Telephone Royal 4535 RECEIVED IN Enter som ; 28th July, 1961. p.please Dear Crawford, SEA COMMUNICATIONS - SAFETY PRECAUTIONS IN THE PERSIAN GULF I write to express my appreciation of the convening of a meeting with yourselves and experts from the Ministry of Transport and the War Office on Wednesday 26th July. This was most helpful to us and I have now instructed our Agents in the Persian Gulf to make immediate contact with the local Political Representatives with a view to tying up maximum security precautions at each port. From our side, we are investigating possibilities of more definite measures to segregate passengers from their baggage; to confine movement of passengers on board; to withdraw all visitors' facilities except for those in possession of Police passes and to introduce what inspections we can during the course of the voyage. I am also hoping to appoint one of our commanders to undertake a detailed review of ship security with particular reference to liaison with the shore people and I shall let you know when this can be put in hand. Meanwhile, we did mention briefly the possibility of carrying an official armed guard for that section of the voyage within the Persian Gulf, possibly omitting the Shatt-al Arab ports. I think you undertook to consider this further from the political angle but I do feel that to carry any weight, such an armed guard would have to be officially constituted and possibly drawn from one or other of the Armed Services. Perhaps you could let me know whether it is felt this could be arranged. I am thinking in terms of say a squad of up to 6 who would, of course, be accommodated suitably by the ship. I must admit this is not a particularly attractive proposition from our point of view as our passenger accommodation is, at present, fairly fully stretched but if we have to face
