IOR/R/15/1/649

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to negotiations for the extension of Eastern & General Syndicate Limited’s (hereafter E&GS) concession for oil exploration in Bahrain. Correspondents in the volume include the Political Agent in Bahrain (chiefly Major Cyril Barrett, incumbent from September 1926 to April 1929), representatives of E&GS (including Major Frank Holmes and the Company Secretary, H. Adams), and various British Government officials in the Colonial Office.

Key subjects covered by the volume include:

• Fears on the part of British officials in 1925 to the prospects of the discovery of oil in Bahrain (folios 29-31), and resistance to the E&GS having signed a concession with the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah (folios 62-63);
• An application by E&GS in 1928 to extend their oil concession agreement (folios 110-11);
• Confusion over the terms of a new agreement, with particular reference to a new clause insisting that the E&GS would remain a British interest (folios 193-95, 206-10);
• Reports of American investment in E&GS (folios 196-98);
• Terms of the agreement between E&GS and the North American Gulf Oil Company (folios 217-50);
• Assignment of Gulf Oil’s option on the concession to the Standard Oil Company of California (folios 260-61);
• Negotiations between E&GS and the Colonial Office over the maintenance of British control over oil exploration funded by foreign investment in Bahrain (folios 277-86);
• Confirmation of the concession extension with the agreed terms over the extent of foreign (American) investment (folios 299-304).

The volume also contains copies of the numerous drafts of the oil concession, with its various modifications and amendments, including the original 1925 concession in English and Arabic (folios 79-97), and a draft copy of the 1928 agreement with additions inserted by a representative of the Government of Bahrain, presumably the Adviser to the Government, Charles Dalrymple-Belgrave (folios 156-75).