IOR/R/15/2/1503

Routine correspondence exchanged between the Bahrain Political Agency and successive managers of the Eastern Bank Limited in Bahrain (H Barden, D Ham, M Gunn, C W F Skrimshire).

Correspondence received from the Eastern Bank includes: notices of credits to the Agency current account; notices of credits to the Agency medical allowance, coming from the ‘Bahrain Government Consolidated Fund’; account balance statements; notifications of opening hours and bank closures, either for public holidays or for the closing of the bank’s books. Copies of correspondence sent by the Political Agent includes: covering letters, the originals of which were sent with cheques to be cashed (disposed of) at the Bank.

Exchanged correspondence covers: queries regarding interest payments on the Agency current account; arrangements regarding duplicate keys for the Eastern Bank’s safe, which were held at the Political Agency; the issue of drafts for Iraq and India ‘at par’ (i.e., at equal value); correspondence relating to the applicability of the Negotiable Instruments Act (1881) at Bahrain; the shipping of Eastern Bank specie to the Saudi Arabian Government via Hassa (also spelt Hasa) [al-Aḥsā’], including a letter in Arabic from the Amir of Hassa, ’Abdurllah bin Jalawi [Saud bin Abdullah bin Jiluwi Āl Sa‘ūd].

The file also includes:

• copies of annual reports for the Eastern Bank for the years 1928 (ff 79-80), 1932 (ff 170-171), 1935 (ff 236-237) and 1937 (ff 248-249);
• copies of Eastern Bank reviews of the past year, reprinted from The Times Company Meetings, dated 30 March 1933 (ff 166-167), 21 March 1935 (ff 231-232), 21 March 1936 (ff 239-240), and 19 March 1938 (ff 250-251);
• a booklet detailing the activities of the Eastern Bank Trustee and Executor Company (India) Limited (ff 214-225);
• personal correspondence dated 1935 between the Political Agent (Percy Gordon Loch) and the Manager of the Eastern Bank in Bahrain (C W F Skrimshire) relating to the mooring of Skrimshire’s yacht Viking (ff 226-230, f 234).

While the file’s papers date from 15 May 1926 through to 19 March 1938, the notes at the end of the file refer to correspondence dating between July 1933 and December 1940.