IOR/R/15/2/162

The volume concerns gun-running and piracy in the Persian Gulf.

The principal correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle); the Political Agent, Bahrain (Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch; Hugh Weightman); the Residency Agent, Sharjah; the Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf (SNOPG); and the Government of India.

The papers cover: regular reports on alleged gun-running from the Residency Agent, Sharjah to the Political Agent, Bahrain; reports of gun-running from Oman and the Trucial Coast to Persia, particularly involving Baluchis of the Batineh Coast [Al Bāţinah] in Oman and Baluchis in Persian Mekran; reports of the involvement in the trade of German ships; arms traffic on the Trucial Coast (including rifles, pistols and ammunition), particularly through Dubai (also referred to as Dibai); reports of slave trading and piracy on the Trucial Coast; and correspondence between the Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf, the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and other officials concerning the use of British naval vessels in a policing role.

The Arabic language content of the file consists of approximately thirty folios of correspondence (all with English translations) between the Residency Agent, Sharjah and the Political Agent, Bahrain.

The date range covers the correspondence in the volume; the latest dated document is an entry in the notes on folio 329 dated 5 September 1938.