IOR/L/PS/12/658

The file contains letters, telegrams, drafts, extracts, and notes concerning efforts to control locust outbreaks in India, Iran, and parts of the Middle East.

Included within the file:

• Monthly reports on locust outbreaks from the Political Agent, Muscat, sent to the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi (later, following Indian independence, these were sent to the Plant Protection Adviser to the governments of India and Pakistan and the Director of Locust Control in India)
• Arrangements for and updates from anti-locust operations in Oman during the winter of 1945-46
• Reports from Hem Singh Pruthi, Director of Locust Control, India, on the locust situation in India and parts of the Middle East
• Extracts from Bahrain and Muscat Intelligence Summaries regarding Wilfred Thesiger’s plans and preparations for anti-locust work in Oman and the work of the anti-locust delegation from India
• Arrangements for an International Locust Conference to be held in Cairo, including the question of which state representatives should be invited
• Drafting of an International Convention for the creation of an International Desert Locust Security Service, with specific reference to the wording of Britain’s relationship to some of the Gulf states and including what financial contributions should be made by those states
• Correspondence regarding the vacant position of Director of the Entomological Bureau and the effort to secure O B Lean for the post
• Correspondence regarding the drafting and signing of an anti-locust convention between India and Iran
• A letter from R C Couldrey of the Emergency Economic Committee for Europe, to the Supply and Relief Department, Foreign Office, regarding arrangements for a conference to co-ordinate anti-locust work in European Mediterranean countries (folio 43).

The correspondence is principally between Andrew Charles Stewart, Political Agent and Consul, Muscat, and officials at the India Office (later the Commonwealth Relations Office), Foreign Office, Colonial Office, British Middle East Office in Cairo, British Embassy in Cairo, Political Residency in Bushire (later Bahrain), and the External Affairs, Agriculture, and Communications and Overseas Departments of the Government of India.

The file includes a divider, which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.