IOR/R/15/2/927

The file contains exchanges of secret and confidential letters, memoranda and telegrams, mainly between Major Reginald George Evelyn William Alban and his successor Cornelius James Pelly (British Political Agents, Bahrain); Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Geoffrey Prior (Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire); Major Tom Hickinbotham and his successor A.L.A. Dredge, (Public Relations Officers in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain); Captain J.B. Howes (Publicity Officer in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain then Deputy Secretary, Government of India Information and Broadcasting Department, New Delhi).

File correspondence discusses: the script and arrangements for making a British public information film about the Persian Gulf, by an Indian film unit, in 1945; requests for funds to develop a recreation ground and provide a cinema in Bahrain, in order to promote social contact between the British, Arabs and Persians, 1940-1941; and compiling a list of Sheikhs in Bahrain and Qatar and also Trucial Coast Rulers, who would appreciate a supply of Arabic literature from the Public Relations Office in Bahrain, 1949. There is also a copy of the minutes of a meeting of the Public Information Committee held in the Public Information Office, Bahrain on 12 January 1941 (ff.6-8).

The file also contains policies, plans, information and guidance relating to publicity work in the Middle East which were circulated to British officials in the region by the Ministry of Information in London and Cairo. These include British propaganda policy and planning for Persia 1944-1945 by the Overseas Planning Committee; information about British publicity work in Palestine; notes for making public statements about the political assassination of Lord Moyne (British Minister Resident in the Middle East) in Cairo on 6 November 1944; French claims in the Levant, 1945; and participation by Syria and Lebanon in the United Nations Conference on International Organization, San Francisco, 1945.