IOR/R/15/1/264

This file is a collection of correspondence between British officials in London, Delhi, Bushire, Bahrain, Sharjah and Teheran over the rights to mine red oxide on Abu Musa, an island in the Gulf claimed by Sharjah. The main correspondents are: India Office, Whitehall (John Gilbert Laithwaite); Shaikh Sultan bin Saqar of Sharjah; Political Resident Persian Gulf (Trenchard Craven Fowle); Political Agent, Bahrain (Gordon Loch); Senior Naval Officer Persian Gulf; Hajji Yusuf Kanoo (trader in Bahrain); Commander R.C. Bayldon; the Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The correspondence relates to a contract for the mining of red oxide on Abu Musa. British officials helped facilitate the completion of the contract although the Iranians claimed the island as their territory and raised objections to the issuance of the contract. The final contract specified that Commander Bayldon will pay a minimum of 2000 Rupees a year in royalties to the Shaikh of Sharjah. The British warned Commander R.C. Bayldon that as it becomes known to the Iranians that he has taken rights to mining on Abu Musa that he will be barred from the higher quality Hormuz ore mines. The file includes a letter from the Political Resident Persian Gulf with a list of islands in the Persian Gulf 'known or presumed to contain Ferric Oxide'. The file is mostly in English with some letters in Arabic.