IOR/R/15/2/741

The file comprises correspondence associated with a miscellaneous assortment of matters arising in wartime Bahrain:

• an enquiry from the Government of India in November 1942, for 2,600 mother of pearl shells, which are required by the Superintendent at the Mathematical Instrument Office in Calcutta [Kolkata], including: enquiries into the availability of the shells at Bahrain and on the Trucial Coast; the nature of the ‘Sadaify’ shells required; Indian demand for mother of pearl (ff 2-11, f 29);
• proposals to bring criminal charges against a Bahrain trader, accused of undersupplying coral towards the construction of a jetty for the Royal Navy at Jeddah [Jiddah] Island, including statements made by the trader, and the dropping of claims after the trader withdrew his financial claims (ff 12-18, f 23, ff 30-32);
• correspondence dated from March 1943 relating to arrangements for Major S Hills of the Royal Engineers, to rent a house owned by Shaikh Abdullah bin Hamad [‘Abdullāh bin Ḥamad Āl Khalīfah] (ff 19-22, ff 24-28);
• correspondence dated September 1944 relating to delays in the despatch of a Government telegram, a result of human error at the Cable and Wireless office in Bahrain (ff 41-47);
• correspondence dated September 1944 relating to: an aeroplane accident at Muharraq, arrangements for Major Dalton of the United States Air Training Corps to meet the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Salmān bin Ḥamad Āl Khalīfah, flying of the United States flag at Muharraq (ff 51-57);
• correspondence and witness statements relating to a drunken brawl in November 1944, involving an oil worker (ff 59-68);

The file also includes: sale of Naafi (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) cigarettes to civilians (f 33); alcohol imports at the Bahrain Petroleum Company (ff 34-36); PAIFORCE (Persia and Iraq Force) telegrams concerning anti-locust operations (ff 38-39); a photograph of Shaikh Muḥammad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah in the Egyptian newspaper Bourse Egyptienne (ff 49-50); a request for mineral analysis of a rock collected at Jabal Akjdar, Oman (ff 69-70).

The title on the file cover originally read ’Miscellaneous war requirements’. However, the word ‘requirements’ was struck through in blue pencil, possibly while the file was open.