IOR/R/15/2/153

The file concerns Arabic language broadcasting by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Bahrain. The papers also cover the impact of broadcasting in the region generally, particularly Kuwait, Muscat, and Sharjah.

The correspondence is mainly between the Political Agent, Bahrain; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the India Office; the Political Agent, Kuwait; and the Political Agent and Consul, Muscat. There are also regular reports from the Committee of Radio Listeners, Bahrain; and a small amount of correspondence with members of local ruling families and the Residency Agent, Sharjah. India Office correspondence encloses a significant amount of correspondence from the BBC, much of it from Sigmar Hillelson, Assistant Director of Overseas Intelligence.

The papers cover: reports of the Committee of Radio Listeners, Bahrain (also referred to as the London BBC Committee, composed of members of the ruling family and prominent Bahraini citizens), which reported on wireless reception, content (e.g. music, religion), and scheduling of programmes; fortnightly news reports issued by the Political Agents at Bahrain, Kuwait, and Muscat, which reported on (for instance) the affairs of the ruling families, international news, oil, local politics, and official visits; correspondence from the BBC, including despatch of bulletins of programmes to the region, requests for telegraphed news reports from the Gulf, report entitled 'The Arabic Broadcasts', (folios 127-144), coverage of Id [Eid] and Ramadhan [Ramadan], responses to the Committee of Radio Listeners, Bahrain, wireless reception, timing and content of news broadcasts, broadcast of English lessons for Arabic students of English, and broadcast of talks on the rise and spread of Arabic culture; and correspondence concerning broadcasts by Baghdad radio, which had included criticism of conditions in Bahrain, 'violent anti-British propaganda', and 'virulent attacks' on Kuwait, February - March 1939. The dates given refer to main items of correspondence, and may include enclosures of an earlier date.

There are approximately twenty folios of correspondence in Arabic, most of it between the Committee of Radio Listeners, Bahrain and the Political Agency, Bahrain.