Abstract: The file contains correspondence regarding an upcoming visit to Bahrain by the newly appointed Governor-General of India Archibald Wavell, 1 Earl Wavell, and his request to view a selection of pearls. The correspondents are the India Office and the Political Resident, Persian Gulf.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 6; 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 part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 137 of 1842, dated 30 November 1842. The enclosures are numbered 3-57 and dated 1 June to 30 October 1842.They mostly consist of correspondence relating to affairs in the Persian Gulf. The enclosures concern matters including:The Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Dundas Robertson, reporting that he has addressed a letter to Abddoolla bin Sooneyan [‘Abdullāh bin Thunyān bin Ibrāhīm Āl Sa‘ūd], the new ‘chieftain’ of Nedgd [Najd, also spelled Nedjed in this item], regarding his ‘intercourse’ with the ‘Piratical Arab Tribes of Oman’, and the Government of Bombay directing Robertson that all ‘interference’ with him should be avoidedRobertson’s explanations for his proceedings in relation to Shaik Nassir [Shaikh Nāṣir, Governor of Bushire, i.e. Bushehr] on Robertson’s arrival at Bushire to re-establish the British Residency thereThe duty leviable on horses exported from Bushire according to the Commercial Treaty with Persia [Iran] of October 1841, and the suggestions of the Assistant Resident in Persian Gulf, Lieutenant Kemball, in relation to the purchase of colts for the cavalry and artilleryRobertson stating that he places no value on the plan he drew up for obtaining a ‘good, convenient and healthy’ port in the Persian Gulf for the use of the naval squadron, and that it would be unwise to give the scheme a moment’s considerationMeasures proposed by Robertson for obtaining privileges for the Honourable Company’s vessels of war in the Persian Gulf and the Red SeaNecessary repairs to the Residency buildings at BushireThe inconvenience caused as a result of the despatches sent on board the Honourable Company’s brig of war
Euphratesnot having been landed at Bushire when the vessel passed that port on the way to the Island of Karrack [Kharg Island]Robertson reporting on the intention of Persia to attack Bahrein [Bahrain]The conduct of the Persian soldiers stationed at Bushire towards Lieutenant Campbell of the Indian Navy when Campbell visited the Commodore in the Persian Gulf, William LoweThe rates of pilotage levied by the Persian authorities on KarrackThe removal of the naval stores from Karrack to Bassadore [Basaidu]Commodore Lowe hoisting a flag at his house on KarrackLowe reporting the occurrence of a dispute between the Garrison of Karrack and some of the subjects of the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat, leading to six of the Garrison being woundedThe Native Agent at Shargah [Sharjah] reporting the latest intelligence from Shargah, including the success of the pearl fishing that year (1842), and that no ‘disturbance or piracy’ has occurred on the seasRobertson's opinion on the necessity or otherwise of maintaining an Agent at Brymee [Al Buraymi]The arrangements made by Robertson for filling up the vacancy resulting from the death of the Agent stationed at Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh]HM Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, nominating Mahomed Alli Khan [Muḥammad ʿAlī Khān, also spelled Mahomed Allee Khan in this item] to act as Agent at Shiraz (in place of the dismissed Mirza Mahomed Reza [Mīrzā Muḥammad Rizā]) until the fourteen year old Mirza Mahomed [Mīrzā Muḥammad], for whom the position has been reserved, is qualified to take up the duties of the officeThe account of the ‘Chief’ of Bahrein, Sheek Abdoola bin Ahmed [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah, also spelled Abdoollah bin Ahmed and Abdoolla bin Ahmed in this item], of the circumstances surrounding the murder of Hamood bin Omeeree [Ḥammūd al-‘Umayrī, also spelled Hamood bin Omeree and Humood bin Oomeree in this item] and his servants, who had obtained protection from the Native Agent at Bahrein, Mahomed Ali [Muḥammad ʿAlī, also spelled Mahomed Ally in this item], during the ‘disturbances’ on the Island; and the dismissal of Mahomed Ali by the Officiating Resident in the Persian GulfThe complaint of Sultan bin Suggur [Sulṭān bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī, Ruler of Ra’s al-Khaymah and Sharjah] against the ‘Chief’ of Amulgavine [Umm al-Qaywayn], Abdoolla bin Rashid [‘Abdullāh bin Rāshid], erecting a bastion, contrary to the agreement concluded between them in 1840The observations of the Advocate General, Bombay, Augustus Smith Le Messurier, on the case of