IOR/R/15/2/751

The file comprises copies of correspondence and other papers relating to the status of employees of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) (and to a lesser extent Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL) and Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited (PDQ)), in relation to Defence Regulation No. 2 of 1942, issued under the Persian Gulf States (Emergency) Order in Council (1939), which prohibited oil company employees from resigning and leaving Bahrain without the prior consent of the British political authorities. The file also contains correspondence dealing with the issue of leave entitlement for long-serving employees, arrangements for employees’ transportation to Britain for leave, and individual cases of employees found in breach of the Defence Regulation. The file is a direct chronological continuation of ‘File 28/57-III Volunteers for National Service: Conscription of Labour, etc.’ (IOR/R/15/2/750). The principal correspondents in the file are: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior; Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay); the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield); the Chief Local Representative of BAPCO (Ward P Anderson, Russell M Brown).

The file includes:

• correspondence relating to the arrival in and departure (temporary leave or permanent) from Bahrain by BAPCO employees: new employees’ signed notes of receipt of Defence Regulation No. 2 of 1942, Political Agency letters making clear that the granting of permission of leave is not permission to leave employment, employee references, exit permits for employees not wishing to remain in Bahrain after the expiration of their Foreign Service Agreement;
• correspondence concerning the low levels of morale amongst British employees at BAPCO, chiefly a result of long service without any prospect of leave to Britain (prohibited at the time by the British Government), and the prolonged separation from family – an issue exacerbated by the fact that US and Canadian BAPCO employees were permitted leave to their home countries;
• correspondence concerning the efforts of BAPCO managers, the Political Resident and Political Agent at Bahrain, to secure Government permission to have wives and families join British BAPCO employees in Bahrain, or for British BAPCO employees to take their leave in Britain;
• correspondence relating to investigations into the various transportation possibilities for conveying British BAPCO employees from Bahrain to Britain;
• correspondence concerning an instance in which a British BAPCO employee (Norman Forbes Boyle, born in Northern Ireland), having been granted leave from Bahrain, absconded back to Britain from South Africa: reports of the individual’s departure from South Africa; consultation between officials from the India Office and Home Office into the legal implications of the case, and the prospect of the employee’s arrest in Britain under the Persian Gulf Defence Regulation; preparation of a legal case against the employee, including notes from the Northern Ireland Attorney General’s office; a statement, taken from the employee, by police authorities in Belfast.