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'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎85r] (174/386)

The record is made up of 1 volume (189 folios). It was created in 1907. 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. .

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Government. The result was that Indian interests were inadequately represented
at Tehran. The position was anomalous. India supplied 9 out of 14 j Consulates
with officers; half the entire charges of British representation were met from
Indian funds; Persian and Indian frontiers were now for a long distance
coterminous and political and commercial interests were daily increasing. The
presence at Tehran of an officer from the Indian Political Department
familiar with the views of the Government of India and with India’s com
mercial needs therefore rested on a stronger basis than when it was advocated
by Lords Northbrook and Lytton. The views of His Majesty’s Minister at
Tehran on this proposal were requested before addressing the Secretary of State
but no reply had been received before Lord Curzou left India.
16 The question of efficient personnel is closely connected with
Proposed special consular servioo for the question of extending British re-
Persia. presentation in Persia. No umlorm
svstem existed for filling Consular appointments in Persia or for the
training of junior officers to fill such appointments. Various schemes were
su^ested with a view to placing matters on a better footing. A plan
which was seriously considered and laid before the Secretary of State in Octo
ber 1902 proposed that a special Consular service should be instituted for Persia,
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. . The scheme provided for raising the Moh-
ammerah Vice-Consulate to a Consulate and the native agencies at Kerman-
shah and Shiraz to Vico-Consulates and for the reduction of the Reslit
Consulate to a Vice-Consulate. The appointments of Consul-General at
Bushire, Meshed and Baghdad, and Consul in Seistau and at Kerman, it
was proposed, should continue to he reserved for officers of the Political Depart
ment of the Government of India, the rest of the posts, Ispahan and lahriz
(Consuls-General) and Mohammerah and Basrah (Consulates) and the 1 ice-
Consulates at Reffit, Bushire, Tehran, Bunder Abbas, Bahrein, Kermanshah
and Shiraz, being filled by recruitment from the special service.
The officers appointed to the service would be recruited partly in England
and partly in India either by examination or nomination. An alternative
plan was also proposed, viz., the formation of a Persian section of the
Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Consular Service. The Special Persian service being considered too small
to offer sufficient inducement to competent officers, the plan of filling certain posts
bv officers of the Indian Government and others by officers of the loreign Office
w r as eventually adopted. The London Foreign Office concurred as regards
raisino* the status of Mohammerah and pointed out that the proposed reduction
as regards Resht had already been effected. There was, however, a difference
of opinion as to the division of posts between the Foreign Office and the Indian
service. As a special case the Foreign Office agreed to appoint a Vice-Consul
from the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Service to Bushire but were not desirous of taking over any
more unhealthy posts in addition to Basrah, which went over to the Imperial
Government in 1898, and they further considered it desirable to leave Bahrein
and Bunder Abbas to be manned by Indian officers and to takeover Shiraz and
also Baghdad if the Government of India considered the transter desirable.
Lord Curzon was not entirely in accord with these suggestions and the follow
ing telegraphic correspondence passed on the subject.—
To Secretary of State, dated the 1st June 1903.
The chief difficulty is in regard co Bunder Abbas and Bahrein and the Foreign Office
suggestions do not help. We prefer retaining Baghdad for the present and consider that exist
ing arrangements had better continue, the Vice-Consulship, Shiraz, being tilled
and Ahwaz and Kermansh ih from the Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. service. \U would however weLome a
trained officer from that service as V ice-Consul, Bushire and are prepared to agree to the oreign
Office suggestions as to a considerable interchange of officers tor Persian consular pos & .
Kuwait and Mohammerah, especially the former, being important to Indian interests,
ali Indian officer should be placed in charge of both with head-quarters at Mohammerah,
a small gunboat, being retained at the latter place for bis use In this way the homogeneity ot
Consular appoint nents at Golf ports would be preserved. Arab Sheikhs are perhaps best
managed by Indian Officers. By offering greater inducements, we hope to obtain a larger
supply of officers fully qualified in the modern colloquial 1 ereianand Arabic the tests m vvluc
are under revision.

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Content

Printed at the GC [Government Central] Press, Simla.

The volume is divided into three parts: Part I (folios 5-47) containing an introduction; Part II (folios 48-125) containing a detailed account; and Part III (folios 126-188) containing despatches and correspondence connected with Part I Chapter IV ('The Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ', folios 28-47).

Part I gives an overview of policy and events in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. region during Curzon's period as Viceroy [1899-1905], with sections on British policy in Persia; the maintenance and extension of British interests; Seistan [Sīstān]; and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Part II contains more detailed accounts of selected topics, including sections on British policy in Persia, customs and finance, quarantine, administration, communications, and British and Russian activity in Seistan. The despatches and correspondence in Part III include correspondence from the Government of India in the Foreign Department, the Secretary of State for India, and the Viceroy; addresses and speeches by Curzon; and notes of interviews between Curzon and local rulers.

Mss Eur F111/531-534 consist of four identical printed and bound volumes. However, the four volumes each show a small number of different manuscript annotations and corrections.

This volume contains manuscript additions on folios 8, 11-12, 14, 42 (a sixteen word note concerning the use by the Shaikh of Koweit [Kuwait] of a distinctive colour [flag] for Kuwait shipping), and 62-66.

Extent and format
1 volume (189 folios)
Arrangement

The volume contains a list of Parts I-III on folio 4; a table of contents of Part I on folio 6; a table of contents of Part II on folio 49; and a table of contents of Part III on folios 127-129, which gives a reference to the paragraph of Part I Chapter IV that the despatch or correspondence is intended to illustrate.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 191; 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: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

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English in Latin script
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'SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS AND MEASURES OF THE VICEROYALTY OF HIS EXCELLENCY LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON, VICEROY AND GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA IN THE FOREIGN DEPARTMENT. I. JANUARY 1899-APRIL 1904. II. DECEMBER 1904-NOVEMBER 1905. VOLUME IV. PERSIA AND THE PERSIAN GULF.' [‎85r] (174/386), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F111/534, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100070118029.0x0000af> [accessed 29 March 2024]

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