the killing of a subject of the Imaum of Muscat by a British seaman, reported on by HM Consul in the Dominions of the Imaum of Muscat, Captain Atkins Hamerton; and the opinion of the Advocate General on the extent of powers with which Hamerton is vested under the terms of the treaty the United Kingdom recently entered into with the ImaumHM Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran forwarding copies of his despatches to HM Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the Earl of Aberdeen, relating to affairs at TehranThe amount of compensation to be paid to the Shroff of the Residency at Bushire for the articles belonging to him which were destroyed when his house was attacked by a mob in 1838Robertson’s explanations of his reasons for not having availed himself of the permission granted by the Persian Government to reside during the Summer months at Khoormooj [Khormoj].The main correspondents are the following: the Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Assistant Resident in Persian Gulf; the Secretary to the Government of Bombay, John Pollard Willoughby; the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, L R Reid; the Secretary with the Governor General of India, Thomas Herbert Maddock; the Commodore in the Persian Gulf; and HM Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran.Other correspondents include: Lootf Ally Khan [Luṭf ‘Alī Khān]; the Native Agent at Shargah [Sharjah], Moollah Hoossein [Mullā Ḥusayn]; the Ruler of Bahrein; Sultan bin Suggur; the Advocate General, Bombay; the Shah of Persia, Mahomed Shah [Muḥammad Shāh Qājār]; the Grand Vizier or Prime Minister of Persia, Hajee Meerza Aghasee [Ḥājī Mīrzā Āqāsī]; the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Meerza Abul Hussan Khan [Mīrzā Abū al-Ḥasan Khān Shīrāzī, Īlchī Kabīr, also spelled Meerza Abul Hassan Khan, and Meerza Abool Hossan in this item]; the Collector of Customs, Henry Glass; and J A Malcolm, a merchant.Physical description: 1 item (185 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 126 of 1842, dated 31 October 1842. The enclosures are numbered 3-47 and are dated 1 September to 29 October 1842. There is no abstract of contents.The enclosures, which consist mostly of correspondence with some resolutions of the Government of Bombay, relate to Persian Gulf affairs. They concern matters including:The Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Dundas Robertson, addressing a despatch to the Secret Committee, suggesting the advisability of removing the Residency from Bushire [Bushehr] to some other position in the Persian GulfRobertson residing in Karrack [Kharg] instead of Khoormooj [Khormoj] during the Summer months‘Insults’ to British subjects in Persia [Iran], including members of the British Mission and Residency, by soldiers in Bushire and others, and punishments for these ‘insults’The Government of Bombay requesting that Robertson be cautious in his proceedings at Karrack and refrain from ‘interfering in matters in which the British Government is not concerned’, in response to a letter from Robertson regarding the ‘oppressive conduct’ of Lootf Ally Khan [Luṭf ‘Alī Khān Lārī], the Officer in Charge of the detachment of Persian troops stationed at Karrack, towards the inhabitants of the island and the men under his commandThe removal of the Head Quarters of the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf from Karrack to Bassadore [Basaidu, also spelled Bassidore in this item], and the establishment of a naval depot on BassadoreThe reply received from Abdoolla bin Sooneyan [‘Abdullāh bin Thunyān bin Ibrāhīm Āl Sa‘ūd], the Ruler of Nedgd [Najd, also spelled Nedjed in this item], to a letter from Robertson regarding Abdoolla bin Sooneyan’s letters to the ‘Arab Piractical Sheikhs’The Native Agent at Bahrein [Bahrain], Mirza Mahomed Ali [Mīrzā Muḥammad ‘Alī], reporting on affairs at Bahrein, including his account of what happened after it became known that some of the ‘women, children, slaves [enslaved persons] and dependents’ of Humood Omeree [Ḥammūd al-‘Umayrī] were in the Native Agent’s house under British protection, and Abdullah bin Ahmed [‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad] ‘gave orders to his sons to go and kill them’ (folio 152v)The Government of Bombay requesting an enquiry to be instituted by the Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf into the conduct of the Native Agent at Bahrein in having first offered an asylum, and then surrendered to the contending factions on that island, persons whom it appears had fled to his house for protectionThe decision that no remuneration should be granted to the Moonshee [Munshi] attached to the Residency of the Persian Gulf for expenses incurred in entertaining