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Coll 30/52(3) 'Bahrein Intelligence Summaries 1946' [‎35r] (69/472)

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The record is made up of 1 file (233 folios). It was created in 29 Jan 1948-14 Feb 1950. 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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3
(ii) Gray Macke nzie;
^® ssrs ° ? Mackenzie & Co., Ltd. (see paragraph
13b) are acquiring a site near the Customs Jetty at Doha and
are preparing to build there.
(iii) Cab le and Wi reless L td.
, . question of starting public telegraph facilities
m ^atar, including radio telephone communication with the
United Kingdom and the United States of America, is under con
sideration.
( 1v ) British B ank of Iran and the Middl e East .
The bank has received permission to visit Qatar
with a view to studying local banking possibilities.
(v) Pol itical Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in Doha .
The Ruler has offered to provide a piece of land
for the new Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. building in Doha and the various alterna
tive sites are under examination.
(vi) Inter nal Orga nisation .
The progress of the Ruler towards becoming an
enlightened monarch is extremely slow. His personal expen
diture is on a fairly generous scale but he shows little en
thusiasm for promotin T the extremely feeble growth of his new
police force.and none at all for organising his State. He
is unable and unwilling to distinguish between personal and
State income. And when asked to draw up a tentative budget
ended by declining to consider the matter. In this he was
doubtless prompted by his father who is showing signs of
surprising rejuvenation and whose idea of State finance is
that all receipts should go direct to the privy purse and
stay there.
In order to ease the monetary demands of the
Shaikh’s relations it is proposed to find them, where pos
sible, suitable employment in government service. This
project however has made little headway. It has been es
timated that two-thirds to three-quarters of the Customs
dues collected find their way at the pocket of the Director
of Customs, A proposal that motor vehicles should be li
censed by the police was accepted by the Shaikh but the re-
^ultafttincome is likely to go in the Shaikh’s pocket rather
than in helping to pay for the police force as was intended.
The delay in appointing an Adviser is to some
extent responsible for the failure to make headway in Qatar.
But a much greater obstacle is Shaikh All’s outlook in which
he is encouraged by his father, by local influences such as the
v Darwish family and thx by the example of Saudi Arabia. If
oil royalties in Qatar are not to be frittered away but ap
plied to the public good a very firm line will.sooner or later
have to be taken with Shaikh Ali. The appointment of an
Adviser remains the first essential step.
Meanwhile there are hopes of c. reconciliation
between Shaikh Sa'ud bin Abdur Rahman 'of Wakra and the Ruler
who

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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 January 1948 until January 1950 (not for the year 1946 as the title suggests). 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.

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

  • Shipping
  • Visits of British and foreign notables
  • Economic and commercial matters
  • Local news and affairs, as well as that of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, and the Trucial Coast A name used by Britain from the nineteenth century to 1971 to refer to the present-day United Arab Emirates.
  • The work of Bahrain Petroleum Company, and the oil industry more generally
  • American interests in the region
  • Local reaction to international events such as those in Palestine and Syria
  • The activities of the Royal Navy
  • The supply of electricity, water and telecommunications
  • Aviation
  • The work of the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit
  • The traffic of slaves
  • Quarantine and medical matters
  • Weather and meteorological data.

There are occasional hand-written comments in the margins of the reports.

In addition to the reports, the file contains a copy of a letter sent from the Government of Pakistan's Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Relations Department in Karachi to British officials in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain concerning the alleged kidnapping and enslavement of girls in Baluchistan by 'Arab traders in dates', 9 March 1949 (folio 91).

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 (233 folios)
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 front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 235; 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.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Coll 30/52(3) 'Bahrein Intelligence Summaries 1946' [‎35r] (69/472), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/3769B, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100058256413.0x000046> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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