Coll 30/52(1) 'Persian Gulf. Diaries: Bahrain News and Intelligence Reports'

Content

The file contains fortnightly intelligence summaries produced by the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. at Bahrain for the years 1933-40. The reports, marked as secret, were sent to the Government of India, the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , and numerous British diplomatic, political, and military offices in the Middle East. There are occasional hand-written comments in the margins of the reports.

The reports are divided into short sections that relate to a particular subject. Contained within the file is intelligence on the following topics:

• Shipping
• The movements of British and Foreign subjects, and Arab notables
• Local affairs of Bahrain, as well as regional news from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , and the wider Middle East
• Economic matters and food supplies
• Bahrain Petroleum Company and other matters related to the oil industry
• Transport accidents
• The Bahrain ruling family
• Tensions between Abu Dhabi and Dubai
• The pearl trade
• Workers' strikes in Bahrain
• Local crime
• The slave trade
• Regional boundary disputes
• The impact of the beginning of the Second World War in Bahrain and local reaction to events in the war
• Weather and meteorological data.

A photograph of Charles Belgrave and the French Naval Officer, Contre Amiral Rivet is contained on folio 388. It was taken when the French Sloop Bougainville visited Bahrain on 14-16 February 1935.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format

1 file (535 folios)

It is grouped into

'Contre Amiral Rivet and Mr C. D. Belgrave'

2 images

Ref: IOR/L/PS/12/3767, f 388

Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 537; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 3-537; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

Written in

English in Latin script

Type

Archival file

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/L/PS/12/3767

Former external reference(s)

Coll 30/52/1

History of this record

Date(s)

8 Sep 1933-21 Feb 1941 (CE, Gregorian)

Places

Bahrain

People & organisations

Bahrain Political Agency

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Cite this record in your research

Coll 30/52(1) 'Persian Gulf. Diaries: Bahrain News and Intelligence Reports', British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3767, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/node/9512> [accessed 23 April 2024]

Link to this record

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100000000648.0x00014d

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