IOR/R/15/2/693

The file contains correspondence and other papers relating to investigations made by the Political Agency in Bahrain, the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC), the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) and British Government departments, into CASOC and BAPCO employees suspected of having anti-British and pro-Axis sympathies, or displaying other instances of irregular behaviour.

The file includes:

• lists of CASOC employees, sent by Floyd William Ohliger and C A Rodstrom of CASOC, to the Political Agent, dated June to July 1940 (ff 4-7, ff 8-11, ff 12-13, f 20);
• correspondence from June to October 1940, between Ohliger and the Political Agent or Assistant Political Agent, relating to a CASOC employee known to have expressed pro-Nazi sympathies prior to the war (f 14), and his subsequent repatriation to the USA on ‘medical grounds’ (f 31) with a request that he be kept under observation on the passage back to the United States (f 32);
• a letter from the Passport Officer at Bahrain, dated June 1940, containing information on four ‘Zubairies’ [Iraqis] employed by CASOC at Alkhobar [Al-Khubar], who are known to hold anti-British views (ff 15-16);
• correspondence from June and July 1940 between the Intelligence Centre of the Home Department, Government of India, and the Political Agency, relating to a piece of intercepted post addressed to a BAPCO employee, containing a Croat newspaper carrying a pro-German article (f 21, f 27);
• 1941-1942 correspondence between the Political Agent and others, including the Collector of Karachi, Sidney Ridley, relating to the case of an American BAPCO employee who married an Anglo-Indian woman while convalescing from an illness in India, and who subsequently returned to Bahrain and ceased paying maintenance to his wife, whom he left behind in Bombay. Correspondence includes: background information of the American and his family (ff 36-37); the circumstances surrounding his marriage (49-51), including a handwritten copy of his marriage certificate (f 46); Agency notes regarding Indian Divorce Law and its applicability in Bahrain (ff 22-26);
• correspondence relating to a Caltex employee at Karachi bound for Bahrain, known to be drinking and fraternising with military and naval servicemen (ff 52-53).