IOR/R/15/2/1136

The file concerns the payment by the Political Agency, Bahrain of expenses incurred by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and its personnel in Bahrain (also spelled Bahrein) and the Trucial Coast, particularly payments to Shaikh Said bin Maktum [Saʻīd bin Maktūm], Ruler of Dubai, and Shaikh Sultan bin Salim [Sulṭān bin Sālim Āl Qasimī], Ruler of Ras al Khaimah.

The correspondence is mainly from the Political Agent, Bahrain; staff of Air Headquarters, British Forces in Iraq, Hinaidi; the Residency Agent, Sharjah; and the Air Liaison Officer, RAF Bahrain. There is also some correspondence from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the Government of India and the India Office.

The papers cover: correspondence and receipts recording monthly payments made by the Political Agency, Bahrain (through the Residency Agent, Sharjah) to the Ruler of Dubai for hire of a petrol dhow and pay for its guards, for the period December 1937 to November 1941, and to the Ruler of Ras al Khaimah for pay of guards on the petrol barge, for the period December 1937 to June 1942; monthly bills of expenditure incurred by the Political Agency, Bahrain on behalf of the RAF, sent to the Command Accountant, British Forces in Iraq, Hinaidi; correspondence concerning payment of sundry expenses incurred by the RAF in Bahrain, (e.g. the use by RAF personnel of the Bahrain Rest House); correspondence concerning accounting arrangements for the payment of expenses incurred by the RAF, including the handover of responsibility for all payments other than those to the rulers of Dubai and Ras al Khaimah to the Air Liaison Officer, Bahrain (from September 1939); and correspondence between the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the Political Agent, Bahrain concerning the transfer of responsibility for payments for the guards on the petrol barge at Ras al Khaimah to BOAC, October 1942.

The Arabic language content of the file consists of approximately eighty items of correspondence (all with translations into English) between the Political Agent, Bahrain and the Residency Agent, Sharjah; and approximately twenty other items, mostly receipts issued by the Rulers of Dubai and Ras al Khaimah (all with translations into English).