IOR/R/15/2/128

The volume contains correspondence and papers relating to the finances of the Bahrain Government, and British officials' efforts to impose reforms on the Bahrain state finances.

Many of the letters in the volume are discussions between the Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Clive Daly until September 1926, thereafter Colonel Cyril Barrett) and the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Trevor until April 1924, thereafter Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Prideaux), about what needed to be done to regulate expenditure and generate income in Bahrain, with particular reference to the financial allowances given to members of the Al Khalifa family (for example folios 3-8, 27-29). The first monthly balance sheets, drawn up by Daly in December 1923, are enclosed (folios 32-38).

A large portion of the file is made up of monthly accounts sheets (including Bahrain civil lists), sent by Eastern Bank Limited to the Political Agent (January 1924 accounts at folios 46-58, and subsequent months distributed throughout the volume). Correspondence from Claude de Grenier, Director of the Bahrain Customs House, enclosing customs house receipts and expenditure also figure prominently (for example, folios 80-81, 98-100). Notes on the annual Bahrain state budget for the Hijri years 1343 to 1346 (1924-1927), with balance sheets prepared by Daly (and later, Charles Dalrymple Belgrave) are also included in the file (folios 104-13, 187-90, 196-206, 231-46).

The file also contains correspondence from Prideaux to the Secretary of the Political Department at the India Office in Whitehall, dated 15 September 1925, indicating that Prideaux has found a man (Belgrave) qualified to work as a financial advisor to the Government of Bahrain (folios 168-69, 172B-175).