IOR/R/15/2/1046

The file relates to office procedure, and changes to office procedure following transfer of supervisory responsibility to the Foreign Office.

The papers include a set of notes entitled 'Office Routine', compiled by the officiating Head Clerk of the British Residency, Bushire, which give guidance on the treatment of all forms of correspondence, registration, filing, referencing, the administrative structure of the Bushire office, mails and telegrams, records, noting and drafting, typing section, forms of letters and memoranda, duties of the Telegram Clerk, and duties of the Despatch clerk, with covering letter suggesting that the notes should be circulated among staff at the Political Agency, Bahrain, January 1945.

The file also contains papers relating to specimen forms and letters, April 1948; papers concerning the replacement by the Foreign Office of certain obsolete types of correspondence, September 1948; papers concerning terms to be used in establishing telegraphic priorities, May to June 1949; letter to the Foreign Office concerning the administrative workload of the Persian Gulf Residency, Bahrain, August 1949; papers concerning Foreign Office instructions on the use of abbreviations in official documents, including telegrams, August 1949; correspondence from the British Agency, Sharjah on how to address certain Foreign Office departments, and the reorganisation of the Sharjah Agency's filing system, October and November 1949; papers concerning regulations for the sending of telegrams, December 1949 to April 1950; correspondence from Cable and Wireless Limited, giving regulations and rates for telegrams, June to December 1950; correspondence concerning Foreign Office instructions laying down official spellings for Kuwait and Bahrain, and the use by the British Residency, Bahrain of the Hunterian system for the transliteration of Arabic words and names, with the exception of Muscat and Oman, June to August 1950; and correspondence concerning the telegraphic address of the British Agent, Gwadur [Gwadar], November 1950.