"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎١‎٥] (١٧٨٢/٣٥٨)

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Meanwhile the Residency at .Baghdad, instituted in 1798, was done
away with; and the Resident at Basrah became responsible for all
political duties in Turkish 'Jraq; but this change, as the remaining
Resident made Baghdad his head-quarters, was in effect an abolition
rather of the Residency at Basrah, where from this time onwards a
European Political Assistant was generally stationed.
On the 29th March 1811 Mr. H. Smith, who belonged to the Civil
Service, resigned the Bushehr Residency ; and the question of appointing
a successor to him had to be faced. The opinion of the Bombay
Government in 1810, in view at first of General Malcolm's presence in
Persia on his third mission to the Shah and later of the appointment of
Sir Gore Ouseley to represent the British Government at Tehran, had
been that the Bushehr appointment might be deprived of its political
character and reduced to the status of a Commercial Residency, held by
an officer on pay lower than that of Mr. Smith. Acting on these
principles, they at once cut down the military guard at Bushehr on Mr.
Smith's departure and suggested to Lieutenant Bruce, the Assistant who
remained there in charge, the propriety of his corresponding with them
selves in future instead of with the Government of India,— a hint with
which that officer did not, apparently, consider it his duty * to comply.
The Government of India, who intended that Lieutenant Bruce t should
be appointed to the vacant post on a salary less than that enjoyed by
Mr. Smith but greater than that allowable to a purely commercial Resi
dent—for, they pointed out, a number of political functions must still
be discharged by the officer at Bushehr — having inculcated the necessity
of liberal treatment on the Government of Bombay, the latter,
misunderstanding the intention, proposed a scheme for placing the
Bushehr Residency " upon a basis of equal efficiency and respect
ability with the several Political Residencies in India. J The Govern
ment of India found themselves compelled to protest against some
expensive proposals by the Government of Bombay, involving the
appointment of a Civil Servant to Bushehr, to which this misconception
gave rise, and to combat an analogy which it had been sought to
establish between Bushehr and Baghdad, and they continued to urge the
. -"■a
rrsr
V y
Reduction of
the status of
the Bushehr
Residencv,
X811.
• From this it would appear tlat the orders of 1806 must have been rescinded,
perhapsiu consequence of the general powers with which General Malcolm, the Envoy of
the Governor-General, was invested on his feecond Mission in 1808.
f Lieutenant Bruce had been more than twelve years Assistant at Bushehr and
had acted, during a great part of that time, as Resident-