IOR/L/PS/12/3902

The file concerns the supply of statistical information concerning the import and export of dangerous drugs in respect of Bahrain. The information was supplied by the Political Agency, Bahrain, via the Home Office, to the Permanent Central Opium Board of the League of Nations (later the United Nations) in Geneva, Switzerland (and Washington DC). The information was required under the terms of the Geneva Opium Convention of 19 February 1925, and the Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs of 13 July 1931. The papers have an insignificant connection with Nepal, inasmuch as the status of that country is slightly considered along with Bahrain in correspondence and minutes dated 1935-36.

The papers include: correspondence dated 1935-38 from Sir Malcolm Delevigne, who represented British interests on the League of Nations Supervisory Body concerned with the conventions; discussion by the India Office and the Foreign Office of the status of Bahrain for the purposes of the statistical returns, given the fact that Bahrain was an independent state whose foreign relations were controlled by the British Government, 1935-38; the effect of the Iranian claim to sovereignty over Bahrain, 1937-38; correspondence and forms (some also in French) from the Permanent Central Opium Board; and correspondence from the Political Agency, Bahrain, the India Office, and the Home Office (Drugs Branch) concerning the submission of quarterly and annual estimates in respect of Bahrain.

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.