IOR/R/15/2/1383

The file comprises correspondence relating to foreign shipping companies operating at Bahrain, and agents representing foreign shipping companies operating at Bahrain. Correspondents in the file include: the Political Agent at Bahrain (chiefly Lieutenant-Colonel Percy Gordon Loch; Edward Birkbeck Wakefield); Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo [Yūsuf bin Aḥmad Kānū]; the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave); the Director of Customs at Bahrain (Claud Cranbrook Lewis DeGrenier).

The file includes:

• correspondence dated 1936 relating to an application made by Hajy Muhammad Tayeb Khunji to act as a shipping agent for the Japanese Mitsui Bussan Kaisha company’s steamship line at Bahrain, rejected in favour of an application made by Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo (ff 3-6);
• correspondence dated 1936 relating to a request by the Norwegian Gunnar M Nielsen Shipping Company, for the names of shipbrokers, stevedores, pilots and other port-related operatives at Bahrain (ff 7-9);
• correspondence dated 1942 relating to Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo’s appointment as shipping agent for the Netherlands Shipping Committee (time chartered by the British Ministry of War Transport), including the Political Agent’s and Bahrain Government Adviser’s questioning of Kanoo’s experience for the role (ff 10-16);
• a copy of a Bahrain Government notice, dated 24 October 1932, stating that no one is permitted to become an agent for shipping at Bahrain, without first obtaining the permission of the Bahrain Government (f 15);
• a letter from Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo to the Director of Customs at Bahrain, dated 23 September 1950, informing that he has been appointed agent for vessels owned by the Alexandria Navigation Company (f 17).