IOR/R/15/2/607

The file comprises correspondence relating to the lifting of travel restrictions imposed in 1944 by the British authorities in the Gulf on three members of the Darwish family from Qatar – Jasim bin Darwish, Abdulla bin Darwish and Abdur-Rahman bin Darwish. Correspondents in the file include the Political Agent at Bahrain, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnold Crawshaw Galloway, the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, the Manager of Petroleum Concessions Limited, Ernest Vincent Packer, and the Ruler of Qatar, Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī.

The file includes:

• between January and May 1946, Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī’s repeated requests to the Bahrain Political Agent for the lifting of the Darwish travel ban;
• in communication with the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the Bahrain Political Agent’s decision to lift the travel ban in May 1946 (f 13, f 15);
• the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Salmān bin Ḥamad Āl Khalīfah’s determination, communicated to the Bahrain Political Agent through the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Belgrave), to not permit the Darwish brothers to return to Bahrain, on account of their previous suspected involvement in smuggling, which the Adviser provides unsubstantiated evidence of;
• Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Jāsim Āl Thānī’s protest and insistence that the Darwish brothers be allowed to travel to Bahrain;
• reports in May 1946 that Abdur-Rahman bin Darwish has been taken to the American Mission Hospital in Bahrain, and the Political Agent’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding this violation of the travel ban, followed by a request from Packer to the Political Agent in August 1946 that Abdur-Rahman be allowed to travel to Bahrain to attend the American Hospital for dental treatment.