IOR/L/PS/12/3896A

The file contains papers relating to the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID) Standing Official Sub-Committee for Questions concerning the Middle East. The Sub-Committee had been charged by the Committee of Imperial Defence to 'investigate and report on the measures which might be taken, either before or on the outbreak of war, to influence those Minor Powers and Arab States whose assistance or even benevolent neutrality might be of value to us in time of war' (folio 77). The work of the Sub-Committee focussed on Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, the Yemen, and the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, and the papers contain reports and discussions of British policy in relation to all those countries.

The papers contain memoranda drawn up by the Foreign Office, the India Office, the War Office, and other British Government departments, and by British representatives in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Aden, etc. for submission to the Sub-Committee; agenda and minutes of meetings of the Sub-Committee; reports of the Sub-Committee; and India Office minutes.

The Arab shaikhdoms of the Persian Gulf and Muscat were said by the India Office to be of importance to the British Government because of their situation on the air route to India, and in their significance as actual and potential sources for the supply of oil (folio 285); folio 327, folios 285-289, folio 98, and folios 4-44 relate particularly to the Persian Gulf.

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.