IOR/L/PS/12/4094

Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, and notes relating to arms and slave traffic in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Principal correspondents include officials at the India Office, Foreign Office, Colonial Office, and Admiralty. Further correspondence, included as enclosures, comes from: the High Commissioner (later, Residency), Baghdad; the Political Residency in the Persian Gulf, Bushire; the Senior Naval Officer, Persian Gulf Division; the British Legation, Tehran; Government of India, Foreign and Political Department; Commander-in-Chief of HM Naval Forces, Mediterranean Station; British Legation, Jeddah, and the Board of Trade.

The majority of the file concerns the discussion of arms smuggling in the region, with a particular focus on the right of HM ships to search vessels for arms and slaves. Matters that are discussed include the following:

• Arms traffic across the Persian Gulf into southern Persia, thought to be supplying the Qashqai rebellion taking place there
• Persian complaints about British sympathy for the Qashqai rebellion
• Revision of naval instructions concerning powers to search and detain vessels in the region
• Arms traffic into Palestine via Akaba [al-Aqaba].

Papers of note included in the file include the following:

• Convention for the Control of the Trade in Arms and Ammunition, and Protocol, signed September 10, 1919 (folios 270-287)
• Record of an interdepartmental meeting held at the Foreign Office on the 24 April to consider the instructions to be issued to the Senior Naval Officers in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, regarding the search by HM ships of Arabian, Persian, and Iraqi vessels for slaves and arms (folios 92-103).