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'ABSTRACT OF LETTERS FROM INDIA 1870' [‎350v] (707/798)

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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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only to Bushire, but to all the ports along the Persian littoral of the
Gulf, and to their neighbourhoods severally. No change in the
official designation of the Resident, or of his subordinates, would be
necessary. All that would be required would be to declare in the
Order in Council A regulation issued by the sovereign of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Privy Council. that the powers and jurisdiction exercised by a
Consul General should be exercisable by the Resident along the
Persian littoral of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , and also along the littoral of Arabia
or elsewhere within the limits of his official charge; and, in like
manner, that the Assistant Residents should have power and jurisdiction
as Consuls along the same regions. Appeal, where appeal was admis
sible, should, I think, lie to Bombay. By far the greater number of
our subjects in the Gulf are natives of British India; and the interests
to be dealt with are in the main British Indian interests, whether com
mercial or otherwise. There is regular fortnightly mail steam com
munication between the Gulf of Bombay, independently of occasional
miscellaneous traffic. The British Indian subjects would readily
understand the working of a jurisdiction through an Assistant Resident
or Resident, with final appeal to an Indian Government. On the other
hand, to make appeal lie to Teheran would be to subject litigants and
others to an overland journey of some seven hundred miles through a
foreign country, unprovided with made roads, and to compel them to
seek redress under two Departments of State. Unity of authority
through all grades and under one Department seems to me to be the
most pressing desideratum in these regions. I entirely concur in the
view expressed by Mr. Kaye before the Parliamentary Committee, to
the effect that ill consequences ensue when work has to be performed
by two Departments of State. In my opinion, the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. in the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. should be altogether under the Indian Department, cor
responding, of course, when occasion may require, with officers not
under that Department.
3rd. This is an extensive and an intricate question, and I doubt
not that any opinion in detail which I might venture to submit would
be open to much criticism when it came under the review of the legal
Members of Council at Bombay or Calcutta. But writing generally,
I presume that the special provisions made to meet the peculiarities of
social, religious, or other law or custom among the various sects and
races of British India would be applicable to cases wherein persons of
those sects or races should be parties in these regions.
4th. I think Bombay or Kurrachee should be so assigned.
1 am also called upon to state in what way civil and criminal
cases, in which British subjects in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. have been con
cerned, have hitherto been disposed of, and whether the Political
Officers in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. have hitherto exercised any jurisdiction in
such matters, and if so in what manner. This question seems to
assume a wider scope than the others, which were limited to Persian

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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' [‎350v] (707/798), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/20/CA10, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100135113394.0x00006c> [accessed 15 August 2026]

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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