a person in the ‘habit and character of a Derveesh [dervish]’ representing himself to be the son of the late Futteh Allee Shah [Fath-‘Ali Shāh Qājār] of Persia and uncle of the present King [Shāh], but who was ‘an imposter’HM Consul and Honourable Company’s Agent in the Dominions of the Imam of Muscat (also spelled Maskat in this item), Captain Atkins Hamerton, addressing a letter to the Government of Mauritius regarding him sending a British seaman, James Dawson, to Mauritius to be tried for the murder of an ‘Arab’ seaman named Ramzan [Ramaḍān], a subject of the Imam of Muscat, in the town of ZanzibarDocuments relating to the complaint made to the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat against Robert Brown Norsworthy, residing in Zanzibar, by Schaikh Awez [Shaikh ‘Uways al-Barāw] of Barawa (also spelled Browa in this item)The reports of the Commodore in the Persian Gulf, William Lowe, on affairs in the Persian Gulf, including: the state of the public buildings at Bassadore; everything being ‘quiet on the [Arabian] Coast with the exception of their usual squabbles inland’ (folio 188); this season being the best for many years for pearl fishing, with some of the merchants having made large sums of money; and his recommendation of Ally [‘Alī], the eldest son of the Agent at Sharga [Sharjah], Moollah Hussain [Mullā Ḥusayn], for the position of Agent at Lingar [Bandar-e Lengeh]A complaint of obstruction by Persian soldiers to the passage through the gate of the town of Bushire of Lieutenants C D Campbell and W B Selby of the Indian NavyLieutenant A E Ball, commanding the Honourable Company’s brig of war
Euphrates, reporting his proceedings on the trip he was deputed to take to the Arab Coast and pearl banks of the Persian GulfCommodore Lowe’s intended measures for removing the naval stores from Karrack to BushireThe separation of the Commodore in the Persian Gulf’s guard for the naval depot at Bassadore from the guard of the Resident in the Persian GulfThe appointment of a committee to determine whether a horse given to Commodore Lowe by the Prince of Shiraz is fit for cavalry, or should be sold by public auction; and the payment by the Government of Bombay of expenses incurred by Commodore Lowe and others on account of the horse.The main correspondents are the following: the Government of Bombay; the Officiating Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General; the Superintendent of the Indian Navy; HM Consul and Honourable Company’s Agent in the Dominions of the Imaum of Muscat; and the Deputy Adjutant General of the Army, Major C Hagart.Other correspondents include: Abdoolla bin Sooneyan; the Commodore in the Persian Gulf, William Lowe; HM Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Persia, Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil; and the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Meerza Abul Hassan Khan [Mīrzā Abū al-Ḥasan Khān Shīrāzī, Īlchī Kabīr].Physical description: 1 item (138 folios)
Abstract: This file contains correspondence between British officials and an American malacologist named Clarence F Hoy. The correspondence concerns a proposal by Hoy to introduce a method for the manufacture of cultured pearls somewhere in the British Empire, with Bahrain mentioned as a possible location.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 21; 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 correspondence regarding pearl diving in the Persian Gulf, primarily in Bahrain. The majority of this correspondence is between British officials but the file also contains correspondence from a number of external parties interested in gaining access to the Persian Gulf pearl market. The British officials are from the Board of Trade, the Government of India, the Political Agency in Bahrain and the Political Residency in Bushire (Bahrain after 1946).Much of the correspondence contained in the file relates to an attempt by British authorities to find an alternative export market for Persian Gulf pearls after the newly independent Government of India imposed a ban on the importation of these pearls into the country.The file also contains correspondence related to the importation of dates from the Gulf into India, the granting of a pearl diving concession in Saudi Arabia and several other matters that primarily relate to external parties enquiring for information regarding the Gulf's pearling industry.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 166; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located at the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. An additional foliation sequence is present in parallel between ff 2-163; these numbers are also written in pencil and are circled, but are crossed through.
