Page 42 - Begrave Thesis_Neat

The riots that began with the start of the Suez War led to a state of widespread

chaos throughout the islands. British forces intervened, and supporters of the

Movement were arrested. The final chapter in the thesis covers the trials of five

frontline members of the Party in Bahrain, the exile of three to St Helena, their

appeals for a habeas corpus, and Belgrave’s departure.

Historiography

The history and development of the crisis that unfolded between Bahrain’s

Administration represented in the person of Belgrave and the nationalist movement

of the 1950s has not received thorough attention in light of the greater Cold War

narrative in the Middle Eastern arena. This might be attributed to other concurrent

events that had foreshadowed it such as the rise of Nasser and the Free Officers’

Movement, the evacuation treaty between Egypt and Britain, the Egyptian-Israeli

border tensions, the Egyptian-Soviet arms deal, the sacking of Glubb Pasha in

Jordan, and the nationalisation of the Suez Canal Company.

It must also be said that Bahraini and Arab historians who have investigated

the conflict failed to link local developments to the wider context of the Cold War

and turned the topic instead into a purely local development inspired by Egypt.

Consequently, British policy in Bahrain seemed either ambiguous or based on the

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