Al-Bakir, himself. The

demand to establish a trade union in Bahrain became the first grievance adopted for

action by Al-Bakir in 1953. The demand would be echoed later by his Movement

111 B. Castle, Fighting All the Way (London: 1993), 244-49.
112 University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Catalogue of Barbara Anne Castle: Baroness Castle of
Blackburn 1868-2002, MS. Castle 2, fols. 60v-62r and 81r-86r.
113 ‘Sita Nuwab Biritaniyeen Yahiloon Mashkil El-Sharq Al-Awsat’ [Six British Members of the
Parliament out to Solve the Problems of the Middle East], Sawut Al-Bahrain, February 1953, 35.
114 ‘W.R. Hay, Summary of Events in the Persian Gulf from my return from leave on the 21
st
September up to the end of October 1951’, in Political Diaries of the Persian Gulf, vol. 19 1951-1954,
ed. R.L. Jarman (London: 1990), 1-9 (5).

© Hamad E. Abdulla 37