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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎118r] (242/798)

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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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the British
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s from Ceylon in;
ispect of extern*
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ween Bombay ait
' your Governnmi
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the Persian Gil
lid not think fit It
large body of akk
ernment, had bee
ytiich foreign coni
ny, were principal
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•231
Fourth. That, looking to the very large demands made upon the
Indian revenue for public works, and the natural desire to
economize the national expenditure, it was not likely your
Government would persist in lavishing funds upon the main
tenance of an imperfect line, the benefits of which would be
reaped by foreign States, when we had given India a perfect
system of communication, the cost of which was entirely borne
by British capitalists.
These arguments, which we respectfully submit to your conside
ration, render us therefore quite at ease, so far as the telegraph traffic
between India and this country is concerned ; hut we would earnestly
beg you to afford to the British Indian Telegraph Company your
powerful protection and assistance in Hindostan, and to shield them
against any partiality towards the land lines of telegraphs, which we
are aware are entirely in the hands of the Indian Government and its
officials, and that all facilities be afforded the expedition now on its
way to lay the cables between India and Egypt, and to our servants
in Bombay and Aden.
*
However, it is with reference to the extensions beyond India that
we mainly thus address you. We hear reports of your Government
finding % so much difficulty in maintaining the land lines between Ran
goon and Calcutta that they contemplate laying a costly cable across
the Bay of Bengal to Burmah, and that parties have been urging 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. to go from Rangoon overland, via Cochin China, to Hong
Kong. We beg therefore to show you how the end desired by the
Indian Government may be met without any such outlay.
In the autumn of 1870, Penang and Singapore will be connected
with Ceylon, and through it with the Indian Government land lines.
We and those connected with us have a concession from the King of
Siam and the Rajahs in the Malay Peninsula of exclusive rights for
connecting those territories with Penang or Singapore. We think
that Burmah, Arracan, and the Tenasserim Provinces might easily
be grouped with them, and connected with Pulo Penang, so that India
would thus be brought by the British Indian Extension Company’s
cables into direct telegraphic communication with the Indian Govern
ment.
The enclosed prospectus of a Company just formed, the capital of
which is already secured, shows how, in 1871, China and Cochin
China will likewise be added to the great British Indian Submarine
Telegraph system, and we are at this moment in negotiation with
other parties for the extensions to Australia.
You will thus see that, so far as British enterprise and capital can
effect it, every possible facility (whether politically, commercially, or
socially considered) of telegraphic communication has been afforded,
and that, immediately the traffic is developed, you may rest assured
these lines will be duplicated; and we would therefore earnestly ask
that, in any propositions which may be laid before the Indian Govern-
11676, 4 d

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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
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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎118r] (242/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113392.0x00002b> [accessed 28 July 2026]

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Reference
IOR/L/PS/20/CA10
Title
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870'
Pages
117r:118v
Author
Telegraphic Construction and Maintenance Company
Usage terms
Public Domain