Abstract: The volume comprises orders made by the Political Agent at Bahrain, pertaining to the administration of the Agency, and in some cases to the administration of the Victoria Memorial Hospital. The file is a direct chronological continuation of the file ‘Office Orders. Vol.1 (Closed)’ (IOR/R/15/2/1984). Orders are numbered, dated, and in most cases signed by or on behalf of the Political Agent.The volume includes:orders registering the appointment, discharge, dismissal, resignation, and leave (including sick leave) of various individuals employed in the Agency (or Victoria Memorial Hospital), including sweepers, peons, doorkeepers, farashes, clerks, munshis, and those associated with the Agency’s motor launch;orders relating to the salaries of Agency staff, including salary increases and allocation of dearness allowance, to offset the increased cost of living during the Second World War;an order, dated 14 March 1942, relating to remittances to the Residency Agent at Sharjah (f 48);orders, dated 1945, outlining important points of office procedure for clerks in the Agency’s English and Vernacular Offices (f 71, f 73);an order detailing the summer and winter ‘liveries’ (clothing) to be issued to ‘inferior staff’ (i.e. menial establishment staff) at the Agency for summer and winter (ff 77-78);orders relating to judicial and court procedures.A large portion of the volume has been left blank (ff 95-185). The last dated entry, dated 18 September 1949 (f 93) is followed by a number of further orders, which refer to dates in December 1949 and February 1950, but which are themselves undated.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 185; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the volume also contains a handwritten pagination sequence.
Abstract: The file comprises correspondence and other papers related to questions concerning: a) the liability of oil companies (specifically the Bahrain Petroleum Company, or BAPCO) to pay compensation to employees injured by enemy action or while undertaking war service, and b) the risks to oil company property at Bahrain from enemy action. Correspondents in the file include: the Political Agent at Bahrain (Edward Birkbeck Wakefield); the Chief Local Representative of BAPCO (Ward P Anderson); the BAPCO representative in London (Hamilton R Ballantyne); and the India Office, London (Roland Tennyson Peel).The file includes:discussion throughout 1942 and 1943, between BAPCO and India Office officials, regarding liability for injuries and death caused by enemy action, including compensation and war risk insurance, and the applicability of the India Workmen’s Compensation Act for Injury in Bahrain. The discussion chiefly centres on the status of British Indian subjects employed by BAPCO, and the provision by the Government of India of a war injuries scheme. Included in the discussion is a representation made by an Indian BAPCO employee, dated 16 July 1942 (f 39) which concerns the status of British Indians employed at BAPCO during time of war, and where liability lies for war injuries sustained by British Indians while employed at BAPCO;a copy of a Foreign Service Agreement, used for the employment of emigrants (chiefly from India) at BAPCO (ff 42-44);a copy of booklet, published by the Government of India Press, containing
The War Injuries Ordinance, 1941,
The War Injuries Scheme, 1942, and
The War Injuries Regulations, 1942(ff 71-92).Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the back cover with 101; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is also present in parallel between ff 2-3, ff 54-63, and ff 93-96; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled. Pagination: the file notes at the back (ff 97-100) have been paginated using pencil.
