IOR/R/15/2/1663

The file contains papers regarding the celebration of the King's Birthday and Christmas and New Year’s Day between 1935-1939. Christmas and New Year’s Day were announced as an official holiday at the Agency in Bahrain. The King's Birthday was celebrated in June each year, but was not an official holiday.

Ceremonies were arranged at the Agency for both the King's Birthday and New Year’s Day. For the King's Birthday, a notice was sent by the Secretary to the Government of India in the External Affairs Department to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf announcing which day in June the King's Birthday would be celebrated that year. For Christmas, a memorandum was sent by the Political Agent in Bahrain with a sum of money to the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain. The memorandum instructed the Adviser to distribute sweets among the prisoners on Christmas Day.

The following arrangements were made for both the King's Birthday and New Year’s Day celebrations:

• refreshments including biscuits (Nice), coffee, sherbet, crystallised cherries, and Mackintosh toffees were ordered mainly from Ashraf Brothers Company;
• invitation cards were ordered mainly from The Times Press Limited;
• British, European and American community members were invited as well as company staff;
• personal invitations were sent respectively to Shaikh Hamad Bin ‘Isa al-Khalifa, and to members and representatives of various communities in Bahrain including Arabs, Persians, and Indians;
• a guard was appointed to receive Shaikh Hamad and his family at the Agency;
• a notice specifying the time and date of each ceremony was sent by the Agency and circulated among various companies including The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) and The Eastern Bank Limited.

Lists of invitees and records of absentees were drawn up. The file also includes letters of acceptance or apology from the invitees. Most of these letters were written in Arabic or in Persian. After each ceremony a report was written summarising the event. The reports could include suggestions for future ceremonies.

The file contains several speeches in Arabic and in Persian that were read at the ceremonies. The speeches were delivered mainly by the Secretary of Manama Municipality, Secretary of Muharraq Municipality, Haji Yusuf Ahmad Kanoo, Haji Abdun Nabi bin Ahmad Busheri (on behalf of the Iranian Shia community), Haji Muhammad Tayeb Khunji (on behalf of the Iranian Sunni community), Meir Daoud Rouben & Sons (on behalf of the Jewish community), and Mullah Hassan bin al-Shaikh al-Majed (on behalf of Bahrainis).

The correspondence is mainly between Political Agents Percy Gordon Loch and Tom Hickinbotham, the Adviser to the Government of Bahrain, Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, and Shaikh Hamad bin ‘Isa.