IOR/L/PS/10/577

The volume comprises telegrams, despatches, correspondence, memoranda, and notes, relating to British policy towards Persia within the context of maintaining British interests there in the light of the war with Germany. In particular the correspondence details the British financial relationship with the Governor of Fars, Farman Farma [ʿAbd-al-Ḥosayn Mīrzā Farmānfarmā], and his role in maintaining governance and order in Shiraz. This is in the wider context of the Persian famine of 1917-1919 caused partly by the requisitioning of foodstuffs by the occupying British and Russian armies.

The principal correspondents in the volume are: the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Arthur James Balfour); the Director of Military Intelligence, War Office; the Deputy Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Department; HM Minister, Tehran (Sir Charles Marling); the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; the Under-Secretary of State for India; the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Percy Zachariah Cox).

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.