IOR/R/15/2/146

The file concerns the transhipment of cargo in Bahrain (also referred to as Bahrein) territorial waters, the collection by Bahrain of transit dues on cargoes, and relations between Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Britain.

The correspondence is principally between the Political Agent, Bahrain (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle); and the India Office. There is also correspondence from Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, Adviser to the Government of Bahrain; and from Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Company, and the Mesopotamia Persia Corporation, agents of the British India Steam Navigation Company Limited. Enclosed correspondence from the Political Resident to the Political Agent, Bahrain includes correspondence from HM Minister, Jedda [Jeddah]; the Government of India; the Foreign Office; and the Mercantile Marine Department, Board of Trade.

The papers cover: references to the incident concerning the imposition by Bahrain of transit dues on the SS Ahmedi in 1932; the effect of the transit dues on Saudi Arabia, and the attitude of its ruler, Ibn Saud (also referred to as Bin Saud) [Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd]; the effect of the transit dues on British shipping companies; the possibility that Saudi Arabia might cut out Bahrain by developing Ras Tanurah [Ra’s Tanūrah] as a commercial port, April 1933 - December 1934 (including a rough sketch of the pier at Ras Tanurah from the air, folio 273); a report that Anglo-Persian Oil Company were negotiating with Bin Saud to send shipments of oil direct from Doha to Ras Tanurah, April 1933; and reports of the SS Fagervich, which had been chartered to transport rice direct from Rangoon to Ras Tanurah, September 1933. (The dates given refer to main items of correspondence, and may include enclosures of an earlier date.)

The date range gives the covering dates of the main run of correspondence; however, the earliest dated document in the file is a copy of a letter dated 1 February 1933 on folio 10.

The Arabic content of the file consists of two folios only: two copies of a letter from Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah [Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah], Ruler of Bahrain to Shaikh Abdullah bin Jiluwi [‘Abdullāh bin Jilūwī], Amir of Hasa (al-Aḥsā’).