IOR/R/15/1/653

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to ongoing exploratory oil drilling being undertaken in Bahrain by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (hereafter BAPCO). The volume is a direct continuation of ‘File 86/2 IV (C 43) Bahrain Oil; Eastern and General Syndicate Limited’ (IOR/R/15/1/652). The principal correspondents in the volume are Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, Political Agent in Bahrain, Captain Everald Gastrell, officiating Political Agent in Bahrain during Loch’s absence, and various members of the India Office, Colonial Office, and Petroleum and Mining Departments in London.

Key subjects discussed in the volume include:

• BAPCO’s request for an extension of their prospecting license to 2 December 1934;
• Questions over the award of a second concession covering the remainder of the Bahrain islands not included in BAPCO’s existing concession of 100,000 as-yet unspecified acres of territory; correspondence with representatives of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company with regard to this second concession;
• British officials’ attempts to oust Major Frank Holmes from his position as Chief Local Representative for BAPCO in Bahrain, because of his perceived failure to fulfil contractual requirements as set out in the original concession agreement;
• Recommendations with regard to Holmes’s position, provided by the British Government’s Treasury Solicitor, Sir Maurice Gwyer (folios 242-44);
• News of Holmes’s dismissal as BAPCO’s Chief Local Representative, dated 26 August 1933 (folio 293).

Three maps are also included in the file, which were originally enclosed with a report that is mentioned in a letter contained in the volume (folio 203), although the report itself is not included. Map 1 (folio 333) shows the Bahrain islands with elevation data and the locations of BAPCO’s oil installations and infrastructures. Map 2 (folio 334) shows BAPCO’s roads, telephone and water lines, along with oil and water well locations. Map 3 (folio 335) is a site plan of BAPCO’s camp at Jebel Dukhan.