IOR/R/15/2/523

The file contains correspondence relating to the construction by the United States of an airfield at Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. The majority of the correspondence in the file was received by rather than sent from the Political Agency in Bahrain. Correspondence comes from the Political Residency, officials at the India and Foreign Offices, the Secretary of State for India, and the British Legation at Jedda.

Correspondence from mid-1944 to mid-1945 documents the United States Air Force’s desire to construct an airfield capable of accommodating ‘very heavy bombers’ at Dhahran, in order to maintain military supply lines to the Far East theatre of war. This is in response to Britain’s airfield at Muharraq in Bahrain being inadequate for the use of larger aircraft, to the concern of British officials. Details of the extent of the American airfield, construction of which began in August 1945, are given in correspondence from the Political Agent to the Political Resident (ff 14-15). A confidential telegram from the British Legation at Jedda confirms an agreement reached between the United States Army Air Force and the Saudi Government for the construction of the airfield (f 18).

Post-war correspondence, covering the period late-1945 to 1947 documents the use of the Dhahran airfield for civil aviation purposes. This includes British Overseas Airways Corporation’s (BOAC) negotiations with the United States to use Dhahran for their Avro 688 Tudor II aircraft, being introduced on the air route to India, and which are too heavy to land at Muharraq (f 26). Correspondence between Ministry of Civil Aviation and India Office officials in late 1946 discusses the redevelopment of Muharraq to accommodate heavy aircraft, though acknowledging that there would be ‘difficulty in persuading the Treasury’ of such a project (f 31).