IOR/R/15/2/1990

The file contains correspondence relating to the shipment from Basra to Bahrain of a Dodge truck for use by the Public Relations Office in Bahrain, and the shipment in the opposite direction of a Hudson saloon car. The file’s principal correspondents are: the Public Relations Officer in Basra (Major E C Becher; D A Denbigh); the Public Relations Officer in Bahrain (Cornelius James Pelly).

The file contains:

• correspondence relating to arrangements to ship the truck, with associated equipment, from Basra to Bahrain. The truck was intended for use by the Public Relations office to transport a generator and film projector, and be used for radio broadcasts;
• correspondence relating to arrangements to ship the Hudson saloon, with associated equipment, from Bahrain to Basra. The correspondence documents the difficulties encountered in finding passage for the car, the appointment of a farrash to accompany the car to discourage pilfering of its components and equipment while en route, and the failure of the farrash to protect the car, leading it to arrive in Basra, in the words of the Public Relations Officer at Basra, ‘in a very bad condition’ (f 29);
• correspondence relating to equipment requirements for the truck in Bahrain;
• correspondence relating to an incident in which the driver of the truck was stopped by the police authorities in Bahrain, who had assumed that the truck was stolen property.