IOR/R/15/2/516

The volume is a continuation of ‘File 13/7 Civil Air Agreement’ (IOR/R/15/2/515), and contains correspondence relating to the air agreements and navigation regulations in place at the aerodromes on the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf, and chiefly at Muharraq in Bahrain. The principal correspondents in the file are Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle, the Political Agent at Bahrain, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, and the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, Charles Dalrymple Belgrave.

The subjects covered by the volume are:

• The issue of certificates of ‘special authorisation’ (of which there are examples at ff 22-24) for Imperial Airways aircraft at Muharraq;
• Discussion between British officials in the Gulf, and at the India Office and Air Ministry in London, on the best approach to obtain exemption from fuel duty for Imperial Airways aircraft;
• Punishment for the unauthorised landing of foreign aircraft at aerodromes in Kuwait, Bahrain and Muscat, including the question of fines and practicality of imposing prison sentence (draft regulations on ff 86, 120-122);
• The question of policing, and the financing of policing, at Muharraq aerodrome, in the light of increased numbers of aircraft landing each week;
• An outbreak of smallpox at Sharjah, addressing matters including: quarantine at the Sharjah aerodrome, the wider implications of diseases and air travel, a report on the matter produced by the Office of International d’Hygiene Publique, the situation in relation to the International Sanitary Convention, and questions over whether there is a lack of an epidemiological information service in the Gulf region.