'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎65v] (132/226)

100 PRECIS OF INFORMATION REGARDING CONNECTION OF E. I. COMPY.
221. Iii a letter dated the 20tli February 1809 the Resident at
Bussorah reported that on the 5th of the preceding- month a Treaty* of
peace had been concluded between Great Britain and Turkey. In report
ing this event Mr. Manesty stated that he was convinced that the cordi
ality, moderation, and forbearance which had been observed towards the
inhabitants of Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. by the British Executive Government in
India and by himself locally during- the late period of hostility between
Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire had made a very favorable im
pression throughout the Pachalic, and had had the effect of increasing the
British influence in that quarter in an eminent degree.
222. Mr. Rich, the Resident at Bagdad, having during the year
made several complaints that he was not treated with that general
respect and attention by the Pacha which, as the British Representative
His Excellency's Court, he had a right to expect, and that on several
recent occasions he had been subjected to marked rudeness by the Pacha,
Mr. Jonathan Duncan, then Governor of this Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. , addressed the
following letter to His Excellency on the 11th November 1809. Previous,
however, to the receipt by the Pacha of this letter, the further indignities
to which Mr. Rich had been subjected were of such a nature as to induce
him to withdraw from Bagdad and to encamp at a distance from that
city
"I avail myself of this opportunity to enquire after Your Excellency's prosperity,
and to renew my assurances of friendship and good-will towards Your Excellency's
person and Government. At the same time I deem it necessary to make Your
Excellency a friendly communication on the subject of the situation of the British
Representative at the Court of Bagdad, and to lay every circumstance connected with
his office before Your Excellency. Having in view the dignity of the State and
importance of the office, appointed Mr. Rich to the situation of Resident at Your
Excellency's Court; it is almost needless to say that this officer is in possession of my
full confidence, and that all his measures in his representative character must be
considered as authorized by me, and consequently shall ever be accompanied by my
fullest countenance and support, and I shall naturally feel myself flattered by any
marks of attention and politeness shewn to him, and proportionally hurt at any show
of neglect or encroachment on the rights and privileges of the Resident, or any attempt
to derogate from the dignity of his official character, such as by interference in any
of his plans connected with the public service, or the establishment necessary to support
the respectability of his situation.
" It is unnecessary to recall to Your Excellency's recollection the treatment your
predecessor's Envoy, Hadjee Soliman, experienced in India. This Government claims for
its Representative consideration similar to that, and also to what every other power
affords to British Residents; it is equally unnecessary to point out to a person of Your
Excellency's discernment the advantages of the British alliance, and which party
would be a sufferer by the cessation of it. But it may possibly be requisite to hint
that the disputes between the late Resident and your predecessor have not escaped the
serious attention and animadversion of this Government, which was induced to look
it over from reasons principally connected with Your Excellency's accession to the
\ izierat of Bagdad, and its wish to believe Your Excellency would be actuated by
far different views. So far I have deemed it expedient to intimate to you in the way
of friendly communication : though I have everything to Lope from Your Excellency's
well known amicable dispositions, yet I wished to preclude the possibility of any
unpleasant circumstances arising to interrupt the harmony and good understanding-
which I am so desirous should be maintained between the two States, which circuin"
stances might arise, not from any unfriendly disposition of Your Excellency, but
merely from the want of having the representative character and my sentiments on
* Vide Appendix D.