Page 342 - Records of Bahrain (7) (i)_Neat

328 Records oj Bahrain

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. V ;i t •aji, .fir* v I •
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from the parking apron or the runway. Thpre: i's'«p Is o’< the';. V«'-
unsettling effect which such demonstrations havc-'on Bahrain N
affairs in general and in particular on the Ruler 16 attitude*4*!5'-*
to us - ho already tends to doubt oup good faith as he feels:;,. -
that we should be able , to st9p such people .coming! here»• at afl•
Demonstrations of this kind are, moreover, grist to the V,;
Committee of National Union's .mill
it outside Bahrain. There is always the, prance of un ugly ';' ..V J
incident which could lead to a clash betj^e^v.the ?demonstrators1 ‘
and the police und possibly to u breakdown of'public, ordep. ’^i: :
This happened when the Secretary of State camp, i n M a re hv %\ T. ,'ti
realise that there may be very little wc can do about thisV,.*:]'
problem. None the less I feel obliged.at least to pointsout;p*
to you that it exists and that it contains very real dangers : •
for us in the present state of polltlcal^affairs in Bahrain. I. •
I should be grateful for1 any views or'advice you may be able ;
to offer on the general question andxpn theipolnt of !a‘.possible1
stop by Nasser. SharjahJwould, of’course, be an alternative to
Buhruin as a refuelling stop for oil aircraft e^qept i.Visoounts' ;
if some suituble means could bo devised of diverting thither ,;.0
ueroplaneo carrying people whom we did not ,want.-tQ have landing
here. . .v'V . .........’* ' ... ’ " -'>■.• 5-
i:
! . — •
U, It is unfortunate..that the Air Ceylon service is not
British and is a fust one between Ltirope, Cairo ar>d Bombay’apd^
Colombo, since it gives.people whom we would regard as
undesirable here a legitimate reason forpnd means"of, making1*'-'
a short stop in Bahrain and we can do nothing about it.

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(C. A. Gault)