IOR/L/PS/12/3874

The file concerns visits by foreign warships to Persian Gulf states that were under British protection. The British Government was concerned that such visits should obtain prior permission, particularly visits to the Trucial Coast in the 1930s, where British officials cited the Exclusive Agreement of March 1892, and the 'primitive conditions' to be found on the Trucial Coast at that time (folio 128).

The file contains correspondence from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, the Foreign Office, and other British officials; intelligence reports; and correspondence with the governments of France and the United States of America.

The file covers: visit of the French warship Bougainville to Bahrain, Kuwait and Ras al Khaimah in 1935; visit of the French warship d'Iberville to Bahrain, Kuwait and Aden in 1937; the cancellation of a visit by the d'Iberville to the Persian Gulf in 1939; visits of US warships (including USS Toledo, USS Hyman, and the aircraft carrier USS Valley Forge) to the region in 1947-48; and the question of national salutes.

The French language content of the file consists of approximately five folios of diplomatic correspondence (untranslated).

There are no papers in the file dated 1940-45.

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.