Previous 2/798'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎8v] (23/798)
24/798 Next'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎9v] (25/798)
View all items
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎9r] (24/798)
Previous 2/798'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎8v] (23/798)
24/798 Next'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎9v] (25/798)
Skip to item: of 798
See full record
Information about this record Back to top
Open in Universal viewer
Open in Mirador IIIF viewer

'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎9r] (24/798)

This item is part of
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
798 images
Ref: IOR/L/PS/20/CA10

The record is made up of 1 volume (395 folios). It was created in Dec 1869-Dec 1870. 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. .

Transcription

This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.

Apply page layout

anxious to build a Protestant church at Mandalay as soon as possible.
The Chief Commissioner of British Burmah hears from all quarters
that Captain Strover is much liked by the King, and by his Ministers.]
No. 385.
Political Agent’s Court at Mandalay. (See p. 669 of 1869.)
Your Despatch of 20th October intimates that you are not fur-
nished with sufficient information as to our proceedings connected
with the opening of the Anglo-Burman Court at Mandalay, and that
you doubt whether certain proceedings of Major Sladen in the matter
were as indiscreet as they at first sight appeared to be.
You are aware that, on 10th April last, Major Sladen, after
receiving authority to open the Court, in accordance with Article V.
of the Treaty of 1867, issued certain public notifications calling upon
British subjects desirous of doing so to register their names in the
books of the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. . These he posted upon the walls of the town
sending copies also to the King and his Ministers.
At this particular juncture there had appeared, both in the
dominions of Her Majesty and in those of the King of Burmah, symptoms
of a general feeling of hostility and alarm, partly engendered and
greatly encouraged by inflammatory articles in the English public
press of British Burmah and India. The relations existing between
the two Governments were said to be in an unsatisfactory state, and
the probability of war was freely discussed. The rapid increase of
this feeling gave us much concern, and we felt it to be our duty
to take every opportunity of enjoining on all our Political officers,
both privately and officially, that it was their duty, by all means in
their power, to check and counteract the growth of this dangerous
feeling, which, if it increased, was certain to involve us in difficult and
dangerous complications.
We were made aware that the King and his Ministers were in
their hearts opposed to the opening of the Court at Mandalay, espe
cially as to the registration of names at the Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. . The posting up
of public notifications by our Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in the heart of the capital,
although a measure which might have been harmless and even jus
tifiable at any other time and under other circumstances, was not one
likely, in this state of feeling, to conciliate His Majesty or his people; in
fact, it only led to the notices being at once torn down and defaced, to
an increase of hostility to the new Court on the part of the King and his
Ministers, and to a delay of some months in its opening, which would
not, in our opinion, have occurred had measures of a less demonstrative
character been adopted.
Trusting implicitly to the local knowledge, experience and judg
ment of our Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. , and not having been fully aware in the

About this item

Content

Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by 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. from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1870. The letters are dated December 1869-December 1870. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

  • Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Muscat
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Muscat
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire [Bushehr]
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Aden and Zanzibar
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Bushire and Aden
  • Abstracts of Letters received from Zanzibar and Aden.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence covers issues including:

  • Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
  • Public works, including: railways, including a proposed railway from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; roads; canals; irrigation; docks; and river embankments
  • Revenue, expenditure, and taxation
  • Land issues, including: the cultivation of cotton, cinchona, and silk; forestry; and coal mining
  • Education
  • Banking
  • Telegraphy, including international telegraphic links to India
  • Affairs concerning Princely States, including internal administration, debts, allowances, issues of succession, investment in railways, and territorial claims
  • Issues around emigration from India to British and French colonies
  • Legislative and judicial affairs, including the question of jurisdiction over British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Military affairs, including the organisation and supply of military units and a proposed naval force for the Indian seas and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
  • Frontier affairs: relations with tribes on the Northwest and Northeast Frontiers and frontier raids
  • Affairs in Persia [Iran], including: Persian claims to sovereignty over Bahrein [Bahrain] and objection to British actions in Bahrein; frontier disputes around Khelat [Kalat], Mekran [Makran], and Seistan [Sistan] and proposed arbitration of the Persian-Afghan border; anticipated food shortages and subsequent disturbances involving British subjects exporting grain from Bushire
  • Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, including: the consolidation of and challenges to the rule of Syud Azan [Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; debates around British policy towards Syud Azan; confrontation between Muscat and the Wahabees [Waḥabī movement]; the issue of the Zanzibar subsidy; and Syud Azan’s claims to Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], Gwadur [Gwadar], Charbar [Chabahar] and other territories on the Mekran Coast
  • Affairs in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , including: the campaign of Colonel Lewis Pelly in Bahrein and the installation of Esau bin Ali [‘Īsá bin ‘Alī Āl Khalīfah] as Ruler; trade and shipping in the Gulf; the desire of the Shah of Persia for a naval presence in the Gulf; Dutch and Turkish [Ottoman] activity in the region; and tensions between Bahrein and the Wahabees, including Wahabee inroads in the Guttur peninsula [Qatar]
  • Affairs in Affghanistan [Afghanistan], including relations with Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara] and Russia
  • Central Asian affairs, including the Russian advance in the region, trade and communication from India to Central Asia via Cashmere [Kashmir] and Ladak [Ladakh], and affairs in Eastern Turkestan [Xinjiang]
  • Affairs in Zanzibar, including the slave trade, relations with Muscat, the death of Syud Majid [Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], and the accession to the throne of Syud Burgash [Barghash bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
  • Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including: relations with neighbouring polities, including Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate], Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate], Fodtheli [Faḍlī Sultanate], and Kathiree [Kathīrī Sultanate]; the purchase of Little Aden; the defences of Aden; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] from Aseer [‘Asir] and the threat to Lahej from the Zaidees [Zaidīs]
  • Affairs in the Red Sea, including attempted French, Austrian, Turkish, and Egyptian inroads in the region
  • Affairs in Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Bhootan [Bhutan], and Nipal [Nepal].

The primary correspondents are:

Extent and format
1 volume (395 folios)
Arrangement

The abstracts are arranged in roughly chronological order. A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 384-393.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 395; 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. The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers.

Pagination: the file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

Written in
English in Latin script
View the complete information for this record

Use and share this item

Share this item
Cite this item in your research

'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎9r] (24/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113391.0x000019> [accessed 4 August 2026]

Link to this item

https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113391.0x000019

Embed this item

Copy and paste the code below into your web page where you would like to embed the image. 

<meta charset="utf-8"><a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113391.0x000019">'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [&lrm;9r] (24/798)</a>
<a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113391.0x000019">
	<img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000db/IOR_L_PS_20_CA10_0024.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" />
</a>
IIIF details

This record has a IIIF manifest available as follows. If you have a compatible viewer you can drag the icon to load it.https://www.qdl.qa/en/iiif/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000db/manifestOpen in Universal viewerOpen in Mirador viewerMore options for embedding images

Use and reuse
Download this image
Reference
IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
Title
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
Pages
front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 1r:116v, 119r:395v, back-i
Author
East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
Usage terms
Open Government Licence