IOR/L/PS/12/2106

This file concerns the status and administration of the Kuria Muria Islands [Jazā’ir Khurīyā Murīyā, Oman]. It features the following principal correspondents: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Political Resident, Aden; the Governor of Aden; the Secretary of State for India; the Viceroy of India; the British Consul General, Harbin; officials of the Colonial Office, the India Office, the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department, and the Government of Bombay's Political Department.

The correspondence includes discussion of the following:

• A request for a concession to explore guano and phosphate deposits on the islands, submitted in 1931 by two residents of Harbin, China, named James Alexander Hunter and John B Kunst.
• The potential strategic importance of the islands.
• The transfer of control of the islands from the Political Resident at Aden to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf in 1931.
• The separation of Aden from the Bombay Presidency, under a new formation as a Chief Commissioner's Province, in 1932.
• The formal inclusion of the islands within the Aden Province in 1936, placing them legally under the administration of the Chief Commissioner of Aden.
• Whether or not administrative control of the islands should remain the responsbility of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, despite the recent change to their legal status.
• The planned separation of Aden from British India, scheduled to take place on 1 April 1937.
• The visit of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay) to the islands in April 1947.
• The properties of specimens of ore given to Hay by inhabitants of Hallaniyah [Al Ḩallānīyah] during his visit to the island.

In addition to correspondence the file includes the following:

• A copy of an extract from the Aden Laws Regulation, 1891.
• An extract from an issue of The Gazette of India, dated 1 April 1932, announcing the separation of Aden from the Government of Bombay and the formation of a Chief Commissionership of Aden.
• A copy of the Aden Laws (Amendment) Regulation, 1936 – an amendment to the Aden Laws Regulation, 1932, confirming the Kuria Muria Islands' status as part of the Aden Province.
• A copy of an article on the islands, written by Hay and considered for publication in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.
• The aforementioned specimens of ore, given to Hay by inhabitants of Hallaniyah [Al Ḩallānīyah] during his visit to the island.

The Swedish material in the file consists of contact details provided in a letter addressed to the Colonial Office from a correspondent named as Alex Ewin [Axel Elvin, editor of Bonniers Konversations Lexikon, a series of Swedish encyclopaedias].

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 (folio 2).