File 5015/1919 Pt 2 'Persia: Appointment of Experts for Revision of Tariff'

Content

This item comprises: correspondence; deciphered telegrams; 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. Political Department registry forms with subject and notes; 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. draft telegrams, draft letters and notes; and covering letters of the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the Under-Secretary of State for India.

The papers relate to the nomination of British representatives to serve on the Joint Anglo-Persian [Iranian] Committee for the examination and revision of the [Anglo]-Persian Customs Tariff, including:

• The recommendation by Sir Percy Cox [Acting Minister] in Tehran, of C R Watkins, CIE, Indian Civil Service, then Chief Collector of Customs, Mesopotamia [Iraq]
• The recommendation by the Board of Trade of Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith (then in India) and his assistant Thomas Martland Ainscough, and the agreement of the Foreign Office and Cox
• Candidates suggested by the Government of India, including James Algernon Stevens, Collector of Customs, Rangoon [Yangon], Arthur Herbert Ley, Secretary to Government of India, Commerce and Industry Department, and Arthur Cecil McWatters, Secretary to the Secretariat Committee, Indian Civil Service (only McWatters was appointed)
• Candidates suggested by the Civil Commissioner Baghdad, including M M S Gubbay, Controller of Currency India, S S B Dantur, Collector of Customs (then on the Currency Commission in London), and Major Reader William Bullard, CIE, Levant A geographical area corresponding to the region around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Consular Service (only Bullard was appointed)
• Discussion regarding the apportionment of the costs of the British delegation
• The salaries and allowances of Committee appointees Watkins, Bullard and McWatters.

The principal correspondents are: the Board of Trade, Commercial Relations and Treaties Department; the Foreign Office; Sir Percy Cox; 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. ; the Civil Commissioner Baghdad; and the Viceroy of India. Note that there is some overlap of early correspondence with IOR/L/PS/10/856/1.

Extent and format

1 item (90 folios)

It is part of

File 5015/1919 Pt 1-3 'PERSIA:- REVISION OF CUSTOMS TARIFF'

600 images

Ref: IOR/L/PS/10/856

Written in

English in Latin script

Type

Archival item

Access & Reference

Original held at

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.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/L/PS/10/856/2

Former external reference(s)

P 50515/1919 Pt 2

History of this record

Date(s)

24 May 1919-30 Dec 1920 (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects

PersonnelWages

People & organisations

Civil CommissionerViceroy and Governor-General of India in CouncilBoard of Trade

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File 5015/1919 Pt 2 'Persia: Appointment of Experts for Revision of Tariff', British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/10/856/2, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100130976186.0x000002> [accessed 9 July 2026]

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