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a District Judge in the Joint Court together with a representative of the ruler. Moreover, he
Nvas empowered to ratify the judgment of the Sharia Court, and to nominate the members of
the Majlis al-Urf The Agent also controlled the entry ofall foreigners to Bahrain, and could, if
he so wished, have them expelled at a moment’s notice. Once BAPCO was established, he
provided the only link between the company and government of Bahrain. On the commercial
side, he had important functions, for example, to shipping: he issued certificates of origin,
approval of lists of passengers, approval of manifests, and the grant of export licenses. Above
all, he ensured that Bahrain abided by all the treaty conditions Britain had woven around it for
the past century.

It is no wonder, then, that all those British officials — from the Political Agent in Bahrain
to those in the India office — in charge of Gulf affairs were adamant in their opposition to the
establishment of an American consulate. As far as can be gathered from available evidence
today, it was the Political Agent in Bahrain who first suggested the compromise solution of
establishing a US consulate at Dhahran to perform consular duties in Bahrain when the
subject was brought up in 1943. But he did not envisage the Dhahran consul as coming to'
Bahrain; rather that the Americans in Bahrain would go to Dhahran.46 Any thoughts of a
resident US consul made British officialdom shudder: it was a certain step to the undermining
ofBritain’s position and had to be resisted at all costs.47 The scathing opinion by Gulf officials
of the Foreign Office’s compromise action after the Anglo-American conversations was
summed up succinctly by the Political Agent in 1945: “After a not very fiercely contested
rearguard action by the Foreign Office His Majesty’s Government agreed to the inclusion
informally of Bahrain within the sphere of the American Consul whose appointment to
Dhahran was ratified in June 1944.” 48 The same year, the Agent spoke somewhat shrilly of
the Foreign Office’s “policy of appeasement” towards the USA, which in the climate of 1945,
was a particularly underhand attack.

The American Consulate at Dhahran was opened on 2 September 1944. Immediate
friction with the US Vice-Consul, Parker T.Hart, was reported by the Political Agent. He
“interested himself immediately in business matters and later in political matters...”.49 It was
with some alarm that the Political Resident reported two months later that Hart “ has lost little
time in entering the political arena, and it is obvious that if his activities are not confined to
matters strictly within his purview our whole position.... will be rapidly undermined50 The
Political Agent also complained that he was finding“some difficulty with regard to my manner
of dealing with the American Vice-Consul as I am bound on one side by directions to do all
in my power to ensure a smooth working of this somewhat peculiar system” but Hart wanted to
discuss certain political issues which were beyond his domain of responsibility.51

It was with some relief that the Political Resident reported that “Mr. Hart has no
knowledge of the Arab World”. Moreover, he had quickly antagonised a Director of BAPCO
who told the Political Agent that he regretted “that a more experienced and less uncouth
person had not been selected to open the post”.52 The Resident was openly disdainful of Hart
who called on him inappropriately attired (in “shirt and trousers”), and concluded that so long
as the US “are content to employ officers with these qualifications, the danger to our interests
is minimised ....”.33 He warned, however, that when the US “are able to post officers with
experience of the Middle East and a fluent knowledge of Arabic the position will become
entirely different.

This occurred the following year. The Political Agent reported that the new Vice-Consul,
William Sands, was “an entirely different proposition.”55 He was well-travelled, an excellent
linguist, “a good conversationalist, of pleasant address, and considerable intelligence. I think it

51

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