Political Agency, Bahrain

IOR/R/15/2

Political Agency, Bahrain

1899-1953

The political (IOR/R/15/2) and judicial (IOR/R/15/3) series of the Political Agency, Bahrain, make up the largest collection in the IOR/R/15 group. The arrangement of the IOR/R/15/2 series reflects the three branches into which the Agency was divided: namely the Confidential Office 1899-1951, the English Office 1910-50, and the Vernacular Office 1926-50. There are also a few miscellaneous files some dated as late as 1953. The various sub-series of Confidential Office files reflect reorganisations of the filing system undertaken in 1921 and 1931/1932. Only a few separate English Office files date from before 1926, but in that year a new series of English Office files was begun, as also a separate series of Vernacular Office papers. The Confidential and English Offices each covered a broad and overlapping range of subjects. The Vernacular Office dealt chiefly with consular and judicial business, and translated (and sometimes summarised) incoming documents for submission to the Political Agent, and drafted replies in Arabic for his approval.

For the period before 1899 material on Bahrain will be found in the Bushire Residency records: from the 1820s there is correspondence with the Native Agent in the 'Native Letters' and 'Translation Books' (e.g. IOR/R/15/1/44) and from 1850 onwards in the relevant subject 'Compilations' (e.g. IOR/R/15/1/130). After 1899 the Bushire subject files include the Resident's correspondence with the Political Agent, Bahrain, and with the Govt of India on Bahrain affairs. For the Bahrain Political Agent's Court records see the next series: IOR/R/15/3.

Public Record(s)

Arabic; English

2022 files

Unrestricted

The East India Company showed interest in the islands of Bahrain as early as 1613, and in the eighteenth century there were occasional proposals to establish representation there which came to nothing. In the nineteenth century successive treaties defined the relationship between the British and Bahrain, from the 1820s a Native Agent was employed to report to the Resident at Bushire, and the First Assistant Resident at Bushire sometimes spent short periods on the island. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Home Government and the Government of India became increasingly concerned about the Turkish and French activities in the area, and the possibility of stationing a British representative in Bahrain began to be considered. This proposal was strongly supported by the Political Resident at Bushire both on political and commercial grounds, and by the Viceroy Lord Curzon who in 1899 recommended the appointment of an Agent at Bahrain as a necessary part of the expansion of British influence in the Gulf. Finally, in January 1900, the first British officer J.C.Gaskin (a Political Assistant at Bushire) took up office. In 1904 Gaskin was replaced by a higher ranking officer, Captain F.B.Prideaux, who was later invested with the local rank of Political Agent directly subordinate to the Political Resident, the post being borne on the cadre of the Government of India Political Department. During the First World War the Agency, with that of Kuwait, was placed under the political control of Sir Percy Cox in Mesopotamia. During the war years British policy towards Bahrain was formed in the light of British interests in Mesopotamia and of British relations with Ibn Sa'ud while the Government of India's interests were largely ignored. The appointment of the Political Agent lay with the Civil Commissioner at Baghdad. The Masterton-Smith Committee left control of Bahrain affairs, other than matters of policy affecting relations with Ibn Sa'ud which were reserved to the Colonial Office, to the Government of India subject to the general control of the Home Government and to the prior concurrence of the Colonial Office in matters of 'political significance', and by 1922 immediate control of Bahrain had been returned to the Political Resident in the Gulf. In 1933, after the end of the British Mandate in Iraq, the Colonial Office finally gave up responsibility for Gulf affairs and the India Office resumed its earlier administrative role which lasted until the transfer of power in India.