IOR/R/15/2/676

The file comprises correspondence relating to intelligence assessments made of a host of individuals whose background, actions, or suspected pro-Axis Power sympathies prompt British officials to pursue further enquiries into them. Principal correspondents in the file include members of the intelligence services, including the British Combined Intelligence Centre, Iraq and Iran (CICI), and the Middle East Intelligence Centre in Cairo (MICE), who compiled intelligence reports; the Political Agent at Bahrain, to whom intelligence reports were sent; and the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, Charles Dalrymple-Belgrave, who provided assistance to the Political Agent with the intelligence gathering of individuals either in or applying to enter Bahrain.

The file includes correspondence, dated from July 1942 onward, relating to the case of Haji Muhammad Tayeb Khonji [Ḥājjī Muḥammad Ṭayyib Khunjī; the spelling Khunji is also used in the file] of Bahrain, and his repeated attempts to obtain permission for his two sons, registered as Persian subjects, to enter Bahrain. Intelligence papers and correspondence between the Political Agent at Bahrain and the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain suggest that the Khonji family was reputed to have pro-Axis sympathies and a preference for a Persian regime in Bahrain. It is also noted that one of the two sons has a German wife, and that both sons have both spent time in Japan (f 29, f 44, f 86). Correspondence dated 1944 between the Political Agent and Adviser to Government questions whether the legal authority exists to continue to prevent Khonji’s sons from entering Bahrain (ff 106-107). In a letter to the Political Agent, dated 10 May 1944, the Adviser to Government writes that the Ruler of Bahrain is prepared to waive the ban on the two sons coming to Bahrain (f 115). Subsequent correspondence between British officials, including the Security Officer in Bahrain, indicate the close surveillance under which the Khonji family members are placed in Bahrain, which includes having the men followed by private detectives (f 133, f 137). The file also includes correspondence from early 1945 relating to Abdur Razzaq Khonji’s [‘Abd al-Razzāq Khunjī’s] application to travel to the United States.

In addition, the file covers/includes the following:

• British Government correspondence and circulars relating to ongoing changes to the structure and co-ordination of British intelligence services in the Middle East, Iran and India (f 4, f 16, f 45, f 76)
• A 1939 intelligence report from MICE, reporting that the Head of the Secret Macedonian Committee is travelling to Iraq under German instructions to foment trouble (ff 2-3)
• A note on suspected Axis Power supporters in Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh] (f 25)
• A 1942 request from the Ministry of the Interior at Baghdad, to the Political Agent at Bahrain, for information about a Bahraini, required as part of the vetting process for civilian employees; enclosed with the Adviser to Government’s reply to the request is a passport photograph of the individual under investigation (ff 67-70)
• Security clearance for M Gunn, Manager of the Eastern Bank in Bahrain, to send correspondence marked ‘most secret’ (ff 72-73)
• Intelligence enquiries into the background and political sympathies of the Fakhroo family, in the wake of the contents of intercepted correspondence from Yusuf Abdul Rahman Fakhroo [Yūsuf ‘Abd al-Raḥmān Fakhroo], dated November 1942 (ff 78-84).