IOR/R/15/2/1542

Correspondence, reports and other papers relating to the occurrence of locust swarms on the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf. The file chiefly comprises copies of monthly reports of locust occurrences at Bahrain and on the Trucial Coast, submitted by the Political Agency in Bahrain, at the request of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research, Government of India. All reports are marked ‘nil’, meaning no locust occurrences observed, with the exception of those for April 1941 (f 200), August 1943 (f 253), and March 1944 (f 265).

The file also includes:

• correspondence concerning the visit to the Arab coast of the Persian Gulf, between January and April 1937, of Reginald Charles Maxwell-Darling of the Imperial Institute of Entomology, London. Correspondence relates to Maxwell-Darling’s travel arrangements, notification of the Trucial Coast rulers of the visit, and difficulties likely to be experienced in travelling into Ibn Saud’s [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] territories (ff 55-136);
• correspondence dated 1937, relating to locust movements in Arabia, in connection to locust movements in India and Iran (ff 145-146, ff 150-152);
• correspondence dated 1943 making reference to the activities of the Anti-Locust Mission on the Trucial Coast.