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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎71r] (148/798)

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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
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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. .

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We have directed these surveys to be carried out under the direct
control of Government, and have authorized the transfer temporarily
to Government of the services of as many of the Eastern Bengal
Railway Company’s staff as may be available.
February kth. Nos. 12 and 13.
Incidence of Losses incurred by the Punjaub and Delhi Railways
under Colonel Elphinstone’s Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. .
We have received your Despatch of 28th October last, giving
your opinion that the sum of Rs. 54,749, lost by the Punjaub and
Delhi Railways on a purchase of teak timber by the late Agent,
could not be disallowed from the Capital Account of those railways,
on the ground that the indent for the purchase had been formally
sanctioned by the Local Government. As a very important principle
appears to be involved in this decision, which, as it now stands,
may lead to unexpected and very inconvenient results, we think
it necessary to ask that it should be reconsidered, and in doing
so, we desire to place before you a complete account of the
case.
An indent for the supply of 1,832 tons of teak timber, at Rs. 98.10
per ton, was sanctioned by the Punjaub Government expressly for
carriage building purposes. Under this indent, 1,600 tons were
purchased from a firm trading under the designation of Messrs. Walter
Brothers, Calcutta, at Rs. 98 per ton. The contract for building the
rolling stock of the Delhi Railway having been subsequently given to
Messrs. Brassey & Co. by the Home Board, it was determined that
the timber should be sold; and from the investigations of the Com
mission appointed in 1867 to examine into the affairs of the Company,
and subsequent reports from the Punjaub Government, it would appear
that the timber was disposed of as follows:—591 tons were purchased
by Messrs. Brassey & Co. at Rs. 100 per ton; 376 tons were sold by
auction at Calcutta, and only realized Rs. 71 per ton. A further
quantity of 283 tons was sold at Delhi at Rs. 112. 8 per ton. The
cost of carriage from Calcutta to Ghazeeabad was estimated at Rs. 47. 8
per ton, so that the actual prime cost to the Company at Delhi must
have reached Rs. 145 per ton; this portion of the timber was conse
quently sold at a loss of Rs. 31.8 per ton. An additional quantity of
12| tons was similarly disposed of at Rs. 112. 8. per ton. The rest of
the timber is assumed to be good, and on this no loss is anticipated.
The loss which has taken place is thus chiefly made up of depreciated
price received for a portion of the timber sold; sundry large sums
paid to the East Indian Railway on account of demurrage, owing
to bad arrangements having been made for receiving the timber
at Ghazeeabad and Delhi; fees paid for selecting, measuring, and

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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
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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎71r] (148/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113391.0x000095> [accessed 23 July 2026]

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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