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‘File 28/7 II War: Propaganda – Local Opinion’ [63r] (125/686)
The record is made up of 1 file (341 folios). It was created in 12 Mar 1942-12 Aug 1944. 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. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
3
b
6 Spreading of anti-British rumours is best discouraged hy
* personal contacts. One way of assuring wide publicity for
a rumour is to have it whispered in confidence into the ear
of an Arahi In case this sounds facetious, it might be
recalled that in illiterate societies the spreading of news
is foremost among subjects of conversation. The Majlis, an
indigenous institution, is thus perfectly adapted for
propaganda ends.
7. It must not be forgotten that here in the dulf slavery has
the sanction of Islam; and the Grerman ambition to enslave
others does not therefore shock the local Arab’s sense of
religious proprieties. The Anglo-Saxon attitude towards the
war, and the way the friendly Arab views it, have rarely the
spiritual bond suggested in the Question, so that the idea
of the Arab praying for a British victory would not, at least J
in this area and at this time, suggest itself.
As regards the conflict of ideas between Nazism and
Islam the most effective pamphlet for this area would be in
the form of a table of short pithy sentences set down side
by side in antithesis viz.
Hitler says
The Nazis tell us
but Allah in the Koran says
but Allah in the Koran says
8. The present would not be a propitious moment in the Persian
Qulf for the issue of such a circular*
9 After long experience - some twenty years lived in close
association with the peoples across the Islamic world in
Morocco, Trans-Jordan, Iraq, the Persian CJulf and Arabia -
it would seem to me (a) that our present Arabic propaganda
material provides all the scope necessary for local adapta
tion everywhere, but that (b) despite the common religion
and common tongue, the difficulties of devision the •common
formula* applicable everywhere are sometimes very real, on
account of divergences in the cultural development, regional
politics and economic life of the component parts.
In close-knit urbanised societies elsewhere a spate of
newspapers using the jargon of 20th century international
politics might well be the criterion of effective propaganda.
This emphasis of course is out of place and ineffectual in
the wide sweeps of our Middle East where, as here, potential
war zones are inhabited by backward semi -patriarchal people.
Economic self-interest has regional implications. One
example: the Persian G-ulf derives the greater pcr^ Ox - s
livelihood from the production and sale of natural pearls:
the natural enemy of the GS-ulf Arab is thus his Japanese nv 1,
who has almost ruined him by flooding the world’s markets
with cultured pearls. This is an item of anti -Axis propaganda
of immense local self-interest: here it cannot be plugged too
often: elsewhere one can see that it might.
taokgroant! 0n irmo?e U aaTancer^ai m count?ies moiern education^
fuljl cassia
i n Iraq, for instance, have of late years openly . «
•professed free-thinkers. On the other hand the ruling chiefs
of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
, who, like Ihn Sa'ud, are uneducated in
the academic sense, are, like him, Moslems of a stricoly
traditional school. The resent introduction of schools wi t
European curricula may in time lead here, as elsewhere, to a
change
About this item
- Content
The file, a direct chronological continuation of ‘File 28/7 I War: Propaganda: local opinion’ (IOR/R/15/2/687), comprises reports and correspondence concerning: the dissemination of pro-British and Allied propaganda in Bahrain and the wider Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. region, as prepared and coordinated by the Publicity Office in Bahrain; the reception and impact of propaganda (Allied and Axis) on local public opinion in Bahrain. The propaganda covers events from Germany’s advances in Russia and Japan’s advances in the Indian Ocean in early 1942, to the Allied Landings in Normandy in June 1944. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Public Relations Officer in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (Bertram Sidney Thomas); the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. at Bahrain (Major Reginald George Evelin William Alban; Edward Birkbeck Wakefield; Major Tom Hickinbotham); and the 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. (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior).
The file includes:
- weekly reports, prepared by Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. staff, summarising local opinion in Bahrain towards news of events in the war. These reports were sent by the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in digested form and on a weekly basis to the 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. ;
- throughout the file, minutes of the approximately monthly meetings held by the Bahrain Radio Listeners Committee between July 1942 and August 1943. The minutes chiefly comprise comments on the content, quality of reception, quality of delivery, and timing, of BBC Arabic radio broadcasts, and to a lesser extent that of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. radio station;
- throughout the file, summaries of ‘talking points’ for dissemination as propaganda, focusing on topics including: Russia’s military strength against Germany (ff 42-43); facts and figures of the air war in the Mediterranean (ff 135-136); facts and figures on the Allied bombing campaign over Germany, with a focus on damage in Berlin and Essen (f 173);
- a report by Thomas of his tour of Middle East publicity centres (in Cairo, Jerusalem, Baghdad), dated 28 February 1943, commenting on: printing resources at Cairo; mechanical monitoring of radio broadcasts in Baghdad; use of cinema vans in remote districts of Iraq; Thomas’s own recommendations for publicity in the Gulf, including use of additional film projectors, hospitality sessions; majlis sessions (ff 11-16);
- a copy of an undated letter from L H Hurst of the Ministry of Information in London, to Thomas, requesting advice on ‘the best ways of capitalising the sympathies of pro-British Arabs.’ Thomas’s lengthy reply is appended to the letter (ff 47-51, with an additional copy at ff 59-64);
- correspondence relating to Thomas’s planned trip across the Arabian Peninsula, in March 1943 (ff 141-156);
- correspondence relating to Thomas’s departure to take up a role as head of an Arab Centre for training new officers (f 227);
- arrangements to send coloured film and records for broadcast in Sharjah (f 202);
- Government of Bahrain public notices: a prohibition on listening to German and Italian radio broadcasts, dated 16 June 1940 (f 5); a prohibition on listening to Japanese radio broadcasts, dated 8 December 1941 (f 6); dimming of car headlamps and other air raid precautions, dated 16 April 1942 (f 22).
- Extent and format
- 1 file (341 folios)
- Arrangement
The file’s contents are arranged in approximate chronological order, from the earliest item at the front to the latest at the end. The file notes at the end of the file (ff 315-342) mirror the chronological arrangement.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 343; 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 2-314; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled, and are located in the same position as the main sequence. An additional mixed foliation/pagination sequence is also present in parallel between ff 315-342.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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Copyright: How to use this content
- Reference
- IOR/R/15/2/688
- Title
- ‘File 28/7 II War: Propaganda – Local Opinion’
- Pages
- front, front-i, 2r:4v, 7r:21v, 23r:342v, back-i, back
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence