IOR/R/15/2/522

The file’s contents relate to a request from Imperial Airways Limited for a change in the level of customs duty payable on goods brought into Bahrain by their aircraft, which, they argue, is unreasonably high. The principal correspondents in the file are unnamed representatives of Imperial Airways Limited, the Bahrain Political Agent, Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch, and the Political Resident, Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard William Craven Fowle.

The first part of the file is chiefly comprised of correspondence from Imperial Airways Limited (ff 3-10), who raise an objection to the high rates of duty paid on air freight at Bahrain, and recommending an adjusted duty based on the declared value of the goods plus a third of the air freightage. The second part of the file comprises discussion between the Bahrain Political Agent and Political Resident, in concert with officials from the India Office and Air Ministry, on the Imperial Airways request. Reference is made to the ruler of Bahrain, Sheikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah’s assent to the change (f 31). The file includes a copy of an official notice from the Customs House in Bahrain, dated 14 July 1934, announcing the agreed changes to the air freight customs duty at Bahrain (f 29).