IOR/R/15/2/713

The file’s papers relate to the appointment and activities of the Security Officer (initially referred to as a Staff Officer Intelligence) in the Persian Gulf. The principal correspondents in the file are the Security Officer at Bahrain (Captain C G Campbell) and the Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Reginald George Evelin William Alban; Edward Birkbeck Wakefield; Major Tom Hickinbotham).

The file includes:

• correspondence dated early 1941 relating to the appointment of Lieutenant-Colonel G W Manson as Staff Officer Intelligence at Bahrain, including details of his background, movements and tasks, and correspondence relating to secret questionnaires to be despatched to various places around the Persian Gulf, which are too sensitive to be sent by normal mail (ff 3-4);
• copies of correspondence and directives, dated from 1943, issued by PAIFORCE [Persia and Iraq Force], relating to the post of Security Control Officer responsible for the sea and air ports of the Persian Gulf, with details of the role’s remit, responsibilities and duties (ff 20-21, ff 26-30, ff 92-94);
• copies of various reports prepared by the Security Officer, issued from January 1944 on a fortnightly basis, and covering: a) port security (including security ID discs for port labourers, details of the departure and arrival of dhows; ff 35-37 onwards); b) security of oil installations (including assessments of security checkpoints, security precautions, storage of explosives, reports of suspected incidents of sabotage, employee morale, including reports of strikes, trade unionism, suspected subversive activities, and occasional ‘test periods of tension’; ff 41-48 onwards);
• PAIFORCE instructions for the anti-locust campaign in Saudi Arabia, 1943-44, dated 20 April 1944 (ff 89-90), and the later cancellation of the instructions in July 1944 (f 114);
• an application for work from Abdul Aziz Shamlan, dated 20 September 1944, an interpreter, with references enclosed from the Defence Officer in the Persian Gulf (Major H T Hewitt) and staff at the Office of the Air Liaison Officer, Bahrain, and a letter from the Political Agent to the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, asking for information on Shamlan (ff 121-126);
• a letter from the Security Officer, Bahrain, to the Political Agent, dated 23 November 1944, announcing that orders have been received for the permanent closure of the Security Office from 6pm that day (f 146).