IOR/R/15/2/1981

The file comprises correspondence from two distinct periods. Correspondence at the beginning and end of the file is dated 1909 to 1913 (ff 2-16, ff 52-87), and discusses the British protection of Bahrainis in Ottoman Turkey, in response to Ottoman Government representatives in Constantinople [Istanbul] questioning Britain’s claim of Bahrain being under its protection, and the registration and status of the increasing numbers of Bahrainis residing in the port of Mohammerah [Khorramshahr], thanks to that port’s relative stability and affluence. Some of this correspondence deals with a specific incident occurring in March 1911 in which three Bahrainis were detained by the Basra authorities, with the latter refusing to recognise that the men were under British protection (ff 56-63). The principal correspondents in these parts of the file are: the British Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul] (Sir Gerard Augustus Lowther); the British Consul at Bussorah [Basra] (Francis Edward Crow); the Acting British Consul for Arabistan (Arnold Talbot Wilson).

The middle portion of the file (ff 17-50) comprises copies of correspondence from the Basrah [Basra] archives, dated 1873-1878, sent to the Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Stuart George Knox) by Wilson in December 1910 (covering letter, f 16):

• letters dated 1878 from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Charles Ross), reporting of the destruction of Zobara [Zubarah] by the Shaikh of el Bidaa [Al Bidda] with ‘two or three thousand followers’, under a Turkish flag (ff 20-21);
• letters dated 1873-1874, chiefly between the British Consul at Baghdad (Colonel Charles Herbert) and the British Ambassador at Constantinople (Sir Henry George Elliot), discussing a disagreement between British and Turkish Government officials over the Turkish Government’s intention to conscript Bahrainis residing in Turkish-administered Iraq into the Ottoman army, including a copy and translation of a memorial from the ‘Bahrainees of Kerbulla [Karbalā']’ (ff 22-50).