'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [93r] (192/798)
The record is made up of 1 volume (395 folios). It was created in Dec 1869-Dec 1870. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
n Minister ( 0t
0ur Resident’,
of the Mini^
e gan to intrlgug
ll to deport ^
Kuteef, in orfc
last we learnt
1 landed on tfe
s two principal
In this under,
son of the Ex*
med Nassir bin
in Khalifa was
e. Thereafter
d his son, and
Khalifa familj
lis short-lived
inhabitants of
petitioned the
5 its subjects,
breach of the
of convincing
promise which
3 y and plunder
off vessels of
which Colonel
iber were com-
aed bin Khalifa
he Government
d Chiefs. The
ined in the Fort
ibarik, fled will
3 we desired tli(
lU ch of the pro'
to the Wahate
done, and byo®
eedings may h
rferredto M
th the SheM 11
piracy and sh"
i the 'vords ^
181
ourselves that these words are not unlikely to engender in the mind
of the Persian Government pretensions and expectations which Her
Majesty’s Government can hardly have intended to give an opening for,
and which may not improbably be interpreted at Teheran as a tacit
acknowledgment of obsolete claims which the Persian Government
has lately shown a disposition to revive, hut which the Government of
India is not prepared to admit. The Persian Government, we may
remark, are at the present moment powerless to stop disturbances
at sea. They have no navy, and even if they were in a position to
purchase vessels of war, we could not surrender to them the pro
tectorate of the Gulf without the certainty of hostilities, not only with
Muscat and the Arab Chiefs of the littoral, who would not tolerate
the pretensions of Persia, but also with the Wahahees, and probably
even with Turkey, who could with equal show of reason put forward
obsolete claims to supremacy, which our position as guardians of the
peace of the Gulf alone prevents her from reviving. The obligations,
moreover, which we have contracted with the Arab Chiefs to watch
over ,the peace of the Gulf, to put down aggressions by sea, and to
take all necessary steps for the reparation of injuries inflicted on
them, are such as we cannot abnegate. The only security for peace
and the safety of trade in these waters lies in our preserving that
position which, with the consent of the turbulent tribes, we somewhat
reluctantly took up ; which for more than half a century we have,
not without difficulty and considerable cost, maintained; and which
Persia, with her feeble resources and the scanty respect paid to her
by the Arab Chiefs of the littoral, could never assume.
With regard to the opinion of the Persian Minister for Foreign
Affairs that the murder of Mahomed bin Khalifa, Ex-Chief of Bahrein,
had obviated the necessity for Colonel Pelly’s proceeding to Bahrein,
we have, in the first place, to observe that Mahomed bin Khalifa was
not killed in the late disturbances; but had he been murdered, we
consider that it would have been none the less incumbent on us, under
the treaty obligations which we have contracted with Bahrein, to
punish his fellow aggressors for their share in the breach of the
maritime peace, and their attack on the island.
In a recent conversation between the Charge d’Affaires at
Teheran and the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the latter
admitted that his Government had not yet acquired sufficient power or
authority at Bahrein to enable it to repress acts of piracy or to main
tain order, though he trusted that before long, by the measures which
had been taken, the Shah s authority would be established there in
such a way as to obtain for the English Government satisfaction for
any acts of which it might have to complain, and to prevent the pos
sibility of future strife. It is evident that the measures alluded to are
those relating to the following case (see p. 25) i — A vessel, carrying
Arab colours, arrived off the harbour of Bahrein in the afternoon of
About this item
- Content
Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1870. The letters are dated December 1869-December 1870. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:
- Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
- Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Muscat
- Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
- Abstracts of Letters received from Muscat
- Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire [Bushehr]
- Abstracts of Letters received from Aden and Zanzibar
- Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
- Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Aden.
Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:
- Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
- Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; roads; canals; irrigation; docks; and river embankments
- Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
- Land issues, including: the cultivation of cotton, cinchona, and silk; forestry; and coal mining
- Education
- Banking
- Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links to India
- Affairs concerning Princely States, including internal administration, debts, allowances, issues of succession, investment in railways, and territorial claims
- Issues around emigration from India to British and French colonies
- Legislative and judicial affairs, including the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units and a proposed naval force for the Indian seas and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- Frontier affairs: relations with tribes on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers and frontier raids
- Affairs in Persia [Iran], including: Persian claims to sovereignty over Bahrein [Bahrain] and objection to British actions in Bahrein; frontier disputes around Khelat [Kalat], Mekran [Makran], and Seistan [Sistan] and proposed arbitration of the Persian-Afghan border; anticipated food shortages and subsequent disturbances involving British subjects exporting grain from Bushire
- Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including: the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of Syud Azan [Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; debates around British policy towards Syud Azan; confrontation between Muscat and the Wahabees [Waḥabī movement]; the issue of the Zanzibar subsidy; and Syud Azan’s claims to Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], Gwadur [Gwadar], Charbar [Chabahar] and other territories on the Mekran Coast
- Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including: the campaign of Colonel Lewis Pelly in Bahrein and the installation of Esau bin Ali [‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] as Ruler; trade and shipping in the Gulf; the desire of the Shah of Persia for a naval presence in the Gulf; Dutch and Turkish [Ottoman] activity in the region; and tensions between Bahrein and the Wahabees, including Wahabee inroads in the Guttur peninsula [Qatar]
- Affairs in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], including relations with Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and Russia
- Central Asian affairs, including the Russian advance in the region, trade and communication from India to Central Asia via Cashmere [Kashmir] and Ladak [Ladakh], and affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang]
- Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, relations with Muscat, the death of Syud Majid [Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], and the accession to the throne of Syud Burgash [Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
- Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including: relations with neighbouring polities, including Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate], Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate], Fodtheli [Faḍlī Sultanate], and Kathiree [Kathīrī Sultanate]; the purchase of Little Aden; the defences of Aden; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] from Aseer [‘Asir] and the threat to Lahej from the Zaidees [Zaidīs]
- Affairs in the Red Sea, including attempted French, Austrian, Turkish, and Egyptian inroads in the region
- Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Bhootan [Bhutan], and Nipal [Nepal].
The primary correspondents are:
- The Government of India
- The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
- The Resident at Aden
- The Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- The Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Muscat
- The Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in Zanzibar.
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (395 folios)
- Arrangement
The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 384-393.
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 395; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.
Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
- Title
- 'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:116v, 119r:395v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence
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