IOR/R/15/2/278

The file’s contents concern the withdrawal of Royal Air Force (RAF) levies from the RAF bases at Bahrain and Sharjah in response to the end of the Second World War, and subsequent arrangements to replace the levies with guards to maintain security at these bases. The principal correspondents in the file are the Political Agent in Bahrain (Cornelius James Pelly until October 1945, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Crawshaw Galloway from October 1945 to March 1947, and Captain Hugh Dunstan Rance (acting) from July 1946); the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior until May 1946, Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay thereafter); and the Air Staff Liaison Officer at Bahrain (Wing Commander PRW Williams). Topics covered in the file include: discussions over the level of security to be maintained at both Bahrain and Sharjah; the relative merits of maintaining ‘Assyrian’ (Iraqi) guards compared to locally recruited guards or guards from Baluchistan; problems recruiting guards in Bahrain, due to a shortage of suitable manpower; instances of the theft of cabling equipment at Sharjah, allegedly by the Shaikh of Sharjah’s own men, and correspondence with the Sultan bin Saqr, the Shaikh of Sharjah, warning that the cost of future thefts would be deducted from his guards’ pay.