Abstract: The memorandum, printed for the use of the Foreign Office, was compiled on 12 February 1908 and contains information compiled by the India Office on British political and commercial interests in the Persian Gulf, including Pearl Fisheries (folios 58v-63); General Trade Statistics and German Competition (folios 64-66); Lighthouses (folios 66v-67v) and British Cables (folios 67v-71).The memorandum contains five maps:'Sketch to illustrate positions of Flagstaffs at Elphinstone Inlet and Sheep Island (Musandim Peninsula)' (f 26);'Sketch of Approaches to Kuweit Harbour and Shatt Al Arab' (f 47);'Sketch Map of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Coast' (f 75);'Sketch Map of the Persian Gulf and Arabian Coast' (f 82);'Persia and Afghanistan' (f 83).Physical description: Foliation: The foliation for this description commences at f 18, and terminates at f 83, since it is part of a larger physical volume; 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 also present in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto of each folio. These numbers are written in pencil, but are not circled. Pagination: This section of the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
Abstract: The volume concerns the payment of loans by the Government of India to Shaikh Mubarak [Mubārak bin Jābir Āl Ṣabāḥ] of Koweit [Kuwait].The principal correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; the Political Agent, Kuwait; the Viceroy of India; the Shaikh of Kuwait; and senior officials at the Foreign Office, the India Office, the Treasury, and the Government of India.The papers cover: loan of 100,000 rupees to the Shaikh of Kuweit in 1904 'to meet the payment due to his nephews under the recent arbitration award' (f 114v), June 1904 - February 1905 (ff 90-121); loan of 200,000 rupees to the Shaikh of Kuweit in 1909, who needed ready money as a result of 'large advances made to pearl merchants who cannot be pressed for immediate repayment, and to the fact that his brother, Sheikh Khazal, has asked for postponement of large loan due to Sheikh Mubarak' (f 79), February - October 1909 (ff 37-89); loan of 200,000 rupees to the Shaikh of Kuweit in 1913 as a result of financial needs arising from water supply difficulties in Kuwait, distress amongst the diving community caused by a falling pearl market, the Shaikh's inability to sell stocks of dates, and the need to support the owners of pearl boats and so prevent a reaction on the local trade of Kuwait (ff 24-25), December 1913 - February 1914 (ff 17-36); papers concerning the water supply at Kuwait, contained in Government of India memoranda dated September-October 1914 (ff 4-16); and India Office letter proposing remission of the loan of 1914, in view of the assistance rendered by the Shaikh of Kuweit 'in maintaining the blockade at Koweit', 4 April 1918 (f 2).The date range gives the covering dates of all the documents in the file; the covering dates of the minute papers given on the subject divider on folio 1 are 1904-14. There are no papers between 1914 and 1918.Physical description: 121 folios
Abstract: Part 3 comprises correspondence relating to an incident occurring in 1902 in which four Abu Thabi [Abu Dhabi] pearl fishers (described as being of the Sudan tribe) were murdered near Charak [Bandar-e Chārak], Persia, by inhabitants of the nearby port of Taona [Bandar-e Ţāḩūneh]. The part’s principal correspondents are: Major Percy Zachariah Cox (Political Resident in the Persian Gulf); Sir George Head Barclay (British Minister at Tehran); William Graham Greene (Assistant Secretary to the Admiralty).The correspondence covers:efforts by the British authorities to establish the identities and whereabouts of the perpetrators of the crime, and efforts to obtain compensation for the crime on behalf of the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi. Much is also made in the correspondence of the long period of time taken to resolve the case, and the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi’s frustration at the delay;the capture in 1909 by HMS
Redbreastof one of the men believed to have been involved in the murders (including a report of the capture by Lieutenant Commander Joseph Armand Shuter of HMS
Redbreast, dated 5 July 1909, ff 222-225);the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi’s refusal to detain the suspect at Abu Dhabi, for fear of the unrest that it might cause in the town, chiefly amongst the relatives of the murdered men;a proposal made by the Government of India to pay 11,000 Indian rupees as compensation to the Shaikh of Abu Dhabi, with hope of compensation forthcoming from Persia looking unlikely.A minute at the end of the correspondence, written by Sir Thomas William Holderness of the India Office, dated 1913 (f 190), offers a succinct précis of the events of the case.Physical description: 102 folios
Abstract: The volume concerns the attempts of a British company called the Sponge Exploration Syndicate to obtain concessions for the fishing and exploitation of sponges in the Persian Gulf. However, the papers indicate that it was felt by British officials that the real object of the company was to exploit the Gulf's pearl banks, which entailed the risk of infringing Britain's treaty obligations with the Arab states.The principal correspondents are the Foreign Office; Major Percy Zachariah Cox, acting as Consul-General for Fars, Khuzistan etc., and Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; officials of the India Office and the Government of India; the Viceroy of India (the Earl of Minto); and the Sponge Exploration Syndicate Limited.The papers include: letters of application for concession rights from the company; the granting of a concession to the company by the Government of Persia; the granting of a concession to the company by the Sultan of Muscat; a report by the British Museum, on the Persian Gulf as a possible area for successful sponge fisheries (folios 175-176); the involvement of the company with the rulers of the Trucial Coast; and the rights of British-protected Arabs. The volume also contains an Admiralty chart of the Persian Gulf on folio 50.The French language content of the volume consists of an agreement on folios 129-131.The date range gives the covering dates of the main items of correspondence. This is mainly dated 1905-09, with one item dated 1916. The correspondence also includes enclosures dated 1892 (folios 214-215).Each part includes a divider which gives the subject and part numbers, year the subject file was opened, subject heading, and list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (folio 1).