IOR/L/PS/12/2043

The file contains papers related to the provision of facilities for the United States Air Transport Command at both Bahrain and Sharjah. This includes policy and strategy discussions over how best to maintain British control of the Arabian Coast Air Route; British planners feared that the United States might use facilities, built using American personnel and finance, as a lever for post-war concessions in civil aviation. It therefore includes correspondence related to the leasing of land, and the construction of buildings, by the Royal Air Force (RAF) for the use of the United States.

A map showing Bahrain Oil Company (BAPCO) establishments in Bahrain can be found on folio 127, and a table showing the facilities required by the United States can be found on folio 102.

The main correspondents are as follows: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Charles Geoffrey Prior), the Political Agent at Bahrain (Tom Hickinbotham), officials of the Air Ministry, officials of the India Office (Roland Tennyson Peel, Francis Anthony Kitchener Harrison, and Dennis Mackrow Cleary), officers of Air Headquarters in Iraq, and representatives 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.