IOR/L/PS/12/2042

The file contains papers related to the renewal of the Sharjah Commercial Air Agreement in 1943, and subsequent increases to the subsidy paid to the Shaikh of Sharjah under the agreement and changes to accommodation requirements for both the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the Royal Air Force (RAF). It also contains correspondence related to the withdrawal of BOAC services from Sharjah in 1947, and discussion as to whether to amend or abandon the agreement as a result. The decision to renew the agreement in 1948 is documented by minutes of an inter-departmental meeting held on 16 March 1948: see folios 11-12.

A number of statements of payments made to the Shaikh of Sharjah under the Air Agreement for the periods April 1945 to August 1946 and December 1946 to November 1947 were submitted to the India Office by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf: see folios 15, 18, 21, 39, 64, 75, 92, and 107. A list of buildings required at Sharjah by the RAF as of 1947 can be found on folios 24-28.

The main correspondents are as follows: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Charles Geoffrey Prior and William Rupert Hay), officials of the Air Ministry (M W Low), officials of the India Office (from August 1947 the Commonwealth Relations Office; Roland Tennyson Peel, Eion Pelly Donaldson, Francis Anthony Kitchener Harrison), officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (H Jones and R C Bloodworth), and representatives of the External Affairs Department of the Government of India.

The title of the file contains an error: the British Overseas Airways Corporation is mistakenly referred to as BAOC instead of BOAC.

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.