'File 19/169 II (C 76) Agitation in Bahrain' [‎130r] (270/514)

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Court and said that it was entirely wrong that all the
judges should be appointed from the A1 Khalifah family
whether they had any qualifications or not. They admitted
however that they knew of no one else at present better
qualified for the Courtsj and on the whole they talked
quite reasonably. They also had something to say about
the Baladiyahs and Education^ but Belgrave says that
their main concern seemd to be to increase Bahama rep
resentation and that they complained that there were too
many Arabs in the Baladiyahs and that the Arabs or Sunnis
were balpg favoured in the schools.. Belgrave told them
that HiTs Highness was considering plans for the Courts;
while as for the Baladiyahs the Shias had their members
and it was up to them to speak up in the meetings and
put before the committee any grievances that the Shia
communities in the towns might have. He promised also
that a general survey would be made of the State Education
system. Not once during the whole meeting which lasted
for two hours did they so much as mention a Council.
5. There is of course unending talk all through Manamah
and Muharraq and the most astonishing stories go around.
Ramadhan is of course a bad month for this sort of thing,
but at the present moment there is nothing in particular
to worry about. There may be a strike of Bahraini clerks,
motor drivers and so on at the Oil Camp, but I am not sure
about this yet. x he possibility of .joint agitation by
Shias and "Arabs* 1 seems to be receding. His Highness is at
the moment extremely angry with some of the latter, and has
ideas of exiling at least one of them to Hawarl
Yours sincerely,