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File 1912/897 Pt 2 ‘Persian Gulf:- British post offices’ [‎131r] (266/456)

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The record is made up of 1 volume (222 folios). It was created in 1914-1919. It was written in English and French. 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. .

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3
that this consideration might be brought home to them, if not by a request to
contribute to the mail subsidy, then by an allusion to their good fortune in being
immune from such a contribution/’
»••****
j. Extract from a memorandum on the British Indian Post Offices m the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. and 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 Mr. F. B. O’ Shea, Personal Assis
tant to the Postmaster-General of Bombay. Revised Edition by Mr, F.
Whymper, Postmaster-General, Bombay> dated June 1905, page 29, para
graph 18.
*•••••*
“ The Persian Post Offices were allowed to exchange with each other
closed letter mail bags through the Indian Post Offices by means of the British
India Steam Navigation Company’s mail steamers. No payment on account ot
sea transit was claimed for the conveyance of these closed mails as the service
was not considered to be of sufficient importance to call for special statistics on
union principles.”
And these concessions are all the acts of a consistently hostile and inconsi
derate administration !
It would seem high time to reconsider the situation and whether the Persian
Postal Administration should not be informed that in view of the consistent y
hostile and inconsiderate attitude taken up and maintained by them, the Uov-
ernment of India finds itself unable to undertake the carnage of Persian mails
between Persian Ports in the Gulf by their subsidised mail steamers except upon
payment in advance for carriage on strict union principles.
It is on the representations of this Administration that we are requested to
abandon our intention to establish a Post Office at Ahwaz. its estabhshmen
was first advocated by Sir Percy Cox in the following passage on his report
No. 431, dated Bushire, 9th February 1913, to the Government of India.
“ q Ah ■was. —Ahwaz is at present unprovided with a British Post Office,
hough British steamers run regularly on the Karun between Ahwaz and Moham-
nerah, and though there is a growing European colony there. The principal
firms have learnt by bitter experience that correspondence of urgency or mp t
Mice cannot safely be entrusted to the Persian Post Office and generaUy have
recourse to special private messengers to carry their mails to and from Moham
merah; a similar course was adopted by His Majesty s Vice-Consul Ahwaz,
when the post was first created, for similar reasons and has been continued
since.
“ It would be convenient both with a view to facilitating our commerce and
in order to emphasize the position of Ahwaz, as one of the Ports of the Persian
Gulf, to initiate a British Post Office there ; there is think, htt e doub , t P‘ i h
would be self-supporting and that it would be greatly appreciated by the British
and Foreign communities as well as by Persian mercantile classes,^ who depend
largely on the British Post Offices to make remittances to Bombay .
It was probably because Sir Percy Cox had, in the passage produced above
so clearly established a case for the creation of a mis ° S a |j v an .i
ground of “ postal facilities ” and the advantages to commerce generally and
British trade in particular that he confined himself mainly, though by no means
entirely, in his later despatch No. 3585 ° f the 2tth November 19.3 to the Polm
cal advantages of the Scheme. There appears to be ht le prospect when every
Southern Province in Persia is bankrupt and the Central Administration g
^calling on these same bankrupt administrations for funds to enable it to carry

About this item

Content

The volume comprises copies of printed correspondence, handwritten correspondence, notes and other papers. This relates to the operation of British Indian post offices in Persia, and in particular in the region known as Arabistan [Ahvāz] by British officials. The file is a direct chronological continuation of File 1912/897 Pt 1 ‘Persian Gulf. British post offices [also in 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. ]’ (IOR/L/PS/10/242). Principal correspondents in the volume include: HM Minister in Tehran (Sir Charles Murray Marling); 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. staff (John Evelyn Shuckburgh; Arthur Hirtzel); the Deputy Chief Political Officer at Basra (Captain Arnold Talbot Wilson); the Chief Political Officer at Basra (Sir Percy Zachariah Cox); and the Officiating 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. (Major Stuart George Knox).

Subjects covered in the volume include:

  • a printed copy of the Convention of Rome (dated 26 May 1906), created by the Universal Postal Union, incorporating detailed regulations for its execution, in French and English, printed in 1907 by HM Stationery Office (ff 160-224);
  • office notes relating to protests from the Persian Government at the opening of Government of India post offices at Henjam [Jazīreh-ye Hengām] and Charbar [Chābahār], and the anticipated post office at Ahwaz [Ahvāz] (ff 153-159);
  • a copy of a letter from Knox to Sir Walter Beaupré Townley, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. at the Court of Persia, dated 21 June 1914, countering complaints made by the Persian Government about British Indian postal service activities in southern Persia, by pointing out the perceived inadequacies in the Persian postal system (ff 130-133);
  • complaints made by HM Consul at Kerman (Lieutenant-Colonel David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer), of deficiencies in the existing Persian postal service at Kerman. The Consul emphasises insecurities and delays on routes to Bandar Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās] and Tehran, the inefficiency of staff, and the importance of the service to Kerman’s European community (ff 135-136, ff 77-78);
  • a memorandum written by Wilson to Cox, dated 21 July 1917, giving a detailed account of the prevailing political situation (including Anglo-Persian relations) in Northern Arabistan (ff 41-44);
  • the proposal, put forward by Cox in 1916, to open a British Indian post office at the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s (APOC) concession at Maidan-i-Naphtum [Meydān-e Naftūn]. It provokes much discussion between British officials in the Gulf, Government of India officials, and officials from 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. and the Foreign Office, chiefly relating to the likely response of the Persian authorities to such a move, and whether the move could be justified. A useful précis of the differing opinions of officials involved in making the decision can be found at ff 14-18.

Each part includes a divider which gives the subject and part numbers, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.

Extent and format
1 volume (222 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the rear to the front of the volume.

The subject 897 ( Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. : British Post Offices) consists of 4 volumes, IOR/L/PS/10/242-245. The volumes are divided into 4 parts with each part comprising one volume.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 226; 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. Pagination: an original printed pagination sequence is present between ff 160-224.

Written in
English and French in Latin script
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File 1912/897 Pt 2 ‘Persian Gulf:- British post offices’ [‎131r] (266/456), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/243, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100026393900.0x000043> [accessed 12 May 2024]

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