'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [228r] (462/798)
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.
°x^<
las been for a ti,
of their service, a
propose that %
Iar y drawn datiic-
l that the averijij
ie amount recei,di,
i Rs. 2,000 andlli}
ie Pension
10 objection total®;
mrialists, viz, 81'
'th of the average si
;he average total»
ower Bengal, theft
as grades
would get • fl,B
• 1,B
- • I
. fl
,d sometimes ooepi
ppointments, woolta
amounts. ChiefC®-
if India, who had h#
re scale, receive 1,®
tier amount.
e, exactly what was |6
jrvice, with this ei«f
ivhile we prop° se tlli
447
being taken at the average of the five years previous to retirement.
Thus, if the Officer had served 25 years, the variable addition would
be, as suggested, twenty-five three-hundredths or one-twelfth of the
average salary, and this fraction, which would be the maximum, would
be reduced by one three-hundredth for each year by which the service
fell short of 25 years. We understand that this also would be in
accordance with the wishes of a large number of the Bengal
civilians.
The rule should certainly be adopted that, of the service qualifying
for an invalid pension on the suggested scale, four-fifths must be
“ actual service ” as defined by the Leave Rules. This would prevent
various abuses, and would also lessen the charge to the State.
Although, according to these proposals, no Officer could get a
smaller pension than he would receive under the present system, we
suppose it would be necessary [to give the Government, by legislation,
the power to absorb the existing Funds.
To render our propositions plainer, we have embodied them in a
set of draft rules, which we enclose with this Despatch.
If this scheme be not approved, we would suggest the alternative
above referred to, namely, that the State shall give a fixed pension of
600/. to all who have completed the prescribed period of service, to be
supplemented by such additional amount as the Funds can afford. The
Funds will continue to be managed as at present, and all rules will
require the sanction of Government. For invalid pensions we would,
in this case, recommend the same scale as suggested under our scheme,
but without any variable addition, except such as may be available
from the Funds.
There are not wanting arguments in favour of this alternative
scheme. There is no doubt that a large number of the members of
the Civil Service, probably the majority, view with disfavour any plan
of graduated pensions granted by the State ; for, although the total
pensions have hitherto been really graduated, owing to the fluctuations
in the amounts of the subscribers’ payments, the nominal State pen
sion has been a fixed sum, the same for all, while graduation, which is
directly dependent on the amount of personal subscriptions, is not felt
to be objectionable by the members of the Service in general. On
this side of the question, it has been urged that any system of graded
pensions retards promotion, and tends to the retention in the service
of inefficient Officers, and that such a system seems peculiarly in
appropriate to the Indian Covenanted Civil Service. All the posts
held by members of that Service at the close of their career are, it is
said, of such importance as to justify an uniform rate of pension for a
fixed term of service. The prizes of the Service are readily accepted
without the further bait of on increase of pension, and those who
attain to the increased emoluments of office and the higher honour are
11969. 6 T
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
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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
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