IOR/L/PS/10/245

The volume comprises copies of correspondence, agreements, notes and other papers relating to the closure of British Indian post offices in Persia, and the transfer of postal services from British Indian to Persian administration. The specific focus of the volume’s contents is a conference, taking place in Bushire and convened for November 1922 (eventually taking place 5-9 December 1922), between Persian, Indian and Iraqi delegates, to finalise the arrangements for the transfer of the British Indian postal services in Persia to Persian administration. The volume’s principal correspondents are: the Minister at the British Legation in Tehran (Sir Percy Lyham Loraine); India Office staff (David Taylor Monteath; Henry William Garrett; John Percival Gibson; Leonard Day Wakely); Foreign Office officials (primarily Lancelot Oliphant); the Government of India’s delegate at the Bushire conference (Major Alfred Angelo); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Prescott Trevor).

The volume includes:

• arrangements for the Bushire conference, including a list of Persian delegates (ff 199-203), which included the outgoing Director of the Persian Post, Camille Molitor;
• papers, notes and correspondence relating to the raising by Persian delegates at the Bushire conference, of the transfer to Persian authorities of the British post office in Bahrain, in reference to Persia’s historic claims to Bahrain, and British refusal to entering into negotiation on the matter (ff 194-196);
• a copy of the proceedings of the Bushire conference (ff 98-125), as well as a printed copy of the report of the Bushire conference, prepared by Major Angelo, which includes the conference’s procès verbal, and copies of the agreements relating both to the closure of foreign post offices in Persia, and to the exchange of money orders between Persia and British India (ff 158-172);
• concerns amongst senior Government officials, including the Viceroy, over the wording of the agreement, and in particular the reference made to Persia’s claim to Bahrain in the procès verbal, resulting in a refusal by Government to ratify the agreement before amendments are made (ff 155-156, f 149);
• correspondence and telegrams relating to the closure of British Indian post offices in Persia, which took place in early April 1923 (f 46, f 63), and reports of problems encountered in the transfer to the Persian authorities of postal and financial services, particularly relating to embargoes placed on the transfer/export of Indian rupees (ff 57-62);
• correspondence from July 1923 onwards, relating to various ratifications of the Bushire postal agreement, by the Union Postale Universelle (International Postal Union) (ff 14-21), the Iraq Government (f 13), and the League of Nations (ff 8-11).

Each part includes a divider which gives the subject and part numbers, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.