IOR/R/15/2/868

The file contains correspondence relating to the movement of company (Petroleum Concessions Limited) planes in the Persian Gulf. The main correspondents are: representatives of Petroleum Concessions Limited and its subsidiary companies (Petroleum Development (Qatar) Limited and Petroleum Development (Oman and Dhofar) Limited); the Political Agent at Bahrain; the Political Residency at Bushire (later Bahrain) [Persian Gulf Political Residency]; Sir Charles Belgrave, Advisor to the Shaikh of Bahrain; the India Office; the Air Vice-Marshal, Commanding British Forces in Iraq; the Government of India, External Affairs Department; Shaikh Abdullah bin Qasim al Thani [‘Abdullāh bin Qāsim Āl Thānī], ruler of Qatar; Shaikh Sultan bin Saqr [Sulṭān bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī], ruler of Sharjah; Shaikh Said bin Maktum [Sa‘īd bin Maktūm Āl Maktūm], ruler of Dubai; and the Political Agent at Muscat.

The papers within the file are mostly concerned with permission for landings and flyovers by company planes in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Sharjah, Dubai, and Oman. These permissions are sought by the company from the appropriate ruler (as sovereign) and the RAF (for use of the airfields), via the appropriate British Government officer (in this case, the Political Agent at Bahrain). The permissions sometimes include details of the planes, such as name, registration, passengers, pilot, engineers, and wireless operators.

Other matters covered by the file include:

• the distribution by the company of their own aviation fuel to aerodromes across the region;
• the planning and permission of an aerial photographic survey of Qatar and its territorial waters carried out by the company in early 1947.

There is a gap in the correspondence between 1939 and 1945, due to the Second World War.

Folio 123 is a sketch map of southern Qatar, showing the limits of the proposed aerial survey.

Folios 159-68 are internal office notes.