IOR/L/PS/12/384

This file mainly consists of copies of quarterly rosters (or summaries of rosters) of employees of the Bahrein [Bahrain] Petroleum Company Limited (BAPCO) for the period March 1941-December 1947, distributed by the Political Agent, Bahrain. Complete copies of the rosters are present for the following periods only: the first quarter of 1941 (dated 31 March 1941), and the four quarters of 1947 (dated 31 March 1947, 30 June 1947, 30 September 1947, and 31 December 1947 respectively). For the intervening period (i.e. April 1941 through to December 1946) only copies of tabular summaries of the rosters are present.

The complete rosters include employees' names as well as other details such as date of employment, nationality, designation (e.g. labourer), and department (e.g. refinery). The tabular summaries show the total number of employees on the company's payroll, with sub-totals for nationalities and various other categories (e.g. clerical and technical, skilled, and unskilled).

A significant amount of related correspondence is also included in the file. Alongside the rosters and roster summaries are copies of covering letters from the Political Agent to the Secretary to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain, which contain brief comments regarding the contents of the rosters (usually remarks about any increases or decreases in the number of employees during the quarterly period, as well as a breakdown of the number of employees by nationalities).

Also covered in the correspondence are matters relating to existing or prospective BAPCO employees, including the following: arrangements for the transfer of a longstanding BAPCO employee from Bahrain to the United States; BAPCO's wish to appoint a young English doctor named Dr A J Perfect, and its appeal to the India Office for assistance in this matter; the appointment in 1946 of an engineer named George Beeby Thompson as oil inspector to the Government of Bahrain.

Other notable correspondents besides the Political Agent include the following: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, Adviser to the Government of Bahrain; Hamilton R Ballantyne, representative of BAPCO; officials of the India Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office, and the Ministry of Fuel and Power, Petroleum Division.

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 (folio 2).