IOR/R/15/1/698

The volume comprises correspondence regarding applications from the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) and California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC), represented primarily by Hamilton R Ballantyne and Max Weston Thornburg, for permission to install wireless apparatus and operate wireless telegraphy between Dhahran [Aẓ-Ẓahrān] and Awali [ʻAwālī].

The discussion, which is primarily between the Political Agent at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman, Reginald George Evelin Alban), the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Trenchard Craven Fowle, Charles Geoffrey Prior), the Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf, the India Office (Roland Tennyson peel, John Percival Gibson, Esmond Walter Rawson Lumby), and the Imperial Communications Advisory Committee (William Warren Shaw-Zambra) relates initially to the question of whether Cable and Wireless have a monopoly on international telegraphic communications in Bahrain, and whether therefore such a proposal would infringe on that.

The later correspondence discusses the wartime implications of such a communication service, particularly in regards to the question of censorship, and its possibilities as an advance warning of enemy aircraft from Arabia, which arises following the air raid on CASOC’s facility at Dhahran in 1941.

Also discussed in the volume is a proposal for an agreement between Cable and Wireless and BAPCO whereby Cable and Wireless would operate the services required by BAPCO for a fee, but it was ultimately abandoned owing to restrictions laid down by the Saudi Arab Government that wireless communication between the two companies would only be permitted provided the recipient wireless sets in Bahrain were on BAPCO sites only.Other matters discussed in the volume include:

• the discovery that CASOC were using wireless sets on board launches and tankers outside of the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia to communicate direct with the USA and whether or not this contravened international laws or regulations;
• the potential expansion of the Bahrain refinery to accommodate wartime needs, using crude oil shipped from Saudi Arabia;
• an agreement made in 1935 between the Saudi Government, Sudan Government, Eastern Telegraph Company and Cable and Wireless which granted Cable and Wireless a monopoly in Saudi Arabia;
• concerns over the Saudi Arabian Mining Syndicate and their lack of awareness and concern over the need for secrecy in wartime.

A series of file notes which were maintained as a record of the correspondence in the volume can be found at folios 186-193.