Page 140 - Begrave Thesis_Neat

worked at the time as a representative for the WIYC. 358 Murad did not specify the

nature of the ties that existed between the Party and Yaqub. No known writings of

the members of the Free Officers’ Movement or Egyptian diplomats at the time

reference Yaqub, except in the Free Officer Khalid Mohieddin’s memoir Now I

Speak. 359

In addition to Al-Watan, a second Bahraini nationalist weekly newspaper, Al-

Mizan (The Scale), was launched on 22 July. Bahraini students in Iraq wrote the

newspaper’s editorials and its Editor-in-Chief was Abdulla Al-Wazzan. 360

Unfortunately only one reproduced copy of the newspaper exists for public viewing

at the ICC, although there are some selected translated articles from the newspaper

found at TNA in relation to the conflict. 361 However it would be logical to conclude

that, since Bahrainis in Iraq wrote the newspaper, its content would parallel Iraqi

policy. The only issue available at the ICC proved the opposite with an article

attacking Nuri entitled, ‘An Iraqi Poet Challenges Nuri Al-Saeed’ and another

praising Nasser entitled, ‘A Man who knows what he wants’. 362

358 G. Al-Shehabi, ‘Jassim Murad wa “Nishwar” Al-Sineen Al-Khamseen’ [Jassim and the ‘Elegant Words’
of Fifty Years], Abwab Al-Wasat, 13 October 2004, 9.
359 Kamal Yaqub’s name is stated in the memoir of Khalid Mohieddin who failed to mention any
background information on him. The reason as to why Mohieddin mentioned Yaqub was that the
latter was a relative of his who had arranged for him to meet a prominent Egyptian army commander
at the time known as Aziz Al-Masry. The specific date of the meeting was not mentioned but it is
assumed to be in the 1940s as the author was describing that era. See Mohieddin, Now I Speak, 64-
65.
360 ‘Charles Gault, Residency’s Report for the Month of August 1955’, in Political Diaries of the Persian
Gulf, vol. 20 1955-1958, ed. R.L. Jarman (London: 1990), 1-9 (4).
361 The only issue available of Al-Mizan at the ICC is the issue published on 20 July 1956.
362 ‘Shaer Iraqi Yatahada Nuri Al-Said’ [An Iraqi Poet Challenges Nuri Al-Said], Al-Mizan, 20 July 1956,
1; and ‘Rajul Ya’rif Mayurid’ [A Man who knows what he wants], Al-Mizan, 20 July 1956, 1.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 119