Page 72 - Begrave Thesis_Neat

new totalitarian regime started to take shape and this period is best described as

‘the fall of liberalism in Egypt’. 155

Bahrain’s Al-Qafilah captured the local fascination with the developments

and division over whom to support as the newspaper had reported a fight that

erupted between two men at a local coffee shop as a result of a heated debate over

the matter. One debater supported Naguib whom he described as a ‘supporter of

freedoms’, the other supported Nasser described as ‘the Revolution’s man’. 156

The centre point of nationalists’ attacks, BAPCO, witnessed important

transformations in the early 1950s as it signed its new fifty-fifty agreement with the

Bahraini Government, guaranteeing equal shares with the company for the first time

since its establishment in 1929. The deal was inspired by a similar understanding

made by the Venezuelans followed by the Saudis. 157 The Ruler’s initial agreement to

the new deal was signed on 18 April 1950. 158

BAPCO, in the 1950s, offered a number of services and consisted of different

divisions. 159 One of the company’s functions was the refining of Saudi Arabian crude

oil. 160 In the aftermath of the Iranian oil crisis, Bahrain had built one of the largest

155 A.A. Ramadan, Al-Sira’a Al-Ijtimaee wa Al-Siyasi fi Misr [The Social and Political Struggle in Egypt]
(Cairo: 1989), 195-209.
156 The end result of the argument was that one had knocked a tray full of hot tea on himself leading
to a further quarrel with the coffee shop’s owner. See Wahid, ‘Sada’a Al-Niza’a bayna Mohammed
Naguib wa Jamal Abdel-Nasser’ [Echos of the Struggle between Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel-
Nasser]; Al-Qafilah, 14 May 1954, 6.
157 W.M.R. Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States
and Postwar Imperialism (Oxford: 1985), 594; and J. Marlowe, The Persian Gulf in the Twentieth
Century (London: 1962), 172, hereafter The Persian Gulf.
158 IOR/R/15/2/18, Ruler of Bahrain to the Chief Local Representative of BAPCO, 18 April 1950.
159 According to Angela Clarke, by 1952 BAPCO’s divisions operated three different functions. The
first being its production unit, second its refining unit, and third its marketing unit. See A. Clarke,
Bahrain Oil and Development 1929-1989 (London: 1990), 248.
160 R. Mikesell and H.B. Chenery, Arabian Oil: American’s Stake in the Middle East (Chapel Hill, NC:
1949), 61.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 51