IOR/R/15/2/658

The file comprises three items:

• a copy of a telegram (f 2) from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay) to the Political Agent in Bahrain (Hugh Weightman) dated 28 May 1940. The Resident states that he is considering requesting a company of Indian infantry to be stationed in Bahrain, pending the formation of a local defence force, and asks the Political Agent if any local objection might be raised;
• the Political Agent’s reply to the Resident (f 3), dated 29 May 1940, in which the Agent suggests that the presence of such a force ‘may do more harm than good’, adding that careful explanation to the Shaikh and to the public would be required, and that mistrust and alarm might be the result;
• a typed list (f 4) of files in the War subject series (File 28). The list is similar to that given in Penelope Tuson, The records of the British Residency and agencies in the Persian Gulf (London: India Office Library & Records, 1979), with the exception that the list includes those files subsequently destroyed and thus not listed in Tuson. Some files in the list have pencil annotations in the margin reading ‘With P.A. [Political Agent] S.’ It is unclear why this file list is included in the file.