Page 80 - Personal Column (Charles Belgrave)_Neat

the BAPCO Club at Awali and there was an excellent Bahrain Motor
Club, of which I am still Vice-President, which- had members of all
nationalities but no club-house, so the ticklish question of liquor did not
arise.
Another factor which affected the outlook of the young men was j
the growing connection between Bahrain and Egypt. In 1945, owing |
to the dearth of suitable schoolteachers, for teaching was an unpopular j
profession, it was decided that a few Egyptian masters should be em- i
ployed. Even then I had some doubts about the wisdom of this course. !
There was an urgent demand for better education, the number of students j
was increasing, and a Secondary' School had been opened, but the local I
masters were not capable of conducting secondary education. Twelve j
experienced schoolteachers were seconded by the Egyptian Ministry of
Education for service in Bahrain. The public welcomed their employ­
ment, for the Bahrainis are inclined to regard anything from abroad as
being superior to the local article, and although some of the Arab teachers
resented the introduction of foreign teachers, drawing high pay, they
realized that the Egyptians were better qualified than themselves. The
first group of Egyptians, men of mature age, did much to improve the
standard of education and their conduct was exemplary. They were j
replaced, later, by men who were not so satisfactory and several of the
younger masters had to be sent back to Egypt because they indulged in
political propaganda. There are now more than twice the number of
Egyptian teachers in Bahrain than there were in 1945 and they have
unrivalled opportunities of influencing the students. Throughout the
Middle East there is a shortage of teachers and only Egypt, with its long-
established system of education, is willing to send its teachers to work in
other Middle East countries where the teachers become fervent mission­
aries preaching the dangerous gospel of Nasscrism. .j
In the same year the Government sent a number of boys to Egypt
for advanced education. The experiment was short-lived and unsuccess­
ful. Few of the boys did any work, some left their hostel and returned
to Bahrain, others took part in political disturbances and demonstrations,
causing uneasiness to the Government and their parents. Within a year
we withdrew all the boys from Cairo. Afterwards, the only boys who
went to Egypt were sent privately by their parents. This brief excursion
into-Egypt had subsequent consequences; some of the young men who
went to Cairo became the most bitter opponents of their own Govern­
ment.
In January 1947 Shaikh Sulman took me with him on a visit to King
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