IOR/R/15/2/151

The file relates to the working of the Bahrain nationality and property laws, which required foreigners in Bahrain to submit lists of immovable property to the District Court. This requirement particularly affected Persian (Iranian) citizens in Bahrain, and had an impact on relations with the Government of Iran.

The correspondence is principally between the Political Agent, Bahrain (and Assistant Political Agent, Bahrain); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the India Office; and officials of the Government of Bahrain. There is also correspondence from the Government of India. Enclosures include correspondence from the Foreign Office; HM Minister, Tehran; and HM Ambassador, Iraq.

The papers cover: protests by the Government of Iran against the Bahrain property and nationality laws, July 1937, January 1938; the decision to issue a notification that the Bahrain property law applied to Iranian nationals, August-November 1937; interpretation of the Bahrain property law, January-June 1938; a report on the effect of the property law on Iranian subjects in Bahrain, some of whom decided to adopt Bahrain nationality, 25 January 1938 (folio 77); translations into English of approximately thirty letters from individuals to the Political Agent, Bahrain, reporting the ownership of property in Bahrain, with descriptions of the property concerned, January-May 1938; repetition of Iran's claim to sovereignty over Bahrain, May 1938; the need for an amending law to cover the failure to register property when required to do so, March, July-December 1938, resulting in the simultaneous publication of the amending law by the Government of Bahrain, and the Bahrain Property Law Amending Regulation, 1938 (folios 197-98); and correspondence concerning attempts to evade the provisions of the property law by making gifts of land to minors, October-November 1938. The dates given refer to main items of correspondence, and may include enclosures of an earlier date.

The Arabic language content of the file consists of approximately twelve folios, mostly copies of notices and proclamations (all with English translations) sent by the Government of Bahrain to the Political Agent, Bahrain.

The date range gives the covering dates of the main items of correspondence; the earliest document in the file is an enclosure dated 2 July 1937 on folio 8, and the last dated addition to the file is an entry in the notes dated 17 August 1939 on folio 239.