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 242; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: The volume concerns pearl fishing in the Persian Gulf; in particular attempted incursions into the trade by the French, Germans, and others; the political and economic interests of the British in pearl fishing; investigations into reports of the depletion of the pearl fishing banks in the Gulf; and proposals to use modern diving apparatus.The principal correspondents are the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Percy Zachariah Cox); the Political Agent, Bahrain; and senior officials of the Government of India, the India Office, the Foreign Office, and the Board of Trade.The papers cover:
Report on the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries, published 1902 (including extracts of documents from the 1850s onwards), which includes references to the presence of Arab divers at the Ceylon fisheries (folios 247-281); the presence of two French businessmen in Bahrein [Bahrain], and the question of whether European enterprise could be excluded from the pearl fishing industry on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, March 1904 (folios 212-246); the opinion of the Law Officers' Department that the tribes of the Arabian coast had a right to the exclusive use of the pearl fisheries within a three-mile limit, and any other waters that might justly be considered territorial, February 1905 (folios 203-211); German attempts to gain control over the pearl industry in the Persian Gulf, including the importance attached by the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Cox) to the operations of Gray, Paul & Company, March 1905 - January 1908 (folios 177-202); the Government of India in favour of direct intervention to secure a British monopoly, June-August 1908 (folios 170-176); enquiries into the pearl fishing industry by Dr Gustav Josef Eduard Levien of Hamburg, April-May 1910 (folios 150-169); papers concerning the alleged depletion of the pearl banks, December 1910 - May 1911 (folios 106-149); further French interest in the pearl fisheries, February-May 1911 (folios 82-105, 66-69); official encouragement for British firms to enter the pearl trade, March-May 1911 (folios 69-81); a proposed investigation into depletion of the pearl banks by James Hornell of the Madras Fisheries Department, June-September 1911 (folios 56-65), and the investigation postponed, February 1912 (folios 42-53); assurances by the rulers of the Arab littoral states that they would not grant concessions to countries other than Britain, November 1911 (folios 54-55), and the texts of the rulers' replies, July-August 1911 (folios 32-41); papers concerning an application to use modern, 'scientific' diving apparatus in the Gulf by Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab Mishari, a director of the Arab Steamship Company in Bombay, and a rumour (denied) of similar interest from the Sultan of Oman, April-November 1912 (folios 11-31); copies of official correspondence from 1857 showing that British officials thought that British subjects did not have any right to fish for pearls on the fishing grounds of the maritime tribes in the Persian Gulf, March 1913 (folios 5-6); and American (United States) interest in scientific aspects of the pearl industry in Bahrain, June 1914 (folios 2-4).The volume includes two Admiralty charts illustrating the pearl fisheries of the Persian Gulf, on folio 238 (= IOR/W/L/PS/10/457 (i) and IOR/L/PS/10/457 (ii)), and a map accompanying the report on the Ceylon Pearl Fisheries (folio 278).The French language content of the file is confined to a single letter (folio 91).The date range gives the covering dates of the main run of papers (which include extracts of documents from the 1850s onwards), and any other additions to the volume; the Secret Department minute papers enclosing groups of papers are dated 1904-1914.Each part includes a divider which gives the subject and part numbers, year the subject file was opened, subject heading, and list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence (folio 1).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 281; 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: The file contains correspondence regarding measures under consideration by the British government for preventing encroachments by Japanese and other foreign vessels on Arab pearl fisheries in the Persian Gulf.The correspondence is between: J P Gibson of the India Office, and T V Brennan and Lacy Baggallay of the Foreign Office; and Gibson and the Office of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf. The file also includes a copy of a letter from Sir Trenchard Fowle, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, to the Secretary to the Government of India, External Affairs Department, Simla.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 19; 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 2-18; 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.