Abstract: This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay’s Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 72 of 1843, dated 2 October 1843. The enclosures are numbered 3-7 and are dated 1-21 September 1843.The papers concern the conduct of the Political Agency in Bagdad [Political Agency in Turkish Arabia, i.e. Ottoman Iraq, based in Baghdad] regarding matters of trade, following complaints by British merchants residing in Bagdad that ‘native servants’ from the Agency have been carrying out extensive trade, to the detriment of the British merchants’ interests. Also covered is the appointment of Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson as Political Agent in Turkish Arabia, as successor to Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Taylor. In addition, the papers discuss a request by the Pascha [Pāshā] of Bagdad to have a steam vessel placed at his service.The correspondents are the Secretary to the Government of India and the Chief Secretary to the Government to Bombay.Physical description: 1 item (14 folios)
Abstract: This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 73 of 1840, dated 25 September 1840. The enclosures are dated 21-24 September 1840.They consist of correspondence relating to the security of communications in Aden and the Red Sea area and onwards to London via Alexandria, in the event of a rupture with Mehmet Ali [Muḥammad ‘Alī Pāshā al-Mas‘ūd bin Āghā, Ruler of Egypt]. An alternative route to Europe via Bagdad [Baghdad] and Constantinople [Istanbul] is discussed.Correspondents include: the Political Agent at Aden (Stafford Bettesworth Haines); the Superintendent of the Indian Navy; the Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq]; the Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Military Board, Bombay.Physical description: 1 item (99 folios)
Abstract: This item consists of manuscript copies of secret letters, despatches, memoranda and translations of letters concerning political developments in Bagdad [Baghdad] and Turkish [Ottoman] Arabia.Physical description: 1 item (8 folios)
Abstract: Correspondence discusses the rising of the Bohtan Kurds against the Turkish [Ottoman] Government and its impact on British imperial communications. Letters discuss the leadership of the insurgents led by Yezdisheer Bey (nephew of Beder Khan Bey) and how they obtained money from the Mosul Treasury on pretence of forming a unit of mountaineers against the Russians on the Armenian front. Also discussed is how the Bohtan Kurds took the town of Jezireh [Jezireh, Syria], laid waste the Turkish garrison, and linked up with disaffected Kurds from the Taurus mountains to Bagdad [Baghdad]. The impact on Christian communities, Nestorian Kurds and Chaldean villagers of Mosul is mentioned as well as the revolt of the Anezeh and Shammar Arab tribes.The correspondents include: Lieutenant Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia; H L Anderson, Secretary to the Government of Bombay [Mumbai]; G F Edmonstone, Secretary to the Government of India; and the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Office, London.Physical description: 1 item (7 folios)
Abstract: The file is concerned with the operations of Pan American Airlines in the Middle East; British officials were concerned that the airline was using the war as a pretext for commercial penetration of British controlled territories. The file therefore covers the militarisation of Pan American Airlines operations in the Middle East, and its absorption into the United States Army Air Force (USAAF).In addition, the file contains correspondence related to the use of the Southern Arabian Air Route by the United States Air Force: in particular, the use of aerodromes at Masirah and Salalah, as per a 1942 agreement with Sa‘īd ibn Taymūr Āl Bū Sa‘īd, Sultan of Muscat and Oman: see folio 87 for a record of the negotiations. This includes discussion surrounding the post-war disposal of stone buildings built by the Americans at these sites.The main correspondents in the file are as follows: the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (William Rupert Hay and Arnold Crawshaw Galloway), the Political Agent and Consul at Muscat (Cornelius James Pelly), HM Ambassador to the United States (Edward Wood, Viscount, later Earl of Halifax), HM Ambassador to Iraq (Sir Kinahan Cornwallis) the Minister of State Resident in the Middle East (Walter Guiness), officials of the Foreign Office, officials of the India Office, and representatives of the Government of India.The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 207; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: The file contains correspondence related to the establishment of new civil airports at Baghdad (1933) and Basra (1934), and subsequent additions to these facilities. It also contains copies of a number of notices to airmen issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Communications and Works: see folios 5-8 and 11. One of these notices (see folio 11) is in both Arabic and English.The main correspondents are as follows: HM Ambassador to Iraq (Sir Francis Henry Humphrys), officials of the Foreign Office, and other officials at the British Embassy in Baghdad. The correspondence is periodically forwarded to the Under-Secretary of State for India by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in order to keep the India Office informed of developments; none of the correspondence in the file is directly addressed to the India Office.The file includes a divider which gives a list of correspondence references contained in the file by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 36; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: This item contains copies of