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they heard on their radios or read in their papers, mostly emanating from
organizing bands of small boys—and sometimes girls—who strewed the Egypt and Syria. The Committee presented a petition to the Shaikh
roads with nails, stuck through Coca-Cola bottle tops, which punctured
making certain demands.
the tyres of hundreds of cars. The boys used to dash out from
narrow In December the Shaikh published a proclamation announcing that
lanes, lay a few nails and watch the result from dark alleys where they the Government had taken measures covering many of the matters which
could easily retreat. It may sound absurd that the activity of lads and
had been mentioned in The Committee’s petition, but in the meantime
children caused such serious trouble, but it was very difficult for rhe The Committee organized a strike. All essential services were maintained
police to catch them, and although a number of boys who were caught and the oil company, which was the principal organization to be affected,
were suitably dealt with they were not deterred. The strike was to some carried on with a skeleton staff. This time the strike lasted for about a
extent due to the high premiums which were demanded by British and
week as the Government refused to discuss matters until the strikers
other insurance companies. When the Government gave permission to a returned to work. I went out several times to the villages during the
local company to compete with the foreign companies most of the
strike to see for myself what was happening. Labourers were anxious to
opposition died away and the strike ended. However, having once learned go back to work but they were intimidated by men from Manama who
‘the nail game’ small boys found it such a fascinating occupation that they
told them to stay out. In one village I asked the men why they were on
engaged in it whenever there was any trouble in Bahrain, and sometimes
strike. ‘We don’t know,’ they replied, ‘but we were told that if we stay
they played it for their own amusement.
away we should get more pay.’ Pay was not a question that entered into
Another matter with which I was dealing at this time was house and the matter. One young man, better educated than the rest—he had three
shop rents. They were fantastically high, and the landlords sometimes Parker pens displayed in his pocket—said, ‘We are demanding our rights.’
doubled or trebled them in a few years, causing great hardship to the small
I asked him, ‘What rights?’ He looked rather sheepish for a minute and
shopkeepers who presented a petition on the subject to the Government.
then, with a grin, he said, ‘I don’t know what they arc but perhaps you
Land prices were high too; building sites in Manama were sold at ioy.
can tell us what we are supposed to be demanding.’ I told him about the
for one square foot, a price comparable with good sites in London. I set
various changes which the Shaikh was making but neither he nor his
up a committee of landlords and tenants and tried to persuade them to
friends were interested.
come to an agreement about controlling rents. It was like trying to mix At the end of the year the Shaikh set up a committee of leading Arabs
oil and water. The landlords were obstinately avaricious and the tenants and Bahama to examine popular views on Education and Public Health
were unreasonably demanding; we got nowhere. Finally the Shaikh services, but the Shia members resigned after the first meeting and The
approved of a law controlling rents which restricted increases to not more Committee tried to boycott the enquiry. However, some good came of
than to per cent of the original rent each year. Nobody was satisfied. The
this experiment, for in the following year the Shaikh appointed two
landlords regarded the increase as inadequate and the tenants considered
permanent committees to deal with Education and Public Health affairs.
it excessive, although they were much better off than they had been.
The members were leading Bahrainis with a chairman from the Ruling
At the end of 1954 the committee of eight, four Sunnis and four Shias,
came into being. It called itself ‘The Higher Executive Committee’. Family. be difficult. I
People asked, ‘Higher than what?’ The Committee members claimed that In the meantime my own position was beginning to
sympathized with some—but by no means all—of the aspirations of the
they represented the people of Bahrain, which was certainly not the case.
Intelligentsia, but I mistrusted the men who led them, for I knew that they
The Committee was never recognized by the Shaikh and it was regarded . actuated by altruistic motives. They were not going the right
dubiously by responsible Arabs, but it was, in fact, the nucleus of a were not
obtain concessions from the Government and their threats and
political party, the first of its kind in the Gulf. It became generally known way to calculated to provoke unrest and
as ‘The Committee’. The Committee was enthusiastically supported by abuse and inflammatory speeches were
disorder among people who were easily swayed by rhetoric. The more
young town Intellectuals whose claim to be ‘Intellectuals’ rested on their violent they became the less chance they had of obtaining satisfaction, for
thin veneer of education in local primary and secondary schools and on their attitude caused anger and resentment among the Ruling Family and
their ability to repeat, often inaccurately, sentiments and slogans which
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