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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [229r] (464/798)
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.
,U J bein ? put ir,
,rkra «n. Toillc
/ed to be the f a ,
enc y ‘othehigl
of Officers. A
;ral reduction o
e > ln final effect
' nd d ^like, since
3en t system of ^
n for the benefit ,[ t
ne to be reduce^j.
efit of those win, |,
ho attain to tie fe
S, would, if tie h;
account ofitscoil
)odied in the drat fi
i preference to tier : :
! and similar aip
1 to hold them contlr
State and justice t!
will, on the whole. Id
lodied in the drali
will, it is calcnktsi
ount will not he at
e present annuitilii
the minutes recorlil
Sir Henry Dutaot'
t in the question. l! ;
oposed a State p®-
r 35 years’ service,*
servants nowoa t*
3) «should have fc
ble arrangement,®;
ion to the free pe«* :
ent to their he®
in future,
have any
449
retaining a right of veto so long as subscriptions were compulsory,
and it (the Government) continued to pay interest.
We do not think that the proposal to give a State pension of
1,000/. a year, either to all who have served 35 years, or to selected
Officers who have served for that period, would work satisfactorily.
A plan of this kind would certainly be extremely unpopular with the
service at large. It could not fail to retard retirement, and therefore
to retard promotion. To refuse the higher pension to some Officers
who had held high and important posts, while it was given to others,
would be an invidious task, and the selection of Officers for these
pensions would, however justly and wisely made, be the subject of
much hostile criticism. If it should be desired to give exceptionally
high pensions to Officers who have served with special distinction, and
who have risen to posts of great importance, it would be better to
follow the example of England, and assume that persons who have
held certain great offices of State for certain periods have thereby
shown, by the best evidence which under the circumstances is
obtainable, that they are entitled to special consideration. If it be
right, as Sir Henry Durand thinks, to give higher pensions in ex
ceptional cases, the simplest and best way of doing this would be to
make the plan proposed in the draft rules apply to all members of the
Civil Service, without fixing any maximum as the amount of the
pension to he given. The result would be that the Officers who had
held the great offices of State would obtain exceptionally high
pensions. The maximum pension which could be obtained under any
circumstances would be that of a Lieutenant Governor who had held
his office for five years. He could get 1,633/. Under similar circum
stances, a member of Council would get 1,467/. A Chief Commis
sioner, the Resident at Hyderabad, and Secretaries to the Government
of India, would get 1,217/. In comparison with the pensions already
given to some other classes of Government servants, these sums,
towards which the pensioners would, in truth, have largely contri
buted, could hardly be called excessive. A Barrister Judge of the •
High Court may retire, after twelve years’ service, on a pension of
1,200/., paid entirely by the State; in the Military service, an
Inspector-General of Hospitals, who retires after five years’ service in
that grade, receives a pension of 900/. from the State.
With regard to the existing Annuity Funds, we may add that, if
subscriptions to them ceased to be compulsory, their entire character
would be changed. In this case, the only possible arrangement would
be to wind up the present Funds in the manner suggested by the
Bengal memorialists, and if any Fund still continued to be maintained,
it must be totally disconnected with the existing Funds. The Bengal
memorialists ask that, in winding up their present Fund, there may
be reserved to all subscribers the benefits for which their subscriptions
were paid. This would, of course, be only fair; hut if the suggestion
11969, g U
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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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [229r] (464/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113393.0x000041> [accessed 2 August 2026]
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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