IOR/R/15/2/81

The file concerns the activities of the Arabian Mission (the papers from 1922 refer to the American Mission) in Bahrain (also spelled Bahrein), including the work of the Mason Memorial Hospital (for male patients) in Bahrain.

The correspondence is mainly between the Political Agent, Bahrain; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; and staff of the American Mission, particularly Dr Paul Wilberforce Harrison. Other correspondents include the High Commissioner for Iraq (Major-General Sir Percy Zachariah Cox); Bin Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] (Sultan of Najd, later King of Najd and Hejaz); and Charles Dalrymple Belgrave (Adviser to the Government of Bahrain). Enclosures to correspondence from the Political Residency include correspondence between the Residency and the Government of India, the British Government, and other British officials in the region.

The main topics covered in the correspondence are:

• alleged anti-British attitudes of members of the Mission staff, particularly Dr Harrison;
• the activities of the Mission in the Persian Gulf, especially in Hasa (also spelled Hassa) and Najd, including correspondence between the Political Agent, Bahrain and Bin Saud;
• medical and political intelligence concerning the Trucial Coast (especially Abu Dhubbi [Abu Dhabi] and Debai [Dubai]) and Oman sent by Dr Harrison to the Political Agent, Bahrain (George Alexander Gavin Mungavin, whose name is spelled 'Mon Gavin' by Harrison), April - May 1918 (folios 12-17);
• alleged Christian proselytizing by the Mission (e.g. folios 28 and 78);
• acquisition of land in Bahrain for use by the Mission (e.g. folio 34);
• the presence of female missionaries in Najd (e.g. folios 62, 110, 160);
• the exemption of the Mission from the payment of customs duty (e.g. folios 133, 135, 187);
• discussion of a report by the Mission on medical conditions in Bahrain, February 1927 (folios 178-185);
• preparation of an article on the history of the American Mission since 1905, produced as part of a revision of the Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf, January - March 1929 (folios 189-199);
• demi-official letter from Charles Dalrymple Belgrave to Captain Charles Geoffrey Prior, Political Agent, Bahrain, dated 22 December 1929, describing the feelings of the Bahraini people toward the American Mission (folio 201).

The Arabic content of the file consists of letters to Shaikh Abdullah bin Jasim Al Thani [‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī], Ruler of Qatar (folios 30v and 32v), and correspondence between the Political Agent, Bahrain and Bin Saud (ff 55, 60, 63, 65).