IOR/R/15/2/346 f.1 'File 9/5 Traffic in cultured pearls on Trucial Coast', 1933 (ink on...

The file contains correspondence, in English and Arabic, between the Political Agent at Bahrain and the Residency Agent at Sharjah. The correspondence refers to merchants mixing Japanese cultured pearls with real pearls in the Trucial Coast, thereby damaging the reputation of the industry with the Bombay pearl dealers. Two of the merchants in question, from Qatar and Sharjah respectively, were jailed and fined and the pearls confiscated. The file also contains copies of reports commissioned to an American malacologist, Clarence F Hoy, on the subject of cultured pearls.