These volumes comprise the periodic political reports and intelligence summaries prepared by British political officers stationed in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Trucial States and Muscat, as well as in Bushire, Bandar Abbas and elsewhere on the Persian side. The Diaries provide an on-the-spot account of local events in the detailed and disciplined format demanded by the British Foreign Office, and cover political events in each country, diplomatic analysis and interpretation, foreign relations, home affairs, civil administration and development, tribal affairs, economic affairs and local personalities. The value of the Diaries lies also in their frequency and their detail, creating a cumulative, consistent and reliable historical record. This publication creates, for the benefit of scholars, an orderly series of political reports for the Persian Gulf states in a single 24-volume set, where previously the various reports lay scattered and unknown in numerous official files and no integrated collection was available.
