Coll 35/25(4) 'Telegraphs, Postal and Wireless. Arabic broadcasts by B.B.C. and All-India Radio (including minutes of Persian Gulf Radio Listeners' Ctte)' [‎32r] (63/523)

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I 043 41364
Lzg in any case the communication of the contents of this dociinient
any person outside Government Service is authorised, .it must
he paraphrased.) f i f
AI'lettad to External Papartment.
Copies Circulated
From
To
CYPHER TEIxEGHAM
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.
Secretary of State for India
Repeated to Minister of State, Cairo arid Government of India
’•Saving”.
Dated Bahrain, 8th November, 1945.
Received 01.00 hours, 9th November, 1943.
T/1077.
Addressed to London, repeated to Minister oi State
Cairo for Ministry of Information Government of India New Delhi
"Saving".
I ace from Ministry of Information letter REFB3/2 dated
ggnd October to Bertram Thomas that they have no one in mind to
succeed him. We can find no one and I therefore make the
following proposals.
£. Present (? budget) of Public Relations Officer amounts
to about £8,000 per annum (exclusive of heavy telegram charges in
Cairo and London) which is considerably greater than the total pre
war cost of Bahrain Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. . Though with German bombers m Baghdad
and then later the threat to Cairo and Caucasus we could obviously
neglect no weapon to maintain morale I doubt very much if such
expenditure can now be justified.
Bertram Thomas had particular qualifications for this
post which his successor, however gifted? cannot inherit. He had
p-reat name in the Gulf and. was persona gratissima with all buyers
end mercharts and key note of his.policy was frequent occasion to
contact with them. His successor however must mainly rely on
artificial means such as Bahrain newspaper, Bahrain radio are
cinema instead of personal approach.
u Shipping restrictions have made it increasingly difficult
to visit Kowoit which can bo better supplied from Basra and recent
sinking of ;>ahpu in Muscat harbour has reduced sailings ,o
mini'mum so that Muscat is almost cut off. ± do not -oa
rr ^ s n t state of war when Arabs have made up their minds about the
winner expenditure of £8,000 per annum by newcomer on Bahrain ana
Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates. can be .justified.
r we are now wqII served by Arab broadcasts and I do not
cor sideBahrain Radio (though useful) is essential and (? attach)
still less affect to newspaper Al Bahrain which could be par
replaced