IOR/R/15/2/613

The file comprises correspondence and other papers relating to tensions arising between the Muslim and Sikh communities of Bahrain and Qatar, in response to the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947. The tensions referred to in the file are chiefly between Indian/Pakistani employees of Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL), operating the oil concession in Qatar. The principal correspondents in the file are the Political Agent in Bahrain, Cornelius Pelly, and the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Sir William Rupert Hay.

The file includes: a letter from Basil Henry le Riolet Lermitte, Manager for PCL, to the Political Agent at Bahrain, dated 22 January 1948, reporting on tensions between Sikh and Muslim PCL employees, and enquiring if Special Police Constables can be employed by PCL, similar to those employed by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) in Bahrain (f 3); proposed searches of PCL employees for weapons, dismissal and/or departure of Sikh PCL employees (ff 4-7); correspondence between the Political Resident and H Dayal of the Ministry of External Affairs and Commonwealth Relations in New Delhi, 1948, relating to ‘communal relations’ in Bahrain and the wider Gulf region, with reference to Sikh-Muslim tensions, and anti-Jewish riots in Bahrain in December 1947 (ff 10-12); the text (typewritten draft and printed) of a notice entitled Kings Regulations under Article 83 of “The Qatar Order in Council, 1939” No.1 of 1948: Special Police Officers’ Regulations, dated 3 February 1948 and signed by Hay (ff 13-14, 16).