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Introduction

The political struggle between Bahrain’s Administration, represented by the

person of the British Adviser Sir Charles Belgrave, and the political movement of the

1950s offered a unique look into Britain’s role and policy in a state under British

protection. Regional political transformations and fear of the Soviet expansion that

led Britain on the road to the Suez debacle cast shadows on the internal politics of

Bahrain.

The driving force behind Bahrain’s mid-twentieth century nationalist

movement of the 1950s was that of an esprit de corps based on Arab unity and

nationalism. The British Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir

William Strang in a letter to Sir Thomas Lloyd as early as June 1952 noted his views

on ‘The problem of nationalism’. Strang defined nationalism

as the emotions of a people or group of people primarily in backward
or ‘new’ countries seeking to assert their national aspirations. These
can often but by no means invariably be fulfilled only at the expense of
the older Western Powers.

He further added that nationalism centered on ‘internal discontent and the need to

find a scapegoat or distraction’. The scapegoat and person the nationalists would
8

lay their wrath on in Bahrain would become the person of the Adviser.

8 British Documents of the End of Empire (BDEEP), Series A, Part I, vol. 3, ‘The Conservative
Government and the End of Empire’, 1951-1957. Doc. 4: CO 936/217, [The problem of nationalism]:
letter from Sir W Strang to Sir T Lloyd, Enclosure: FO Permanent Under-Secretary’s Committee paper,
21 June 1952.

© Hamad E. Abdulla 1