IOR/R/15/2/1528

Correspondence and other papers relating to the visits of foreign dignitaries (chiefly rulers from the shaikhdoms along the Arab coast of the Gulf) to Bahrain. The majority of the correspondence details the movements of these dignitaries, and their arrival in or departure from Bahrain, as reported by the Political Agent at Bahrain, other Political Agents in the Gulf, the Residency Agent at Sharjah, and officers on board Royal Navy vessels in the Gulf. The file also includes letters (in Arabic, most with English translations) from a number of Arab rulers, including the Ruler of Bahrain, Shaikh Ḥamad bin ‘Īsá Āl Khalīfah.

Visits to Bahrain covered by the file include:

• in 1932, the French Consul Georges Cassin. Cassin’s visiting card is affixed to the first page of file notes (f 63);
• in 1939, a visit by King Ibn Saoud [sic] of Saudi Arabia [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd (Ibn Sa‘ūd)]. A copy of a programme of events for Ibn Saud’s visit is included in the file (ff 48-49), as is a transcript of a speech by Ibn Saud’s secretary, Shaikh Yosouf Yasin (ff 45-46);
• a letter from Parker Thompson Hart, American Consul at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, dated 28 July 1949, informing the Agency that regular visits to Bahrain by American consular officials are planned for the future (f 60).