IOR/L/PS/12/786

The file is concerned with the supply of food – in the form of cereals and dried fruit – to the Persian Gulf States (Bahrain, Kuwait, Muscat, and the Trucial Coast) and eastern Saudi Arabia, during the Second World War (1939-1945) and its aftermath. This involves correspondence discussing the minimum requirements of these states, sources of supply, and the availability of shipping.

Specific policy questions included in the file are: the search for alternative sources of cereals as a result of the ban on exports from India following the Bengal Famine of 1943-1944; the question of whether the British Government should subsidise Iraqi cereals supplied to the Persian Gulf to match the price of cereals previously imported from India; the question of using oil tankers to ship wheat to Bahrain; and proposals for increases in the tea and sugar quotas for the Persian Gulf States in order to facilitate barter trade with Persia [Iran].

The problem of global rice shortages also receives attention in the file; rice supplies to the Persian Gulf were completely cut off following the Indian export ban. This includes attempts to try to restore the supply of rice, such as an effort by the Gulf States to purchase rice from Persia in 1945. A note prepared by Colonel Harold Richard Patrick Dickson on the dietary problems of the Bedouin of Kuwait and north-east Arabia resulting from the cessation of rice imports can be found on folios 136-140.

The main correspondents are as follows: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Percy Gordon Loch, Charles Geoffrey Prior, and Arnold Crawshaw Galloway), officials of the Foreign Office, officials of the India Office (from August 1947 the Commonwealth Relations Office), officials of the Middle East Supply Centre, officials of the Ministry of Food, officials of the Ministry of War Transport, officials of the Treasury, and representatives of the Government of India – in the Commercial, External, and Food departments respectively.

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.