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File 4535/1928 Pt 5 ‘PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL CONTROL IN:-’ [‎320v] (643/767)

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The record is made up of 1 file (380 folios). It was created in 16 Jun 1926-20 Oct 1937. 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

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the Navy must for the present retain its historical
function of assisting the Government of India in
upholding British prestige in the Gulf, and in
policing and civilising that area. They emphasise that
the normal state of the Gulf is one of peace, that the
occasions on which the exercise of force is even
considered as a possibility are very rare, and that
its actual exercise is still rarer.
(c) Air rower in nonaal circumstances could
Jx)
not, in their view, be used u&ze effectively
against the Trucial Chiefs than could the silent
pressure of the Navy. As against Ibn Baud and his
tribesmen, the matter is not one primarily for the
Government of India in so far as Koweit and Iraq
are concerned. As regards Wahabi aggression against
Bahrein or the Trucial Sheikhs, the real weapon, in
their view, is not bombing but economic blockade.
(d) Their conclusion is that, sc far from the
time having come for the Government of India to
abdicate in the Gulf in favour of the Colonial Office,
it is rather for them, with the help of the Navy, to
assert themselves more effectively, in order to
strengthen the British position on the Arab littoral.
The Navy can exercise the effective pressure referred
to above on recalcitrant Rulers. The States of the
Rulers in question are (in the Government of India’s
view) linked more closely with India than with either
Persia or Arabia; and they suggest (rather unconvincingly)
that even as regards Ibn Baud much of the influence
exercised over that potentate by His Majesty’s
Government is due to his consciousness of his
dependence on India, whether as Ruler of the Hejaz
or as Ruler of Nejd.

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Content

The file contains correspondence and other papers relating to political control in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and Middle East, specifically the division of responsibility for this region between 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 the Government of India, the Foreign Office, and the Colonial Office.

It includes papers relating to the following recommendations of Sir Hugh Trenchard, Chief of the Air Staff, made in an Air Staff Memorandum dated 8 May 1928: that the responsibilities of the Colonial Office should be extended to include Koweit [Kuwait], the Trucial Chiefs, and all political questions concerning the countries contiguous with Arabia; that one department of the Government, with the Air Ministry as advisers on air matters, should be made responsible for political and administrative action in Arabia, or at least in Iraq, Aden and Transjordan Used in three contexts: the geographical region to the east of the River Jordan (literally ‘across the River Jordan’); a British protectorate (1921-46); an independent political entity (1946-49) now known as Jordan ; and that 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 the Government of India should consider relieving themselves of their direct political and administrative responsibilities connected with Arabia. The related papers include those relating to the counter-proposal of the Government of India that a degree of the control removed from them following the report of the Masterton-Smith Committee of 1921 should be restored, and that they should now resume the position in the Gulf that they held before the First World War with regard to Bahrein [Bahrain], Kuwait, Muscat and the Trucial Chiefs.

The file also includes papers concerning the following:

  • The proposals of Sir John Cadman (Chairman of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and the Iraq Petroleum Company) in a letter to the Prime Minister of August 1929 that control of the Middle East should be centralised under a single department of HM Government
  • Lord Trenchard’s motion in the House of Lords of 20 May 1931 to ask whether HM Government would make a statement concerning an enquiry into the unification of control and policy in the Middle East
  • Lord Lamington’s motion of 27 April 1932 to ask HM Government whether the desirability of having the affairs of the Arabic speaking peoples of Arabia, Egypt and the Sudan being dealt with by one Government Office had been considered
  • Lord Lloyd’s motion of 21 March 1935 to call attention to the economic and political situation in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .

The main correspondents are as follows: 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. ; Hastings Lionel Ismay, Assistant Secretary of the Committee of Imperial Defence; the Government of India Foreign and Political Department; the Foreign Office; and the Colonial Office. Other correspondents include: the Air Ministry; the Admiralty Military Branch; 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. ; Lord Trenchard; and John Cadman.

Other papers in the file include 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. internal correspondence, 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. Political Department minute papers, memoranda, newspaper cuttings, extracts from minutes of the House of Lords, and the following:

The file includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 file (380 folios)
Arrangement

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

The subject 4535 ( Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and Persia: telegraphs) consists of nine files (seven volumes and two physical files), IOR/L/PS/10/1266-1274. The files are divided into seventeen parts, with parts 1 and 3 comprising one volume, part 2 comprising the second volume, part 5 comprising the third file, part 7 comprising the third and fourth volumes, parts 8 and 11 comprising the fifth volume, parts 13 to 15 comprising the sixth volume, part 16 comprising the seventh file, and parts 10 and 17 comprising the eighth volume.

A location list on folio 5 of IOR/L/PS/10/1271 and IOR/L/PS/10/1272 states that part 4 is Coll 30/75 (IOR/L/PS/12/3792), part 6 is Coll 29/68 (IOR/L/PS/12/3644), part 9 is Coll 30/17 (IOR/L/PS/12/3727), and part 12 is P 4480/1923 Pt 2 (IOR/L/PS/10/1099).

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 381; 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; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

Written in
English in Latin script
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File 4535/1928 Pt 5 ‘PERSIAN GULF POLITICAL CONTROL IN:-’ [‎320v] (643/767), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/1268, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100071619712.0x00002e> [accessed 3 May 2024]

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