Abstract: The file comprises correspondence and other papers relating to the rescission of Defence Regulation No. 2 of 1942, made under the Persian Gulf States (Emergency) Order in Council (1939), which prohibited employees of the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) and Petroleum Concessions Limited (PCL) from quitting their employment without the prior consent of the British political authorities. The principal correspondents in the file are: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Geoffrey Prior); the Political Agent at Bahrain (Major Tom Hickinbotham; also T E Rogers, officiating in Hickinbotham’s absence); the India Office (Roland Tennyson Peel).The file includes:correspondence discussing difficulties raised by the Regulation (employees either having difficulties returning home for their leave, or not returning after their leave has completed), and the possibility of rescinding the Regulation in August 1944, rejected on the grounds that important expansion work on the refinery at Bahrain was ongoing, and that the Regulation was working effectively for all but one or two ‘ill-disposed employees’ (ff 3-4, ff 8-10, f 13, ff 21-22);correspondence dated from July 1945, concerning the suspension, and then the rescission of the Regulation, including copies of Regulation No. 1 of 1946, which officially repealed Regulation No. 2 of 1942 (ff 23-36);copies of correspondence sent by His Majesty’s Consul at Khorramshahr (Andrew Charles Stewart) to His Majesty’s Ambassador at Tehran (Sir Reader William Bullard), concerning difficulties encountered in enforcing a similar Regulation at the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), where many employees were reported to be deliberately reducing their output in order to force managers to dismiss them (ff 6-7, ff 11-12);correspondence between the Political Agent at Bahrain and the Chief Local Representative at BAPCO (Ward P Anderson) over the Regulation and its enforcement in relation to Indian employees taking leave (ff 16-19).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 44; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: This file contains the Roster of Employees of Petroleum Concessions Limited in Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial Coast. The rosters contain information on the position, date of engagement and the nationality of employees at the various locations of the Concession's operations. Most of the rosters cover factory floor and clerical employees with some junior management also named. Some folios include the names of employees at senior management level.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 59; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: The file mainly consists of copies of the Roster of Employees of the Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited (also spelled Bahrein Petroleum Company in the file) (sent to the India Office by the Political Agent, Bahrain), as of 30 September 1939, 31 December 1939, 31 March 1940, 30 June 1940, 30 September 1940, and 31 December 1940, including statements showing the number of the various nationalities employed by the Company.The rosters list the surnames and initials of each employee, and include details such as their designations (roles), the departments they worked in, their nationalities, and whether they were temporary or permanent staff. The rosters are divided into different categories of employees, including: Artizans [Artisans] and Domestic Employees; General, Skilled and Unskilled; U.S. Citizens; and U.K. British Subjects.The file also includes correspondence, of November to December 1940, between the India Office and the Bahrein Petroleum Company Limited and other correspondents, in response to an enquiry from A V Coulter, on behalf of Mrs Mary Patterson, of Carsontown, Saintfield, Northern Ireland, to the Minister of Information, Stormont, Belfast, regarding the whereabouts of an employee of the Bahrein Petroleum Company Limited, Mr J P Hannaford.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.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 405; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: This file mainly consists of copies of quarterly rosters (or summaries of rosters) of employees of the Bahrein [Bahrain] Petroleum Company Limited (BAPCO) for the period March 1941-December 1947, distributed by the Political Agent, Bahrain. Complete copies of the rosters are present for the following periods only: the first quarter of 1941 (dated 31 March 1941), and the four quarters of 1947 (dated 31 March 1947, 30 June 1947, 30 September 1947, and 31 December 1947 respectively). For the intervening period (i.e. April 1941 through to December 1946) only copies of tabular summaries of the rosters are present.The complete rosters include employees' names as well as other details such as date of employment, nationality, designation (e.g. labourer), and department (e.g. refinery). The tabular summaries show the total number of employees on the company's payroll, with sub-totals for nationalities and various other categories (e.g. clerical and technical, skilled, and unskilled).A significant amount of related correspondence is also included in the file. Alongside the rosters and roster summaries are copies of covering letters from the Political Agent to the Secretary to the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain, which contain brief comments regarding the contents of the rosters (usually remarks about any increases or decreases in the number of employees during the quarterly period, as well as a breakdown of the number of employees by nationalities).Also covered in the correspondence are matters relating to existing or prospective BAPCO employees, including the following: arrangements for the transfer of a longstanding BAPCO employee from Bahrain to the United States; BAPCO's wish to appoint a young English doctor named Dr A J Perfect, and its appeal to the India Office for assistance in this matter; the appointment in 1946 of an engineer named George Beeby Thompson as oil inspector to the Government of Bahrain.Other notable correspondents besides the Political Agent include the following: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; Charles Dalrymple Belgrave, Adviser to the Government of Bahrain; Hamilton R Ballantyne, representative of BAPCO; officials of the India Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office, and the Ministry of Fuel and Power, Petroleum Division.The file includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (folio 2).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 992; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: This item consists of a copy of a General Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 11 August 1874 and received by the India Office Political Department on 7 August 1874, inviting the attention of HM Government to Article II of the Telegraph Convention with the Persian [Iranian] Government, concluded on 2 December 1872, and expressing a hope that the Persian Government may be moved to take steps to ensure due protection of British officers employed in Persia. The Despatch is in reference to a letter of 12 June 1874 addressed by the Director-in-Chief of the Indo-European Government Telegraph Department to the Under-Secretary of State for India, regarding murderous attacks on employees of the Telegraph Staff in Persia.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 364, and terminates at f 364a, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The sequence contains one foliation anomaly, f 364a.