IOR/L/PS/12/2188

The file contains minutes, correspondence and reports regarding changes made by the British Government to the system for licensing the export of arms and ammunition to foreign countries. The India Office participated in the process to ensure that requests from the Governments of Afghanistan and Nepal would be referred via the India Office before approval.

The file consists of correspondence between the India Office Political Department, Major Neville Godfray Hind of the Committee of Imperial Defence, the Foreign Office, and the Board of Trade Import and Export Licensing Section. The potential advantages and disadvantages of the proposed open licence system are discussed, as are India Office concerns that a change to an open system would make it difficult to regulate the purchase of arms by Afghanistan and Nepal, and could pose a threat to the security of India.

The file also contains the following minutes and reports:

• minutes of the first and second meetings of the Committee of Imperial Defence Principal Supply Officers Committee, Sub-Committee on System of Licensing Exports of Arms and Ammunition, ff 74-96;
• the final report of the above Sub-Committee, ff 40-51;
• a copy of the Anglo-Afghan Treaty (1921), ff 56-60;
• a copy of the Cabinet Minutes 70(33), 20 December 1933, ff 24-27;
• notes on a meeting held at the Board of Trade on 29 December 1933, ff 17-22;
• and a 'List of selected firms and Service Departments which will acquaint them of the new procedure', f 12.

The file also contains a small amount of correspondence dated 1938, regarding a request from the Government of Portuguese India for ammunition to be supplied by a British firm.

The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the end of the correspondence (folio 1).