IOR/R/15/2/722

The file comprises correspondence and papers produced in response to Britain’s involvement in the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, which began on 25 August 1941. The file’s principal correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior), the Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Reginald George Evelin William Alban), and the Assistant Political Agent at Bahrain (Captain Roy Douglas Metcalfe).

The file includes:

• information from the Political Resident to the Political Agents in the Gulf, dated 26 August 1941, on the response amongst the Persian community in Bahrain to events in Iran, with instruction to the Government of Bahrain that Persian schools in Bahrain should remain open (ff 2-4);
• instructions from the Political Resident to the Political Agents in the Gulf, dated 2 September 1941, to keep watch on dhows arriving from the Iranian coast, lest they be harbouring escaping Axis nationals or Iraqi/Palestinian rebels (ff 6-8). The Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave) reports that Iranian nationals were intercepted at Bahrain on a vessel coming from Qattar [Qatar] (ff 9-10). A subsequent report from the Political Resident, dated 24 September 1941, suggests that more than one hundred Germans are believed to have fled southwards from Tehran, some of whom may end up in the Persian Gulf (ff 21-24);
• a demi-official letter from the Assistant Political Agent at Bahrain to the Political Resident, dated 4 September 1941, related to an apparent relaxation of travel restrictions for Iranians in Bahrain, with a suggestion that there are ‘16,000 foreigners’ now in Bahrain (ff 12-13);
• a report from the Residency Agent at Sharjah of a letter containing anti-British sentiment posted on the gates of the market in Dubai, signed by ‘a number of sacrificing volunteers’. The report encloses draft and final English translations of the letter, as well as a transcribed copy of the Arabic (ff 15-18);
• a report from the British Consul at Bushire, dated 30 September 1941, of the declaration of martial law in Shiraz (f 25);
• a copy of the text of the Treaty of Alliance, with annexes, signed between Iran, the USSR and Britain on 29 January 1942 (ff 32-36);
• the file notes contain a list of detailed points discussed between the Assistant Political Agent and the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain on 26 September 1941, arising from the Anglo-Soviet invasion (arrest and surveillance of suspects; applications from Iranians for Bahrain nationality; imports and exports to/from Iran; export of currency; travel documents; mail; arms and ammunition) (ff 37-40).