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'File VII/1. Telegraphic Connection to Kuwait.' [‎264r] (557/574)

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The record is made up of 1 file (270 folios). It was created in 13 Aug 1904-7 Feb 1930. It was written in English, Arabic and Hindi. 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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15
very successful and has attracted a considerable share of the available traffic.
This new service has only been working for four months, and it is too early to
say yet what the outcome may be, but I think it is probable that the cheap
rates now available will so stimulate the telegraph habit that the volume of
traffic will increase to dimensions which a few years ago would have been
thought impossible, and that there will be ample work for all.
DISCUSSION.
The Chairman, in opening the discussion, said the meeting had listened with
great pleasure to the lecturer’s most interesting account of the Indo-European
Telegraph Department. Mr. Simpson had referred to the manufacture of a cable in
1865 by Henley’s. The core of all cables, of course, consisted of a copper wire
covered with a gutta-percha core, surrounded with sheathing wires, and the core
of the 1865 cable was manufactured by the Gutta-percha Company, the oldest
manufacturing company of cables in the world. That was now the Telegraph
Construction and Maintenance Company, of which he had the honour to be one of
the managing directors. It was a very wonderful thing to have that enormous
line consisting of the two systems of the Indo-European Telegraph Company and
the Indo-European Telegraph Department, going right across Europe and across
Persia, through trackless deserts and very difficult country, and maintaining
in ordinary times a very stable system of communication between Great Britain and
India. During the war, undoubtedly, the system had been interrupted for a
considerable period, but during that period, as had been pointed out by the lecturer,
the Indo-European Telegraph Department had rendered invaluable services for
British communications with Mesopotamia ; in fact, if it had not been for the
telegraph system of the Department, it would have been almost impossible to
carry on the campaign in Mesopotamia at all. It might be thought that with the
splendid system of cables which existed in England and India, and the new beam
wireless waves, there was hardly room to-day for a very long land line ; but he
looked upon the Indo-European systems as a very important British asset. If
those systems were to give up their great land lines, they would undoubtedly
be taken over by one of the big European countries and probably worked
in competition with the existing British cable system. He considered that the
very existence of the Indo-European Company and the Department in Persia was of
extreme importance to the British Empire. If those systems were to pass into any
foreign hands it would, he thought, be very detrimental to British interests.
The joint purse to which the lecturer had referred was a fine example of industrial
association. It was very largely owing to the joint purse that the Indo-European
Company and the Department were enabled to revive their systems so extra
ordinarily well in 1923. During all that long period when their communications
were interrupted, if it had not been for the joint purse the Indo-European Company
would probably have disappeared, but owing to the joint purse they were able to
restore their system, and were now working as well as ever.
The lecturer had touched rather lightly on beam wireless. To all those who
dealt with cables, beam wireless was rather a sore subject; but they were not
afraid. Beam wireless was a most marvellous invention. It was not necessarily
beam wireless, but short-wave wireless and it was a wonderful invention, and had
proved very successful ; but it had very definite limitations. It was not by any
means continuous ; almost every day on almost every circuit there were times of

About this item

Content

The file contains correspondence related to the establishment of a wire connection between Kuwait and the Bushire-Fao cable. The correspondence is mainly about the site where the wireless telegraph station at Kuwait would be, the measurements, and the cost. In 1914 construction started, and in 1916 the wireless station opened at Kuwait. The file also contains correspondence about surveying work taking place around Kuwait, as well as correspondence about the recruitment of a surveyor to undertake the work.

The file includes an introductory booklet (folios 256-269) under the title, ‘The Indo-European Telegraph Department’, written by Maurice G Simpson, Director-in-Chief, Indo-European Telegraph Department, and published in 1928.

The main correspondence is between the following: the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. , Kuwait; the Foreign Department for the Government of India; the British Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Consulate General, Bushire; 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 Office, Basra; and the Basra Survey Party.

Extent and format
1 file (270 folios)
Arrangement

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

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 272; 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. Two additional foliation sequences are also present in parallel between ff 1-271 and ff 3-80; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.

Written in
English, Arabic and Hindi in Latin and Arabic script
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'File VII/1. Telegraphic Connection to Kuwait.' [‎264r] (557/574), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/R/15/5/16, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100041783545.0x00009e> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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