IOR/R/15/2/753

The file comprises copies of correspondence relating to the appointment of employees of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) as special police officers, to be engaged as part of BAPCO’s oil refinery defence scheme in time of war. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle; Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior); and the Chief Local Representative for BAPCO (John S Black; Milton H Lipp).

The file includes:

• copies of correspondence between the British Legation at Tehran and the Foreign Office, relating to the drawing up of lists of surplus employees of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), who might be commissioned in time of war, and correspondence between the Political Agent and Political Resident, agreeing that similar lists should be drawn up in collaboration with BAPCO (ff 2-9);
• correspondence from the Chief Local Representative at BAPCO: nominal lists of employees in accordance with the proposed Refinery Defence Scheme (ff 10-11, f 14); lists of employees with their names and departure dates (ff 15-17); a draft copy of a note entitled ‘Defence Protection for the Bahrein Petroleum Company in the Event of Hostilities’ (ff 18-31);
• notices issued by the Political Agency, containing lists of employees to be appointed as special police officers under the Bahrain Order-in-Council and King’s Regulation No. 2 of 1938 (ff 12-13, ff 33-34, ff 35-36);
• correspondence concerning the restiveness of some British BAPCO employees after the declaration of war in Europe; a request for an official statement on the importance of oil production in war time; a request from the Political Agent for the authority to create a Volunteer Defence Force in Bahrain; correspondence between India Office and Foreign Office officials on official policy for British BAPCO employees (ff 38-52);
• correspondence over whether the appointment of special police officers from BAPCO staff represents a breach of civil contract, with the Political Agent stating that the appointments are not an order, and are ‘entirely voluntary’ (ff 53-54);
• correspondence concerning the relative importance of oil production in Bahrain, including a secret letter sent from by John Percival Gibson of the India Office to F C Starling of the Petroleum Department, dated 27 September 1939, setting the importance of Bahrain’s oil in a broader context, in terms of production quantity, quality, and its usefulness to the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force (ff 58-62).

One letter in the file is erroneously dated (f 7), being given as 8 August 1938 instead of 8 August 1939.