IOR/R/15/2/142

The volume contains correspondence concerning Qatar affairs, particularly the supply of arms and ammunition to Shaikh Abdullah bin Qasim al Thani, the Ruler of Qatar [‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī].

The principal correspondents are the Political Agent, Bahrain; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; Shaikh Abdullah; HM Minister of State, Cairo; Ernest Vincent Packer, Manager, Petroleum Concessions Limited, and Petroleum Concessions (Qatar) Limited; other British officials in the region; and representatives of the Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited (BAPCO), the Eastern Bank Limited, and the Government of Bahrain.

The papers cover: the granting of permission to Shaikh Abdullah to import 450 rifles, .303 bore, with 225,000 rounds of ammunition, and fifty Mauser rifles, 7.9 mm bore, with 25,000 rounds of ammunition, December 1937 - March 1939 (folios 6-104); a request by Shaikh Abdullah for the supply of armoured cars fitted with machine guns, July 1938 - July 1939 (folios 81-109); reports on Qatar affairs from Ernest Vincent Packer, Petroleum Concessions Limited, Bahrain, and by the Political Agent, Bahrain (including relations between Qatar and Bahrain, and correspondence concerning the appointment by Shaikh Abdullah of an Iraqi adviser on oil affairs), December 1939 - November 1941 (folios 115-157); and a further request by Shaikh Abdullah for machine guns and ammunition, the resulting dispatch to the Gulf of six captured Breda machine guns and ammunition, and the Political Resident's decision that the machine guns should be distributed equally between the Shaikhs of Qatar, Dubai, and Sharjah, 'the importance of Qatar's defence having diminished owing to the closure of oil operations, while others now have important R.A.F. installations in their Shaikhdoms' (folio 199), July 1942 - October 1943 (folios 159-212).

The Arabic language content of the file consists of approximately thirty folios of correspondence (with translations into English) between the Political Agent, Bahrain, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Ruler of Qatar.