IOR/R/15/2/764

The file includes letters, telegrams and other papers relating to messages of support received by British Government officials in the Gulf, from the Rulers of Bahrain, Dubai and Sharjah, and from the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), in response to events in Europe that resulted in Britain’s declaration of war against Germany on 1 September 1939. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Hugh Weightman); the Ruler of Bahrain (Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah).

The file includes:

• correspondence between the Political Resident (Lieutenant-Colonel Trenchard Craven William Fowle) and Political Agent at Bahrain over the possibility of the Ruler of Bahrain making a gift to the British Government towards the defence of the empire, referred to by the Resident as the ‘Imperial Defence’ (ff 2-5);
• correspondence dated 29 August 1939, exchanged between the British Government and BAPCO officials, the former giving thanks for the latter’s offer of support and cooperation towards the British Government (ff 7-8);
• messages from various Persian Gulf rulers, made to British officials from 1 September 1939 onwards, offering both moral and material support at the start of the war, including: a telegram and letters from the Ruler of Bahrain, Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah, the last of these letters offering a sum of £30,000 to the British Government towards the costs of war (ff 9-10, f 30, ff 32-33); a telegram and a letter from the Ruler of Dubai [Shaikh Sa‘id bin Maktūm Āl Maktūm] (f 17, ff 19-20); a telegram and a letter from the Ruler of Sharjah [Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr Āl Qāsim] (f 24, ff 28-29);
• letters of thanks sent by British Government officials to the various rulers of the Persian Gulf, in response to their offers of support, including a telegram from the Viceroy of India (Victor Alexander John Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow) giving personal thanks to the Ruler of Bahrain for his gift of £30,000 to the British Government (f 45).