File 600/1905 Pt 2 'Aden Hinterland: Future Policy' [‎289v] (66/226)

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Government of India’s
Despatch No. 3 63 Secret,
dated the 31st August 1905.
Secretary of State’s Des
patch No. 35 Secret, dated
the 10th November 1905.
do not affect external relations. In the letter of this Government No. 30-M.,
dated the 18th April 1904, which was written before the above Despatch
could he considered in Bombay, His Excellency the Governor in Council
again pressed the desirability of avoiding any imputation of a premature
and unnecessary interference with the internal independence of the tribes.
His Excellency the Governor in Council, therefore, feels that he is at liberty
to submit his views at the present moment without the risk of any imputation
that this Government has been in favour of a forward policy in disregard to
the wishes of superior authority.
3 . In May 1904, His Excellency Lord Curzon took the step of posting
a Political Officer at Dthala, where he has since remained, and I am to state
that while His Excellency the Governor in Council was not wdiolly in favour of
that step at the time it was taken, yet there can be no reason whatever to
doubt that the Political Agent’s presence at Dthala and also the presence of the
British troops who are there in consequence is entirely acceptable to the Amir
of Dthala and to the inhabitants of the Amiri territory. I am to invite
attention to the Government of India’s telegram No. 3095-E.A., dated the
17th September 1904, which gives eloquent expression to the views of the Amir
of Dthala on the subject. I am also in the same connection to point out that
when the question arose of the policy to be followed by the Political Officer
stationed at Dthala, His Excellency the Governor in Council in his No. 3861,
dated the 20th June 1905, expressed strong preference for the policy of
building up and supporting the authority of the Amir of Dthala and enabling
him to govern the territory rather than of interfering directly and dealing
with the subordinate Sheikhs ourselves. The policy there recommended of
strictly confining the Political Officer’s activities to friendly advice and
beneficent assistance was accepted by the Govern
ment of India and the Secretary of State in the
communications marginally* noted, and I am now to
record the deliberate opinion of His Excellency the
Governor in Council that as a result British policy
in the hinterland of Aden is not only one of non
aggression, but one which has been pursued hitherto with the full acceptance
and good-w r ill of the Amir of Dthala wdthin whose territories the Political
Officer has been posted. So far as the North-East portion of the Hinterland
goes that represents the present position. 4 5
4. In the South-Western part of the Hinterland from Nobat Dakhin to
Sheikh Said there has been latterly a somewhat abnormal recrudescence of inter
tribal disputes and these have affected us in two ways, partly as resulting in
outrages within that limited area of the Protectorate, similar to that formerly-
known on the Somali Coast as the ten mile limit in which, as the Secretary of
State lays down, disturbances call for interposition, and partly by raids across
the frontier into Turkish territory which in the words of the Secretary of
State’s Despatch No. 15 of 1 st April 1904 it has become one of our obligations
to prevent. There has also been in the same region, ever since the tower of
Auja difficulty, fear of encroachment of local Turkish officials and this
manifested itself recently at Mafalis in the manner already reported to the
Government of India. The accommodation of all these matters led His
Excellency the Governor in Council to consider that some exercise of steadying
influence was necessary and to make the proposals in my No. 1804 of the
5 th March 1906. I am to say that those proposals did not contemplate
any violent action, but merely a deputation of officers to the country affected
with sufficient authority to make an expression of the Government wishes
through their medium respected and to cause the tribes to understand that the
representative of British authority at Aden was able to enforce the language of
admonition which he from time to time uses when occasion demands.
5 . Passing now to the questions in your letter under reply, it is only
necessary to refer to your telegram No. 3905-E. A., dated the 17 th September 1904,
to tbe Secretary of State, to his reply thereto, and to the Treaty subsequently
concluded with the Amir, in consequence, on the 28th JSovember 1904, and to
the subsequent course of events to make it clear that the Amir of Dthala will