IOR/R/15/2/766

This is a correspondence file about food rationing and price controls in Bahrain during the Second World War (1939-1945). The supply and distribution of staple foods such as rice, wheat, barley, flour, sugar, tea and coffee to the population of Bahrain are discussed and to a lesser extent, other essential commodities for domestic consumption, such as cotton piece goods for clothing. The bulk of the correspondence is between the Political Agent, Bahrain and Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain. They regularly exchange information about Bahrain Government measures to ensure the fair distribution of rationed goods, prevent starvation and other deprivations among the population and curb profiteering and smuggling. The topics they discuss include import quotas, cost estimates, stock levels, sale and distribution under rationing arrangements and retail price controls. Also mentioned are the hardships experienced in the Trucial Coast shaikhdoms, owing to the same war-time shortages and restrictions on trade and shipping in the Persian Gulf imposed by the Government of India.

The file includes records of the meetings of the Bahrain Government’s Food Control Committee and also the Political Agent’s Commercial Advisory Committee and Merchants’ Advisory Committee. There are comprehensive notes by the Bahrain Government’s Adviser and Food Controller respectively, about rationing and price control in Bahrain, including sample ration cards (folios 18-29, 106-108). Similarly, there are comprehensive notes by the Political Agent, Bahrain about a visit from the Representative of the Middle East Supply Committee (folios 109-118), a meeting with the Representative of the United Kingdom Commercial Corporation, Baghdad (folios 126-129) and the supply and distribution of cereals at Bahrain and on the Trucial Coast (folios 153-154). The latter notes were compiled in response to a report from the Assistant Director, Food Supplies at the Middle East Supply Centre in Cairo (folios 141-143, 166-168). The several Arabic documents in the file include a few Bahrain Government public notices about food rations, issued by the Food Controller (folios 35, 44, 79), a petition from Persian nakhudas (ships’ captains) to the Political Agent, Bahrain complaining that Bahrain Customs officials denied them access to food supplies while at moorings in Bahrain Port (folio 10) and the correspondence of the Political Agent, Bahrain with the Ruler of Qatar and two commercial agents in Bombay appointed to resolve difficulties in shipping cargo to Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial Coast shaikhdoms (folios 248-250, 254, 266, 267).