IOR/R/15/2/1607

The file documents the purchase of books and periodicals (and the management of subscriptions) by the Bahrain Political Agency. To this end it contains receipts and bills, correspondence between the Political Agent (Clive Kirkpatrick Daly, Cyril Charles Johnson Barrett, and Charles Geoffrey Prior) and suppliers, and related internal notes by the agency. The principal suppliers are Thacker Spink and Company, Calcutta; Government of India, Central Publication Branch, Calcutta; Pioneer Press; Taraporevala and Company, Bombay; and Near East and India Limited. There is also related correspondence with the Eastern Bank Limited, and between various British officials; the Secretary to the Political Resident, Persian Gulf, and the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (Charles Dalrymple Belgrave) being the most prominent.

The file also contains the following:

• various updates to the list of firms to be used to 'supply articles for the public service' (ff 14-15, ff 39-41, ff 57-58, ff 69-70);
• a list of Arabic newspapers read in Bahrain (f 47);
• correspondence respecting updates and amendments to an entry on the 'Bahrein Islands' in the Stateman's Year Book in 1926 and 1927 (ff 75-86, ff 153-154, ff 171-173, and ff 184-185);
• a copy of First List of Names in Persia (South), published by the Royal Geographical Society in 1928 (ff 161-168);
• a list of questions concerning the rulers of Bahrain for the publication The Moslem Nobility (f 269).

The Arabic language content consists of only a few folios; this includes receipts from the Al 'Iraq newspaper, and a letter from Muhammad Aqil Khunji, Secretary of Al-Montada Al-Islami, Bahrein, with the Political Agent's reply.