IOR/L/PS/12/2021

The file is concerned with the purchase of twenty second-hand Hawker Hind aircraft by the Afghan Government with associated accessories, weapons, and spares. The aircraft in question was purchased from the British Government by the Government of India for resale to Afghanistan. The file contains correspondence related to ordering and shipping the aircraft, and arrangements for financing and making payments. The supply of a number of replacement Kestrel V engines is also documented within the file, as a result of a number of supplied engines proving to be unserviceable; a report outlining possible reasons for the engine failures can be found on folio 141. See folios 32-38 for a copy of the final agreement governing the purchase.

The file also contains a limited amount of correspondence related to the maintenance of the British aviation instructors employed at Kabul, as the continued employment of these instructors was a condition stipulated by the British Government for the sale of the aircraft. A report written by Edward George Honeywood Russell-Stracey on the work undertaken by these instructors during 1938 can be found on folios 520-525.

The main correspondents are as follows: HM Minister at Kabul (William Kerr Fraser-Tytler), officials of the Air Ministry, officials of the Foreign Office, officials of the India Office (George Edmond Crombie and Roland Tennyson Peel), and officials of the External Affairs Department 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.