IOR/R/15/2/1985

The volume comprises orders made by the Political Agent at Bahrain, pertaining to the administration of the Agency, and in some cases to the administration of the Victoria Memorial Hospital. The file is a direct chronological continuation of the file ‘Office Orders. Vol.1 (Closed)’ (IOR/R/15/2/1984). Orders are numbered, dated, and in most cases signed by or on behalf of the Political Agent.

The volume includes:

• orders registering the appointment, discharge, dismissal, resignation, and leave (including sick leave) of various individuals employed in the Agency (or Victoria Memorial Hospital), including sweepers, peons, doorkeepers, farashes, clerks, munshis, and those associated with the Agency’s motor launch;
• orders relating to the salaries of Agency staff, including salary increases and allocation of dearness allowance, to offset the increased cost of living during the Second World War;
• an order, dated 14 March 1942, relating to remittances to the Residency Agent at Sharjah (f 48);
• orders, dated 1945, outlining important points of office procedure for clerks in the Agency’s English and Vernacular Offices (f 71, f 73);
• an order detailing the summer and winter ‘liveries’ (clothing) to be issued to ‘inferior staff’ (i.e. menial establishment staff) at the Agency for summer and winter (ff 77-78);
• orders relating to judicial and court procedures.

A large portion of the volume has been left blank (ff 95-185). The last dated entry, dated 18 September 1949 (f 93) is followed by a number of further orders, which refer to dates in December 1949 and February 1950, but which are themselves undated.