Page 124 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

would happen when he was arrested for the anti-Bahrain Government
homes of people who lived at Awali or at Jufair or in the roads outside
speeches which he made while lie was away, but no arrest was made. He
did find, however, that he was no longer on the Residency’s visiting list.
Many people were disappointed that he was not arrested, including some
of The Committee’s Shia supporters, who were embarrassed by the
speeches which he had made abroad. They asked how The Committee’s
funds, were being spent and why Bakr travelled so often. During this
wrangle over financial affairs there were questions about a large sum of
money donated by the Shaikh of Qatar for sending T.B. patients to
India and about money which had been obtained from local merchants,
ostensibly for sending boys to be educated in Egypt. A few boys were
sent, but they and their parents complained to me that all chat they
received from The Committee was their fares and, although education
was free, as the parents said, ‘boys cannot live on air’, but unfortunately
I was unable to give them any help.
The Suez affair, occurring when The Committee’s prestige was at
its lowest and its ranks divided, was providential. Here was a new war-
cry of ‘hands off Egypt’ and a new object for attacks. Local politics were
abandoned and The Committee proclaimed itself the protagonist of
Nasser. Though in the past it had counted on British support the
members had no scruples over organizing a large-scale anti-British demon­ an air strip in the middle of the island near Awali, for use in case of an
stration, which caused great material damage to British property, for
which no compensation was paid. The Arab view on this point was that
the British had only themselves to blame for the damage caused by the
‘demonstration’. Perhaps when Bakr and Shemlan found themselves no
longer persona grata with the Residency they decided that they had
sucked the lemon dry.
Encouraged by Cairo’s frenzied abuse of the British, which was
vomited from every radio in Bahrain, and counting on local support,
The Committee announced a strike and a demonstration on November
1st. We.could have forbidden the demonstration but many Arabs who
disapproved of The Committee were opposed to the British action at
Suez so it would have been unwise to force a showdown. Besides,
the force at the Government’s disposal was small, though the police
had been strengthened by recruits from Oman and Aden, and by a
number of new British police officers. There were British troops in
Bahrain, some were at Jufair and some were at the airport, but they would
only be used in the gravest emergency to protect British lives. As soon
as the trouble began European residents who lived inside Manama were
removed from their houses, which were left empty, and lodged in the
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the town.
There was no time tor discussions. I decided that the best course was
to allow the procession and to deal with it in the same manner as we did
the Muharram processions. I sent for Bakr and had a long interview with
him in my house. He gave me a solemn undertaking, on behalf of The
Committee, that the procession would be quiet and orderly and would
follow a route which I had carefully planned, avoiding danger spots
such as the Political Agency, where disorder might occur. But the dis­
orders began on the day before the demonstration. They were started by
boys from the schools, led by the Secondary School boys, whose teachers
were Egyptians. They walked out of the schools at a given time and
started a procession, but this was promptly dealt with and for the rest of
that day Manama was comparatively quiet. In Muharraq the situation was
more serious; a mob attacked a block of Hats occupied by the British
families of the B;O.A.C. and Gulf Aviation staff. The women and
children were rescued by some of the troops from the airport before the
police succeeded in reaching the building, for the culverts under the
Muharraq sea road had been cut, which prevented access through
Muharraq to the airport. Fortunately, after the last strike, we had made
emergency, and while the strike lasted an air ferry service between
Awali and the Muharraq airport was operated, very successfully, by Gulf
Aviation.
At noon on Friday, November 2nd, the procession formed up at a
mosque not far from my house. A large contingent came from Muharraq,
where there had already been trouble and a number of men, including one
of The Committee members, had been arrested, but the Shias from the
villages were conspicuous by their absence. The arrangements to which
The Committee had agreed were ignored. After listening to some in­
flammatory speeches from the leaders the crowd surged out of the
mosque. We had staying with us the wife of one of the Government
oflidals, whose husband was away, and her daughter. Hearing shouting
and chanting we went on to the veranda in time to see a rabble of several
thousand men in the open space in front of the Political Agency, where
they shouted and booed but did no damage as the building was guarded
by police. I ran. downstairs to the office and found my Arab secretary
armed with a formidable revolver, telephoning for a police guard as we
had only two policemen in the compound. They arrived after the pro­
cession had passed. Back on the veranda I watched the crowd*go by.
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