IOR/L/PS/12/3925

The file concerns the application to the Persian Gulf of amended prize jurisdiction in the run-up to, and following the outbreak of, the Second World War. Prize law related to the capture of enemy ships and goods during wartime. The Prize Act, 1939 extended prize law to aircraft also.

The papers include: a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Trenchard Craven William Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, concerning special measures in the Persian Gulf on the outbreak of war, April 1939, including comments on Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Muscat and Oman, and the states that would automatically be at war on the side of the United Kingdom (Kuwait, Bahrain, and the Trucial Coast); copies of the Prize Act, 1939, and the Prize Courts Order in Council, 1939; India Office correspondence and minutes; correspondence from the Government of India; the special position of Muscat and Oman in terms of prize jurisdiction (e.g. folio 16); and a copy of the Reprisals Restricting German Commerce Order in Council, 1939.

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.