ABSTRACT
Bahrain as the most important place, militarily and politically, on the Arab side of the Gulf; and in 1946, the Political Residency, that bastion of British power, moved to Bahrain from Bushire in Iran. In 1921, a press campaign in Persia began to focus attention on the British role in Bahrain. Although with hindsight this strike was very minor especially when compared with the far more important discoveries yet to be made in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Abu Dhabi it was here in Bahrain that oil revenues first began to accrue. Shaikh Salman bin Hamad, who became ruler in 1942 when his father Shaikh Hamad died, sympathized with the people of Palestine; but he did not consider that Palestine affairs called for any action in Bahrain. The agreement was finally cancelled in 1977, although the US navy continues to maintain contacts with Bahrain. The dissolution of the National Assembly coincided with oil boom which followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
