IOR/L/PS/10/529

The file consists of correspondence and other papers mostly related to the Eastern Bank being invited by the Secretary of State for India to open a branch at Basra and to conduct the banking business of the Government of India at Basra. It also includes papers relating to: the Eastern Bank offering the services of their Baghdad branch to the Government of India, and the status of the Baghdad branch; the proposal of the Eastern Bank to open new branches at Ahwaz, Dizful [Disful] and Bahrein [Bahrain]; the Bank’s suggestion that all its employees in India should be exempted from military service (in the First World War); and applications for passports by the Bank for Bank employees.

The file mainly consists of internal India Office notes, Minute Papers, and Reference Papers, and correspondence between the India Office and the following: the Manager of the Eastern Bank, Limited, London; the Viceroy of India, Foreign Department; and the Foreign Office. It also includes India Office correspondence with the Treasury, the Colonial Office, the Imperial Bank of Persia, the War Office, and other correspondents.

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.