IOR/R/15/2/728

The file, while entitled ‘Defence of Qatar’, chiefly concerns the issue of six rifles and 1,200 rounds of small arms ammunition (SAA) to British personnel employed by Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL) in Qatar during the war. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman; Major Reginald George Evelin William Alban) and the Manager of PCL at Bahrain (Ernest Vincent Packer).

The file includes:

• correspondence relating to a report, entitled an ‘Appreciation of the Defence of Qatar against tribal attack and sabotage’ prepared by staff at Air HQ in Iraq, and sent to the Political Resident on 6 February 1939 (f 2). A copy of the report is not included in the file, however, the Political Agent at Bahrain’s comments on the report are (ff 3-5);
• a copy of a report prepared by the Air Liaison Officer at Bahrain (R Coates) in July 1939, being a reconnaissance of possible landing grounds and flying boat mooring areas at Dohat-es-Zekrit [Zikrīt] (ff 11-12);
• correspondence dated September 1939, relating to protection for British personnel working on the Qatar oil field, and a request by the Political Agent at Bahrain to the Air Officer Commanding at Bahrain, for six rifles and SAA to be loaned to PCL’s British employees in Qatar (ff 13-19). Later correspondence, dated June and July 1941, details the eventual receipt of the rifles and ammunition by PCL (f 21, f 26), a rifle register (f 28), and a note written by the PCL Manager, describing the poor condition of the rifles (f 32);
• correspondence dated July 1939, relating to PCL’s plans to close down their operations in Qatar and the Trucial Coast, including: copies of letters from the Political Agent in Bahrain to the Rulers of Qatar and the Trucial Coast, informing them of PCL’s closure of operations (ff 47-54); the return of the six rifles and ammunition to the Defence Officer in the Persian Gulf (Major H T Hewitt), the latter’s complaint at the poor condition of the rifles, and the PCL Manager’s response that the rifles had been received in poor condition (ff 57-59).