IOR/L/PS/10/528

The file contains correspondence and other India Office papers relating to banks in Basra [Basrah or Bassorah or Busreh] during the First World War. It includes papers relating to:

• Whether or not Basra was classed as ‘enemy territory’, and whether the London Agency of the Imperial Ottoman Bank was free to trade and communicate with its branch in Basra.
• An application from the Eastern Bank Limited to open a branch in Basra.
• The intention of the Imperial Bank of Persia to re-open a branch at Basra.
• The question as to which bank should be used for British Government business at Basra.
• The appointments and allowances to be paid to successive Official Supervisors of the Basra branch of the Imperial Ottoman Bank.
• The claim of the Imperial Ottoman Bank against the German business Robert Wönckhaus and Company.

The correspondence is mainly between the India Office and the following: Sir Percy Cox, Chief Political Officer, Indian Expeditionary Force; the Foreign Office, with enclosed Foreign Office correspondence; Sir William Plender, the Controller of the Imperial Ottoman Bank; the Imperial Ottoman Bank, London Agency, with enclosed correspondence of the Bank; the Foreign Trade Department; the Viceroy of India, Foreign Department; and the Eastern Bank Limited.

The file includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.