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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎178v] (363/798)

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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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348
“ Pray, therefore, t( tell Lord Clarendon that, as both Govern-
tc ments are free from all arriere pensees, ambitious views, or
“ unfriendly feelings towards each other, the more fully and frankly
“ all questions connected with Central Asia are discussed between
“ them, the more effectually will the mists be blown away which
“ through the misrepresentations of over-zealous subordinate agents,
“ may at any time hang over them. ,, We learn also from Mr. Forsvth
and from his letters, that General Milentine, the Russian Minister of
War, and M. de Streemooukoff, Director of the Asiatic Department
of the Russian Foreign Office, “ concurred in opinion that we should
“ accept as Affghanistan all the provinces which Shere Ali now holds;
“ that beyond this limit he should not exercise any influence or inter.
“ ference; that the good offices of England should be exerted to
“ restrain him from all thoughts of aggression; and that, similarly,
“ Russia should exercise all her influence to restrain Bokhara from
“ transgressing the limits of Affghan territorythat His Majesty the
Emperor himself remarked “that there was no intention of extending
“ the Russian dominions •” and assented to the remark of Mr. Forsyth
“ that, whilst on our side every effort would be made to induce Shere
“ Ali to keep within his present dominions, we hoped that Bokhara
“ would be restrained from aggression.”
We learn with pleasure from your Despatch of 4th March, that
the Russian Government have expressed their adherence to the above
assurances, and that M. de Stremooukoff describes the policy sketched
by us (see p. 1), the substance of which was communicated to him by
Sir A. Buchanan, as coinciding exactly with that which the Russian
Government desire, and which they are endeavouring to establish.
We have great satisfaction in finding that the policy of Russia, thus
frankly described, coincides so entirely with that laid down by us at
Umballa, which was sanctioned by Her Majesty’s Government, and to
which we have since consistently adhered ; and we feel assured that, so
long as this policy is acted on by the two great Governments, who
may be said to divide political influence in Central Asia, the peace and
prosperity of those vast and important regions will be permanently
secured.
M. de Stremooukoff has suggested, with a view to the further
development of this peaceful policy, that measures should be taken by
the British Government and by Russia to ascertain the limits of the
territories which acknowledged the sovereignty of Dost Mahomed,
and are at present under the Government of Shere Ali Khan, in order
that the frontier between those territories and the neighbouring States
of Central Asia should be as nearly as possible defined. In our
telegram of 11th June 1869, we informed you that, if the Ameer
ou ^ show any disposition to extend his boundaries beyond the
units held by Dost Mahomed, we should remonstrate with him at
once. The possessions of the present Ameer on the north and north-

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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' [‎178v] (363/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113392.0x0000a4> [accessed 22 July 2026]

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