IOR/L/PS/12/4584

This file contains correspondence on the role of the Publicity Officer in the Persian Gulf, specifically about material characterised as propaganda, from 13 June 1939 to 31 March 1948. The correspondence is primarily between the Secretary of State for India, Public Relations Officer in the Persian Gulf, and Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and includes the following:

• The list of publicity material sent to BIS Persian Gulf, 15 June 1947 to 31 March 1948, including material sent to Bahrein [Bahrain], Kabul, and Katmandu [Kathmandu] (fols 3-46)
• The list of publicity material sent to BIS Persian Gulf, 29 March to 7 June 1947, including material sent to Bahrein, Kabul, Kuwait, Muscat, and Katmandu (fols 48-55)
• The deposition of the Bey of Tunis [Muḥammad VI al-Ḥusaynī, al-Munṣif Bāy] and the establishment of a refugee camp for Jews and others in North-West Africa
• A letter from the Public Relations Officer in the Persian Gulf, Bertram Thomas, to Colonel Stewart Francis Newcomb at the Ministry of Information, on the differences between the Gulf states and 'more advanced parts of the Arab world' (fols 70-76); a note by Thomas on Lieutenant Hurst's Questionnaire about attitudes to the war in Europe (fols 83-87), with conclusions toward the development of a propaganda policy for the Gulf
• A statement from the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin Al Hussaini [Ḥāj Amīn al-Ḥusaynī], broadcast in Arabic, Persian and English, 'inciting' the Muslim population of India (fol 81)
• The possibility that the German Army might occupy the entire North Caucasus and reach the Caspian Sea, as opposed to a factual analysis of the situation on the Eastern Front
• A Confidential 'Report on [a] Tour of Middle East Publicity Centres' from the Public Relations Officer in the Persian Gulf, Bertram Thomas to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel William Rupert Hay (fols 119-123)
• The suggestion from Bertram Thomas to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf to alter his title from 'Publicity Officer at Bahrain' to 'Public Relations Officer'
• A proposal for the production of a Persian quarterly titled 'The New World'
• A memo from Professor Lawrence Frederic Rushbrook Williams to the Controller of Overseas Publicity, Sir Maurice Drummond Peterson, on 'whether there should be a single-coordinating representative of the Ministry [of Information] stationed in the Middle East' (fols 137-145)
• A memorandum by Sir Charles Leonard Woolley of the War Office on 'Counter Propaganda in the Middle East' (fols 196-199), sent to the India Office, Ministry of Information, Foreign Office and Colonial Office, and the subsequent comments and reaction of the India Office
• The first review of the propaganda in the 'Arab States of the Persian Gulf', namely Kuwait, Bahrain, [the] Trucial States and Muscat [Sultanate of Oman] (fols. 212-225)
• The establishment of the 'Foreign Publicity Department', with Reginald Wilding Allen Leeper as its head, and under the general supervision of James Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth, to take over the propaganda functions of the News Department at the Foreign Office.