IOR/L/PS/12/3919

The file concerns the development of education in the Persian Gulf, particularly in Kuwait and Bahrain, including appointments to the post of Director of Education, Bahrain, which was organised (and partly funded) by the British Council.

The papers cover: reports from the Political Agent, Kuwait concerning education in Kuwait (e.g. folios 524-531, January 1939); comments by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; correspondence concerning appointments to the post of Director of Education, Bahrain (particularly those of Cecil Roy Leon Adrian-Vallance, and Frederick James Wakelin); correspondence concerning the appointments from the British Council; Adrian-Vallance's outline educational scheme for Bahrain (folios 451-459), with comments by Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, Adviser to the Government of Bahrain (folios 460-461); correspondence concerning the salary and allowances of the Director of Education, Bahrain; anti-colonialist articles in the Iraqi press, 1940; reports by the Political Agent, Bahrain concerning education in Bahrain (e.g. folios 251-252); the view of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Geoffrey Prior) that the work of the British Council in the Persian Gulf had been 'disappointing', February 1946 (folio 182); correspondence concerning hostels for Kuwait and Bahrain students in Cairo, Egypt, 1946; notes on Kuwait Government schools by Sybil Ethel Hay, the wife of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay), folios 74-79; a proposal that the post of Director of Education, Bahrain should be part of the staff of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, May-June 1947; correspondence concerning what was viewed by the British as the adverse political influence of Egyptian teachers on students from the Gulf (e.g. folios 39-40); and British Council reports on schools in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Muscat, January 1948 (folios 7-23).

The papers also include one letter dated 1936 (folio 532)

The French language content of the papers consists of a single letter from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (folios 321-322).

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.