IOR/R/15/2/702

The file comprises correspondence and other papers relating to enemy submarine activity in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman throughout the War. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Reginald George Evelin William Alban; Edward Birkbeck Wakefield; Major Tom Hickinbotham); the Political Officer on the Trucial Coast (POTC: Captain Roy Douglas Metcalfe; Captain Maurice O’Connor Tandy); and the Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf (SNOPG: Commodore Cosmo Moray Graham; Commodore Charles Ford Hammill).

The file includes:

• various reports of sightings of enemy submarines (f 4, f 14, ff 48-52);
• the ramming and sinking of the Italian submarine Galvani by HMS Falmouth, off the Oman coast in June 1940 (f 2);
• correspondence and memoranda relating to the import from India into Bahrain and the Trucial Coast of distilled water, which might indicate the possible presence in the area of an enemy submarine (distilled water being required for repairs to submarine batteries) (ff 5-10). Government of India correspondence raises concerns over distilled water imports into Bahrain by Khalil bin Ebrahim Kanoo [Khalīl Ibrāhīm Kānū], though the Political Agent writes that Kanoo imports his water for car servicing and is above suspicion (ff 16-17). Further imports of distilled water into Bahrain and the Trucial Coast are closely monitored (ff 19-24, f 30);
• reports of a heavy explosion off the coast of Kalba in January 1941, with fresh oil seen on the sea shortly thereafter (ff 25-26);
• a note on enemy submarine activity off the Mekran [Makran] coast, prepared by H K Dawson Shepherd of the Combined Intelligence Centre Iraq (CICI), dated 14 February 1943, with details on: German and Japanese interests in Persia; German agents in Persia; reports of a German submarine landing arms at Jask; the possibility of U-Boats making contact with the Persian coast (ff 33-34);
• investigation into the background of a resident of Khor Fakkan [Khawr Fakkān] in November 1943, believed to have pro-Axis sympathies, and whose presence at Khor Fakkan is considered suspicious in light of the sinking of a submarine off the coast of Khor Fakkan (f 37). A report by the POTC reveals that no pro-Axis connections or suspicious activities have been discovered (ff 35-36, f 43);
• a request by the SNOPG, 17 November 1943, to investigate the Danish employees of a fish canning factory at Bandar Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās], some of whom may hold pro-German sympathies (f 39).