890F.6363 Standard Oil Co./49: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton)
72. With reference to the failure of the appropriate authorities to grant authorization for an airplane owned by the California Arabian Standard Oil Company to fly over Kuwait and Bahrein, as reported in your telegram No. 65 of February 17, 1934, 1 p.m., the interested company has pointed out that although the refusal is not serious in the case of Kuwait it is decidedly so as regards Bahrein since it may become necessary for the pilots to make emergency landings on that island to bring sick or injured employees from Saudi Arabia to the [Page 830] American missionary hospital or to make urgent repairs to the airplane in the company’s shops at Bahrein.
You are requested to approach the Foreign Office again in this matter endeavoring to obtain, at the very least, authorization for the plane to land at Bahrein for the purposes specified above. In presenting your request, you may say that the Department finds it difficult to believe, in view of the humanitarian considerations involved, that the appropriate authorities will fail to grant the permission requested.
You are authorized to reimburse the British Government for whatever telegraphic expense it may be called upon to incur in arriving at a decision in this matter, taking such expenditure up in your accounts as chargeable to the California Arabian Standard Oil Company.