!['ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎197v] (401/798)](https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000db/IOR_L_PS_20_CA10_0401.jp2/full/!1200,1200/0/default.jpg "'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎197v] (401/798)")
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [197v] (401/798)
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.
Mekran districts in general hitherto dependent on Muscat, do not
belong to Muscat, to what State do they belong ? Khelat claimed
them ; since last year Persia pretends to them, apparently under the
erroneous impression that the de jure empire of the present Shah is
conterminous with that of Nadir. If once we assent to Persia’s east-
ward encroachments based on such pretensions, or if once we consent
to disturb a long acknowledged political status in favour of some dis
tribution of territory which may have existed between the fall of
Nadir’s empire and the consolidation of our own, I apprehend that
reiterated political change would follow, and that we might eventually
find Persia, or those for whose ultimate interests she acts, claiming a
frontier contiguous with that of the Indus Valley. My counsel to
Government would be, to attempt an amicable solution of the Gwadur
question, whereby Gwadur and the other heretofore Mekran posses,
sions of Muscat should continue to be considered an integral portion
of the Muscat State, and the Governors of those places, whosoever
they may be, to be considered subordinate to the recognized Sultan
of Muscat, whosoever he might be. A solution of this character
would, in my opinion, be comparatively easy, immediate, and likely to
endure, whereas to acknowledge a Sultan of Muscat, and to inform
him that such acknowledgment did not include the Mekran districts,
would irritate the Ruler acknowledged, would not be understood by
the tribes of Oman, or indeed by the natives in general, would pro
bably result in an attempt on the part of Muscat to recover their
dependencies by surprise, might render our telegraph stations on the
Mekran Coast liable to inconvenience, would afford Persia an oppor
tunity for fresh intrigue, and would in the sequel perhaps result in
the Muscat Sultan recovering without our consent that which many
reasons, whether of expediency, policy, or equity, now point towards
our conceding with a good grace. Of course the argument applicable
to the Mekran possessions do not apply equally to the leasehold
districts of Bunder Abbas.
No. 167.
Trade of the
Persian Gulf
The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
. {See p. 433 of 1869.)
April 23c£.—The commerce between the Gulfs of Oman and
Persia and British India has developed rapidly and largely. For
instance, the trade with Bombay in 1844-45 showed a gross total of
Rs. 79,24,609; in 1860-61 it reached Rs. 1,31,42,602; while in 1865-66
it amounted to Rs. 3,44,37,408. At the latter date, when the American
war was at its height, the cotton trade was abnormally large, and
owing to this fact, and to successive disturbances on the Arab coast
between 1866 and 1869, the trade has since apparently fallen oft
although, under ordinary circumstances, it would have continued to
show a steady increase. As regards Calcutta, there has been an
increase of Rs. 27,32,681 between the years 1864-65 and 1868-69 5
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:
- The Government of India
- The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
- The Resident at Aden
- The Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
- The 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 Muscat
- The 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 Zanzibar.
- 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
'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [197v] (401/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113393.0x000002> [accessed 23 July 2026]
https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113393.0x000002
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_100135113393.0x000002">'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎197v] (401/798)</a> <a href="https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100135113393.0x000002"> <img src="https://iiif.qdl.qa/iiif/images/81055/vdc_100000000912.0x0000db/IOR_L_PS_20_CA10_0401.jp2/full/!280,240/0/default.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
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
Copyright: How to use this content
- 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