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'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎15r] (29/314)

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The record is made up of 1 file (155 folios). It was created in 11 Oct 1944-18 Jan 1948. It was written in English and Arabic. 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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C OMMUNICJIO.Nij IK THE FERSIM GULF .
Our globes show us that a vast barrier of mountains and
desert, stretching from the Karakoram to Aden, shuts
India off from communication with Europe and the Middle
East. This barrier has its passes through which a
conquering array can come, as India has often found to
her cost. But for the contacts and commerce of peace
time, sea-ways are the necessary vehicles, and of these
there are two. The Red Sea, though she does not
breach but only out-flanks the barrier, lifts her two
fingers in the V-sign, as if in token of the supremacy
she has enjoyed since the cutting of the Suez Canal.
But that supremacy was not always here, and there are
signs that it is already passing back again to her age-
old rival, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
2. This stretch of water, thanks to the narrow
breach in the mountain-desert barrier which the history
laden straits of Hormuz afford, lays open to princely
highway for Indian venturers to the very heart of the
Middle East, the valley of the two rivers which cradled
civilizations, when Indiajfli and Europe alike were barbarous
and unlettered.
3. _ I spoke of the two sea lanes as rivals, and this
indeed they are. It was the invention of the steamship
even before the Suez Canal was opened, that made the
R e d Sea the highroad to India. The Red Sea is no route
for wind-propelled vessels, for in it the winds at each
end flow inwards to the centre. Anyone who has sailed
even a dingy knows that a run before the wind followed
by a dead-beat into the wind’s eye, is a far slower
business than a reach all the way. Moreover the oltf
square-rigged ships of East India Company days and
earlier would hardly sail within six points of the wind,
and a dead-beat often meant that they would tack back
and forth, gaining no ground at all. It may be remembered
how Ireland was saved from invasion by Napoleon through
the fact that a strong wind got up which blew straight
down the narrow stretch of Bantry Bay, up which the laden
transports were trying to beat, and blew them clean
out into the ocean. The Red Sea has to thank James Watt,
then, for her recent victory in her contest with the
Cape route; and before that again she had to fight the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
4. In those early days, the Cape route to the
Indies was unknown, and travellers had to choose between
a short overland haul across the Suez Isthmus followed
by interminable days of beating back and forth in the
Red Sea; or the longer trek from the Mediterranean to
Basra, followed by the shorter sea voyage of the Persian
Gulf • The latter had the further advantage of tapping
rich markets en route , whereas the Red Sea throughout
its length is nothing but a continuation ( to put the
cart before the horse) of the Suez Canal. Communications
between India and Europe along the shortest route, that
of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , have necessarily depended on the
attitude of the inhabitants of the land-neck that inter
venes between the Gulf and the Mediterranean, that area
which Prof. Breasted so well describes as the ’’fertile
crescent”, up from the land of the two rivers, across by
Mosul and ancient Palmyra, and down through Syria and
Palestine to Egypt. Passage through this belt from the
northern approach also depended on the whim of the ho3d ers

About this item

Content

This file contains correspondence between officials at 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. , the Government of India's External Affairs Department and a number diplomatic posts in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. including the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in Muscat. The correspondence discusses British Government propaganda efforts (usually referred to as publicity or information work in the file) in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and India.

Much of the correspondence focuses on ideas concerning the production of a publicity film about the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (and a subsequent visit to the region made by a film crew from India) but various other propaganda activities and locations are also mentioned. In addition to this correspondence, the file contains the following related documents:

  • Draft script for a film about the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. (folios 9-18)
  • 'Suggested programme for the tour of the unit which is to make a film on the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ' (folio 21)
  • 'Proceedings of a meeting held in the External Affairs Department at 11 a.m. on Tuesday the 20th February, 1945, to discuss the making of a documentary film of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ' (folios 24-26)
  • Extract related to Bahrain from the BBC Arabic-language publication The Arab Listener (folio 36)
  • Propaganda pamphlet entitled 'India, Some Questions and Answers' published in November 1944 (folios 51-60)
  • 'Note of a talk by the P.I.O. [Public Information Officer] Jerusalem, Mr Christopher Holme, on British Publicity in Palestine, and its relation to other functions of Government, given on March 13, 1945' (folios 63-68)
  • 'Security Education Handbook (Civilian)' Issued by the Department of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the Security Education Department of the Inter-Services Security Directorate, HQ India Command (folios 74-85)
  • Publications Division, Information and Broadcasting Department Government of India, Progress Reports Nos. 19-21, 23 (folios 86-96, 103-106, 108-109)
  • 'Information and Publicity Work in Foreign Countries' Foreign Office Circular by Ernest Bevin, 15 January 1947 (folios 110-111)
  • Foreign Office Information Newsletter Nos. 1-6, 9-12 (folios 112-137, 142-144).
Extent and format
1 file (155 folios)
Arrangement

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

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 157; 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 2-74; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

Written in
English and Arabic in Latin and Arabic script
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'File 11/46 Publicity in the Persian Gulf' [‎15r] (29/314), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/6/397, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100061645486.0x00001e> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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