IOR/R/15/2/734

The file contains correspondence and other papers relating to emergency military commission (also referred to as the King’s Emergency Commission), and applications made by employees of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), California-Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC) and the Government of Bahrain, for emergency military commission. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield); the Chief Local Representative of BAPCO (Ward P Anderson); and Doctor B S Chowdhury, Medical Officer at the BAPCO Awali Camp.

The file includes:

• a printed copy of a despatch entitled Overseas man-power committee: volunteers from abroad, issued by the Foreign Office and dated 26 March 1942 (ff 17-18) which encloses a printed copy of a memorandum on Offers of service by British subjects living in foreign countries (ff 19-26);
• a letter from the Political Agent at Bahrain to the Chief Local Representative for BAPCO, dated 8 May 1942, enclosing Defence Regulation No. 2 of 1942, dated 8 May 1942, which stipulates that employees in undertakings whose work is deemed essential to the prosecution of war, may not leave their employment without prior consent from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (ff 12-14);
• applications from individuals (employed by BAPCO, CASOC and the Government of India), with copies of testimonials, work records, etc., who are seeking commission with the military, including the BAPCO Medical Officer, B S Chowdhury, whose application constitutes a large portion of the file’s correspondence.