IOR/R/15/1/654

The volume contains letters, telegrams and memoranda relating to ongoing exploratory oil drilling being undertaken in Bahrain by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (hereafter BAPCO), and the resignation of Major Frank Holmes as Chief Local Representative for BAPCO in Bahrain. The volume is a direct continuation of ‘File 86/2 V (C 44) Bahrain Oil’ (IOR/R/15/1/653). The principal correspondents in the volume are Captain Everald Gastrell, officiating Political Agent in Bahrain, Major Holmes, and various Government officials from the Colonial Office, India Office and Petroleum and Mining Departments in London.

Key subjects discussed in the volume include:

• Holmes’s resignation as Chief Local Representative for BAPCO in Bahrain, including a record of proceedings at the India Office in London, dated 10 August 1933, in which a decision for Holmes’s removal was established (folios 27-33), an announcement of Holmes’s resignation in a telegram from the Secretary of State for India, dated 15 September 1933 (folio 58), and a copy of the text of a letter from Holmes, dated 15 September 1933, announcing his resignation to the Political Agent (folio 83);
• The Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah’s response to Holmes’s resignation (folios 46, 55-56, 66);
• Holmes’s departure from Bahrain, including translations of speeches given by the secretaries of the Manama and Muharraq municipalities at a farewell party in Holmes’s honour (folios 159-60, 161);
• Oil prospects in Bahrain and the need or lack of need for refineries in Bahrain (folio 113);
• A request from the replacement Chief Local Representative, Ed Skinner, for an urgent extension to the Company’s prospecting license, and subsequent negotiations for the extension (folio 148, 165-67, 180-82);
• Modifications to the BAPCO mining lease, with a draft of the amended lease (folios 128-42).

The volume also contains a printed translation of the Saudi decree announcing the oil concession at Al-Hasa, dated 10 July 1933 (folios 170-74).