IOR/R/15/2/760

The file comprises copies of correspondence concerning arrangements for wireless radio communications at Bahrain during wartime. Correspondents include: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle); representatives of the India Office (John Percival Gibson), the Admiralty (N J Margetts), the Air Ministry (M H Ely), and the Foreign Office (H M Eyres); the Chairman of Cable & Wireless Limited.

The file includes:

• correspondence concerning the provision of a twenty-four-hour radio watch by the Cable & Wireless office at Bahrain in the event of war, including: correspondence between the India Office, Admiralty, Air Ministry, the Foreign Office, and Cable & Wireless head office in London, concerning the costs and requirements for emergency radio watches at Bahrain (ff 2-31, ff 41-44);
• correspondence relating to the practicalities of communication between Jedda and the outside world during war, including: a demi-official letter written by His Majesty’s Minister at Jedda, Reader William Bullard, on the technical practicalities of communications, including the use of wireless transmissions inside Saudi Arabia, and possible use of the California-Arabian Standard Oil Company’s (CASOC) wireless telephone network (ff 33-39);
• a letter from the India Office to the British Consul (meaning Political Agent) at Bahrain, dated 11 September 1939, asking whether Bahrain can receive BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) short wave bulletins, and Reuter transmissions either on short wave or by cable (f 45).