IOR/R/15/2/1407

The file contains numerous letters of request to the Political Agent, Bahrain from foreign families living in Bahrain, mainly Indians and Iraqis, asking for their Bahrain-born children to be registered at the British Agency, Bahrain as British protected persons or, in the case of British Indians, as British subjects. Some letters of request are in Arabic, including a few from Arab subjects of the Trucial Coast sheikhdoms, who wished to register as British protected persons. Approvals and registration details in each case are also included in the file, as well as a list of applications received and certificates issued (folio 96).

There is also correspondence between the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire; the Political Agent, Bahrain and the Adviser to the Bahrain Government, regarding the nationality and registration of persons born in Bahrain of foreign parents. Included is a public notice issued in 1929, announcing that persons born in Bahrain of foreign parents would be treated as subjects of Bahrain, unless they were registered at the British Agency, Bahrain as foreign subjects under British protection. The public notice is in Arabic, English, Persian and Hindustani and noted as intended for circulation among the several foreign communities in Bahrain, including Nadjiis, Persians, Jews, Iraqis, Kuwaitis, Qataris and Muscatis.

There is correspondence with the American Mission, Bahrain about registering the birth of a new born female at the American Mission Hospital and sending her to a children’s home in India, following the death of her mother, 1933.

There are notes and correspondence about an application for British naturalisation by a person born in Bahrain to a naturalised British subject from India. Included is the British Naturalisation Certificate issued to the applicant’s father in 1905.

The file also contains printed notices issued by the Government of India 1937-1940, about the following two naturalisation procedures: the granting of British naturalisation to Indians under the British Nationality and Status Act, 1914; the resumption of British nationality by British-born wives of enemy aliens under the British Nationality and Status of Aliens (India Regulations) 1936.