IOR/R/15/2/507

The file contains correspondence related to the negotiation of new or continuing civil air agreements between British Government representatives and the Sheikhs of Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States. The main correspondents in the file are the Political Agent in Bahrain (Major Arnold Crawshaw Galloway until July 1946, thereafter Hugh Dunstan Rance), and the Political Resident of the Persian Gulf (Sir Charles Geoffrey Prior until November 1945, Sir William Rupert Hay thereafter).

The file begins with correspondence related to negotiations for the continuance of the Civil Air Agreement already in place between the British Government/British Overseas Air Corporation (BOAC) and the Government of Bahrain (see ‘File 13/1 I Aerodrome at Bahrain’ IOR/R/15/2/505 for the original agreement). Notes from a meeting that took place at the India Office in London on 9 October 1945, outline the British Government’s reasons for wishing to extend the Agreement by seven years (f 9).

Subsequent correspondence in the file relates to a number of new air routes proposed between Europe and India/Asia, which would entail increasing numbers of international aircraft passing over or refuelling on the Arab Gulf coast. These airlines included Transcontinental and Western Airlines (TWA), Air France, Morton Air Services Limited, and Dalmia Jain Airways. The Chicago Convention, an international code intended to coordinate and regulate international air travel, had been signed on 7 December 1944. Amongst its provisions was the need to accord equal rights to all aircraft flying over foreign territories. In response to the convention, the British Government had to seek the Arab coast sheikhs’ agreement to conform to the Chicago code, in order to permit airlines such as TWA and Air France the right to fly over or land in the dominions. Copies of the letters sent by Galloway to the various sheikhs are included in the file (ff 41-48), along with the sheikhs' replies (ff 61-66, 70-71, 73-80). The file also includes a printed copy of an agreement between the British and French Governments relating to air transport between British and French territories, issued on 28 February 1946 (ff 129-140), and reports of TWA's plans to fly to Bombay via Saudi Arabia (f 184).