Page 115 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

dried goats’ hooves; as he danced the musical kilt rattled to the time of
revolution in a little State where education was only now beginning to
the tunc—it would be an effective innovation in a jazz band. show results would lead to confusion and chaos. They regarded che
The women dancers used to appear at weddings; some of them had the councils and committees which were being set up by the Government,
reputation of being skilled in Black Magic. They could cast out devils which were a step towards more democratic rule, as being unworthy of
from human beings into goats, and they practised strange rites m their their notice. They wanted to run before they had learned to walk.
village near the racecourse. I always wanted to sec some of their per­ Without Egyptian encouragement, and without the support which the
formances, but as they were illegal and not approved of by good Moslems public believed was being given to them by the British authorities in
it was difficult for me to be present. By January 2nd our house was once Bahrain, The Committee would not have gained much ground. Most of
the reforms which they demanded would have materialized in due
again normal, the ‘holiday’, which was not much of a ‘holiday’ for us, was
over and I got down to my work. course. A code of law, labour legislation, a judicial expert for the courts
During 1955 the political situation worsened. The Committee, and other iimovations had been suggested by me to the Shaikh, and
meeting with no opposition, became more violent and aggressive. Mer­ approved by him, before The Committee existed. When the Shaikh
chants and shopkeepers were alarmed by threats and anonymous letters. announced some reform The Committee immediately dropped the
They were less interested in political reforms than in the possibility of subject and hurriedly produced new demands which, as time went on,
suffering damage to their property or trade through strikes, sabotag e or became more and more unreasonable.
disturbances so they tried to steer a neutral course, assuring the Shaikh of The foreign Press described the eight members of The Committee
their loyalty, but at the same time inclining towards The Committee as as responsible, leading members of society. I knew more about their
they saw it becoming stronger. They even gave money to Committee antecedents than did most of their own supporters. Considering their
characters and reputations it never ceased to astonish me that they gained
members who demanded donations for ‘charitable purposes’. There was
no legislation in Bahrain to ensure that the accounts of so-called charities such an enthusiastic following. This was greatly due to the demagogic
skill which one or two of them possessed, for the Bahrainis arc easily
were made public. There was little real patriotism among most of the
merchants for the country or the dynasty; many of them had only been move d by words and the Government could not compete with them in
this field. I believe that certainly one and possibly two of the eight men
in Bahrain for a few generations and their interests were entirely centred
in making money. were genuinely seeking reforms; the rest had nothing to lose and were
At the same time Egypt began once again to take an active part in out for what they could gain.
Bahrain affairs. The Saut al Arab broadcasting station in Cairo made The leading personalities were Abd al Aziz Shemlan and Abd al
Rahman Bakr. The former was half negro and half Indian. His father,
violent attacks on me and on ‘British Imperialism’ in the Gulf, but Cairo
who was of slave origin—not that I have any prejudice against negroes—
had to exercise care. It was not stirring up trouble in a British colony or
a difficult, cantankerous man, was a court wakil and was sent to prison .
protectorate but in an Arab state ruled by an Arab Shaikh, and however and banished for sedition in the reign of Shaikh Hamed. The son was
much Cairo disliked the Shaikh’s friendship with Britain it was not its
embittered against the regime which had punished his father. Shemlan
policy to antagonize the Arab rulers of the Gulf. However, this did not
had been sent, by the Government, to the Junior School of the Beirut
deter the Syrian and Egyptian newspapers from attacking me and sup­
University, where he spent a year. He was employed as confidential clerk
porting The Committee. The support from Egypt, whose leader, Nasser,
by the Air Liaison Officer, R.A.F., and was later a clerk in the Bank of
was admired more than any other man in the Arab world by the Intelli­
the Middle East where he became the bank’s senior Arab employee. He
gentsia, was a great encouragement to The Committee. They now began
was a dark, ugly man, with a truculent manner and a large moustache,
to think that they were capable of taking over the Government, and they
which he cultivated in the R.A.F. style. He was an accomplished tub-
talked of universal franchise and did, in fact, prepare lists of people who
thumper and could sway a crowd,
were to hold the principal posts in the Government. They did not realize
Abd al Rahman Bakr came to Bahrain as a political refugee from
that in the West democratic forms of government had taken many Qatar, where he had fallen foul of the Shaikh. Two of his uncles had been
centuries to come into being nor did they appreciate that a constitutional
211
210