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‘File 4/3 (1.a/51) Propaganda’ [‎45r] (91/194)

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The record is made up of 1 file (95 folios). It was created in 14 Dec 1940-23 Jul 1949. It was written in English. The original is part of the 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. .

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-4-
Bahrain grave
yard «.
Nomad tribes
migrating:
flocks & herds.
the few tribes which are of purely Persian origin. In the
hinterland of the coast, between Shiraz and Bushire,
v /ander the C^ashqai nomads, their name derived from the
Turkish Kachmak ( to run away ), because they split off
from the Seljuk Turks; and further south, above Lingah,
are the grazing grounds of the Khamseh, the five tribes
v/hose Arabic name oetrays their racial origin.
12. The population is no less mixed on the Arab coast.
Kuwait, indeed, with its close commercial links with the
Bedu dwellers of the desert is nearly pure iirab. Bahrain
has a Shia population called the Baharina ( the name is
merely the itrabic " broken plural" of Bahraini) who
represent the original population which dwelt there before
the $ax±g±M±x conquest of the island by its present
rulers, the a 1 Khalifah-a sub-branch, originally, of
the great Ajman tribe. It would be too tempting, and too
commonplace, to bring in the familiar name of "Phoenician"
in describing their origin. However, south of the town of
Lanama, the capital of Bahrain, is a vast area of tumuli,
covering perhaps ten square miles of the island 1 s surface;
a phenomenon which gives point to the gibe of old
inhabitants, when asked what Bahrain is like, " well, it
has the largest ^TravRy^g# graveyard in the world". It
is claimed by those who have excavated these tumuli, that
the articles buried with the dead, anc the posture of the
skeletons ( their knees drawn up towards their chin) prove
that the race which buried its dead here originated from
the Mediterranean area .
v 13. Phoenician or not as its inhabitants may have been,
it is interesting that in the Middle Ages the Garmathian
sect of the Ismaili Shias were strongly represented in
Bahrain, from where they sent help and support to the
Omit in filming Fatimid Caliphate in iigypt. Now, however, Ismailis in
Bahrain could be counted on one's fingers, and the strong
hold of that sect in the Gulf is at Muscat. This is,
of course, a fresh irmnigration from India, and large
numbers of the Khojas and Aga Khanis there still possess
British nationality. Indian Dunnis are mostly to be
found on the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. , where they are ^Qncrlcally
called " Hyderabadis". They speak Arabic and wear
Arab dress, except that they affect the coloured turban
rather than the white, hanging Kufiyah of the desert.
■yx
Hindu temple at
Muscat
Pearl diving
scenes
14. Apart from Muslims, there are, of course, consider
able colonies of Hindu traders all up and down the coast;
and their local name of "banians" truly indicates India's
predominant interest in the Gulf, namely the export trade
to it. In Muscat the Hindu coilony ( nearly all Gujeratis)
is particularly strong, and they have built for themselves
a very fine temple in the best-watered part of the town's
outskirts. A tragic memento of the former heyday of
India's trade with the Persian coast of the Gulf is found
in the presence of a Hindu temple in Bandar Abbas, now
deserted. However, with the end of autocracy in Persia,
we may hope for a mor^liberal commercial policy there, and
puja may soon again be done in the temple at Bandar Abbas.
16. Indian traders are not only interested in the
export trade; many of them engage also in the pearl trade.
On the pearl banks the divers plunge from the side of their
ships all through the summer days, with their simple
equipment of a clip for the nose and a wire basket for the

About this item

Content

The file contains exchanges of secret and confidential letters, memoranda and telegrams, mainly between Major Reginald George Evelyn William Alban and his successor Cornelius James Pelly (British Political Agents, Bahrain); Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Geoffrey Prior ( Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Bushire); Major Tom Hickinbotham and his successor A.L.A. Dredge, (Public Relations Officers in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Bahrain); Captain J.B. Howes (Publicity Officer in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Bahrain then Deputy Secretary, Government of India Information and Broadcasting Department, New Delhi).

File correspondence discusses: the script and arrangements for making a British public information film about the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , by an Indian film unit, in 1945; requests for funds to develop a recreation ground and provide a cinema in Bahrain, in order to promote social contact between the British, Arabs and Persians, 1940-1941; and compiling a list of Sheikhs in Bahrain and Qatar and also Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. Rulers, who would appreciate a supply of Arabic literature from the Public Relations Office in Bahrain, 1949. There is also a copy of the minutes of a meeting of the Public Information Committee held in the Public Information Office, Bahrain on 12 January 1941 (ff.6-8).

The file also contains policies, plans, information and guidance relating to publicity work in the Middle East which were circulated to British officials in the region by the Ministry of Information in London and Cairo. These include British propaganda policy and planning for Persia 1944-1945 by the Overseas Planning Committee; information about British publicity work in Palestine; notes for making public statements about the political assassination of Lord Moyne (British Minister Resident in the Middle East) in Cairo on 6 November 1944; French claims in the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. , 1945; and participation by Syria and Lebanon in the United Nations Conference on International Organization, San Francisco, 1945.

Extent and format
1 file (95 folios)
Arrangement

File papers are arranged chronologically. The notes at the end of the file contain two lists of file contents. The first list (ff.93-94) records the reference numbers 1 to 44 (with gaps) which have been written in pencil or blue crayon on most of the documents, starting at the front of the file. The second list (ff.94-95) records reference numbers that refer to papers at the end of the file. The reference numbers help to identify and locate these documents in the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: numbered 1 to 95 in pencil in the top right hand corner. The numbering starts at the front of the file, on the first file enclosure (f.1) and ends on the last file enclosure (f.95) at the back of the file. The front file cover is not foliated.

Written in
English in Latin script
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‘File 4/3 (1.a/51) Propaganda’ [‎45r] (91/194), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/2/927, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100022698519.0x00005c> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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