IOR/R/15/2/789

The file contains correspondence mainly about the importation of surplus tamarind from India to Bahrain and the Trucial Coast shaikhdoms during the Second World War (1939-1945), when this fruit was subject to Government of India export licensing restrictions and import quotas in Persian Gulf countries under British protection. The correspondence is mainly between the Political Agent, Bahrain and other British officials in India and the Persian Gulf, as well as with the Director of Customs and Port Officer, Bahrain (acting also in his dual capacity as Food Controller for the Government of Bahrain). These officials discuss the requirements for local consumption of tamarind in Bahrain and the Trucial Coast shaikhdoms in relation to their annual import quotas for 1944-1945 determined by the Government of India, as well as the withdrawal of Indian export controls for this fruit after the war, as announced in circular letters from both the Department of Commerce and the Department of Food, New Delhi, in November 1945. The file also contains a small amount of merchants’ correspondence, in connection with the refusal of the Export Trade Controller in Karachi to grant a licence to a local exporter to ship sanctioned Indian quota tamarind to an importer in Bahrain, in 1945. Also included in the file are several widely circulated lists, originating from the Director of Customs and Port Officer, Bahrain; the British Residency Agent, Sharjah and the Export Trade Controllers in Karachi and Madras. These lists provide the names and addresses of licensed Indian exporters and shippers in Karachi and Calicut [Kozhikode], approved merchants in Bahrain, Dubai, Sharjah and other Persian Gulf ports, together with the quantity (in tons) of consignments of Indian tamarind and Punjabi pulses the latter had been permitted to import under quota arrangements, 1944-1945.