IOR/R/15/2/557

The volume comprises correspondence between the Political Agent at Bahrain (Percy Gordon Loch), the Officer-in-Charge of the Bahrain Branch of Cable and Wireless Limited (Cecil Bottomley), the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave), the Shaikh of Bahrain (Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah) and other representatives of Cable and Wireless Limited, formerly Imperial and International Communications Limited (Percy E Bunker, Norman Luke Penfold, John Cuthbert Denison-Pender, Fred W Humphrey).

The principal topic of discussion within the volume is Cable and Wireless Limited’s decision to expand their telegraph station and services in Bahrain by connecting the telephone lines on the Island to the submarine cables through an extension from the Bushire-Henjam cable to Bahrain. The correspondence discusses the work required in order to undertake this and the new site required by Cable and Wireless to erect a new cable house and more powerful telegraph mast. The volume concludes with the sale of land to Cable and Wireless for a cable house and the signing of a lease to rent the land surrounding the new cable house in order to ensure that there would be no interference by buildings in the immediate area surrounding the new mast. A copy of the signed agreement in Arabic and English can be found at folios 209-211.

Other matters discussed in the volume include:

• Clarification regarding the land at Houra [Hoora], Bahrain occupied by Imperial and International Communications Limited telegraph station, which had been gifted by the late Shaikh of Bahrain (ʻIsá ibn ʻAlī Āl Khalīfah) to the British Government. Enclosed with the correspondence is a copy of the statement issued by the Shaikh in 1912 regarding the gift (folio 8);
• An enquiry from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Trenchard Craven William Fowle) regarding the value of telegrams despatched from Bahrain, 1925-1934, as he wished to determine whether the opening of an oil field in a country increased the revenue of its wireless station;
• Correspondence regarding the decision by Cable and Wireless to close the telegraph station at Henjam and to hand over responsibility for the Jask [Damāgheh-ye Jāsk] to Chahbar [Chabahar] and Gwadar landline to the Persian Government.

A series of file notes which were maintained as a record of the correspondence in the volume can be found at folios 222-242.