IOR/R/15/2/1545

Correspondence, reports and other papers relating to locust-control campaigns taking place on the Arabian peninsula and in southern Persia [Iran] between May 1943 and September 1944. The file is a direct chronological continuation of ‘File 16/37A-I Anti-Locust Measures’ (IOR/R/15/2/1544). The principal correspondents are: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield; Captain Michael Gray Dixon; Major Tom Hickinbotham); representatives of the Middle East Anti-Locust Unit (MEALU) including the Chief Locust Officer (Reginald Charles Maxwell-Darling; Leslie Desmond Edward Foster Vesey-Fitzgerald) and Administrative Officer (W H E Matthews); representatives of the Middle East Supply Centre (MESC) (Maxwell-Darling); and representatives of the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave; George William Reginald Smith).

The correspondence covers:

• arrangements for the pay and expenses of men employed in the 1942/43 locust campaign;
• arrangements for the return of motor vehicles used in the 1942/43 locust campaign, and arrangements for repairs to and replacement of motor vehicles;
• arrangements, orders and instructions for the 1943/44 locust campaign, including arrangements for the provision of equipment, poison bait, medical supplies, transport and fuel, finances, Arabic interpreters, communications;
• MEALU reports on locust observations during the 1943/44 campaign.

The file contains papers dated April 1952 relating to the repatriation of three destitute pilgrims from Bahrain to Pakistan, which were presumably added to the file in error (ff 161-164).