two letters:1. A letter from Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], to Marquess Wellesley, Governor-General of Bengal, sent from Bagdad and dated 19 April 1802. Jones reports news from Bagdad including: the departure of the Pashaw [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] from the city following rumours of a plague outbreak; the departure of the Minister [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah, Chief Minister of Baghdad], reportedly on a campaign against the Wa ha by [Wahhābī movement]; the Pashaw’s health; and a proposed visit to Bagdad from the Grand Vizier [Yūsuf Ẓīa al-Dīn Pāshā, Grand Vizier to the Ottoman Sulṭān]. Jones also forwards reports from Persia [Iran] and Afghanistan, including the march of Abbas Meerza [‘Abbās Mīrzā Qājār, Crown Prince of Persia] to Azabaijan [Azerbaijan].2. A letter from Peter Tooke, Agent of the East India Company in Constantinople [Istanbul], to Harford Jones, sent from Constantinople and dated 30 March 1802. The letter concerns the transit of mail and forwards correspondence. Tooke also states that he has heard rumours of the death of the Pashaw of Bagdad and commotion in the city, and enquires after Jones’s security.Physical description: 1 item (4 folios)
Abstract: An extract from the records of the Bagdad [Baghdad] Residency, consisting of a minute written by Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad, dated 13 February 1802.The minute concerns plague in Bagdad, describing the public punishment by the Pashaw [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad], with Jones’s encouragement, of a person spreading alarm about the plague, followed some days later by the Pashaw’s announcement that he intends to leave Bagdad. Jones describes his attempts to persuade the Pashaw not to leave the city, culminating in Jones threatening to stop British ships from coming to Bussora [Basra].The extract was enclosed in Jones’s letter to Charles Mills, Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, dated 19 February 1802 (catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/218).Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: The file contains papers relating to Persia [Iran] and the Persian Gulf, including a document entitled ‘Notes on current topics prepared for reference during his Excellency the Viceroy’s tour in the Persian Gulf, November 1903.’ It also includes printed extracts of letters relating to the tour from Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Arnold Kemball, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and Major Percy Zachariah Cox, Political Agent at Maskat [Muscat], dated August to October 1903.In addition, the file includes the following papers:Handwritten notes by George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India, including notes on Muscat, Koweit [Kuwait], and the Mekran [Makran] CoastMemoranda concerning KoweitA copy of a letter from Colonel Charles Edward Yate, Agent to the Governor-General and Chief Commissioner in Baluchistan, to the Secretary to the Government of India Foreign Department, forwarding the camp diary kept during his tour in Makran and Las Bela, from 1 December 1901 to 25 January 1902A copy of a 'Report on a Journey from India to the Mediterranean via the Persian Gulf, Baghdad and the Euphrates Valley, including a Visit to the Turkish Dependency of El Hasa' by Captain J A Douglas, Staff Captain, Intelligence Branch, Quarter Master General’s Department in India, 1897 (which includes three sketch maps: Mss Eur F111/358, f 138; Mss Eur F111/358, f 158; and Mss Eur F111/358, f 141).Folios 232 to 338 largely consist of printed copies of correspondence between Sir (Henry) Mortimer Durand, HM Minister at Teheran [Tehran], and the Marquess of Salisbury (Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, dated 1895-1896, relating to Persia.The file includes a copy of a Collective Letter addressed by the Turkish, British and French Consuls to the Valiahd regarding the Tabriz Riots, 5 August 1895, which is in French (folios 332).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 339; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: This file contains papers relating to the assignment of new staff to the administration of Mesopotamia or Iraq upon its occupation during the First World War. The majority of the papers contain correspondence between British civil commissioners in Cairo or Baghdad and discuss the possible assignment of British staff to Iraq. Other papers list posting of various military officers and staff to civilian duties in Iraq.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 348; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves.A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: This volume contains diplomatic correspondence and agreements relating to the completion of sections of the Berlin to Baghdad Railway. In particular, the papers discuss the extension of the railway from Baghdad to Basra, and possibly its extension to the Persian Gulf at Shatt-al-Arab waterway. A significant portion of the papers relate to the financial arrangements governing the incorporation of the Imperial Baghdad Railway Company, which was also responsible for the governance of the railway and any possible extensions.However, the majority of the papers express British concerns on German encroachment towards the Persian Gulf, and by extension, towards British interests in South Asia. The papers reveal the British strategy of containing German influence by dictating the composition of the railway company's board.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 337; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 259-337; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.