Abstract: Two letters from William Digges Latouche, Resident at Bussora [Basra], to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors for Affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies [East India Company].Part of a letter dated 18 June 1783. Subjects covered include:Latouche’s complaints against the conduct of David Hays, Proconsul in Aleppo, regarding his management of correspondence in AleppoThe murder of Shaik Baracat [Shaikh Barakāt] by his brother Guthman [Ghazbān] and the latter’s assumption of the leadership of the Chaub Arabs [Banū Ka‘b].The first part of this letter is catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/17. The full letter can be found in IOR/L/PS/9/76/33.The second letter, dated 2 July 1783, covers subjects including:The transit to London of mail from India via BussoraArrangements for the travel of Major Geils and M Froment to India and the transit of the important despatches they are carrying, including preliminary peace articles with France, Spain, and America [American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783].Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: Two letters from William Digges Latouche, Resident at Bussora [Basra], to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors for Affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies [East India Company].The first letter, dated 26 May 1783, covers the transit of overland mail via Aleppo, in particular the clash of authority between Mrs Marianna Abbott, the widow of the late Consul John Abbott, and David Hays, Proconsul, over the management of correspondence in Aleppo.The second letter, dated 18 June 1783, covers subjects including:Arrangements for the travel of Major Geils and M Froment to India and the transit of the important despatches they are carrying, including preliminary peace articles with France, Spain, and America [American Revolutionary War, 1775-1783]The difficulties in communicating with Muscat due to a blockade by Grain [Kuwait] following an attack on Zebara [Al Zubara] by Sheik Nassir [Shaikh Nāṣir Khān Āl Mazkūr] of Bushire [Bushehr]Latouche’s complaints against David Hays regarding his management of correspondence in AleppoThe murder of Shaik Baracat [Shaikh Barakāt] by his brother Guthman [Ghazbān] and the latter’s assumption of the leadership of the Chaub Arabs [Banū Ka‘b].Physical description: 1 item (4 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 71 of 1850, dated 3 December 1850. The enclosures are numbered 3-7 and are dated 3 November to 2 December 1850. A note in red ink, dated 1 November 1906, states that enclosures 8 and 9 are missing.The papers relate to affairs in the vicinity of Aden and the application of the Political Agent at Aden for the services of the HC [Honourable Company’s] Schooner
Mahito convey despatches to HM Consul in Abyssinia at Mussoura [Massawa, Eritrea].The principal correspondent is the Political Agent at Aden.Physical description: 1 item (10 folios)
Abstract: The file comprises telegrams, despatches, correspondence and government printed papers. On the front of the file is written in red ink 'Secret Cupboard'.The correspondence concerns the general situation in Egypt in the periods 1931-1937 and 1945-1947. Correspondence also discusses the issues relating to the negotiation and conclusion of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty 1936, including:negotiating pointsconcessionscapability of the Egyptian armylocation of British military facilitiesthe significance of the Suez Canal as an 'artery of communication' for the British empireThe main correspondents include: the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs; the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia; the Minister of External Affairs, Union of South Africa; and HBM High Commissioner to Egypt and the Sudan (Sir Miles Lampson).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 inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 246; 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 file comprises telegrams, despatches, correspondence, memoranda, and notes, 'regarding the desire of the Egyptian Government that the text of their latest regulations governing the acceptance by Egyptian subjects of foreign decorations may be communicated to the government of Muscat and Oman, and that they may be informed of the dates on which that government take cognisance of the regulations.'The file includes three documents in French including 'Rescrit Royal No. 67 de 1931,' signed 'Fouad' (ff 14).The correspondence concludes with dispatches from the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf confirming that the Political Agent and HM Consul, Muscat, had informed him that the 'Muscat State' took cognisance of the regulations on 6 April 1932.Correspondents include: the King of Egypt (Fuad I, spelled as Fouad in the file); HM's High Commissioner for Egypt and the Sudan, (Percy Loraine); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, Simla; Under-Secretary of State for India, India Office, London (Sir Samuel Hoare); Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London (Sir John Simon).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 17; 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 file contains a number of Foreign Office circulars regarding the procedure to be followed – in communicating with foreign governments – when facilitating flights to foreign air bases by British aircraft, either privately owned or of the Royal Air Force (RAF). It also contains a circular concerning the recovery of the costs of telegrams dispatched on behalf of foreign aviators, a circular respecting the provision of emergency funds for RAF personnel undertaking long distance flights, and a circular conveying a proposal for the provision of a subsidy for touring RAF pilots.A brief exchange with HM Minister at Kabul is included within the file requesting exemption from certain Foreign Office instructions owing to local political circumstances.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 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.
Abstract: This file relates to arrangements of communication. A large part of the correspondence discusses the drafting and redrafting of a Foreign Office memorandum of instructions, which is intended to revise existing Foreign Office instructions regarding the channels of communication used by British authorities and neighbouring countries to conduct relations with Ibn Saud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and the Hejaz-Nejd Government. Also discussed are communication arrangements for correspondence not only between the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (based at Bushire), the Political Agent at Kuwait, and the Political Agent and Consul at Jeddah, but also between the Political Resident, the Government of India, and the India Office.Most of the correspondence is between officials of the Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the India Office, and the Government of India's Foreign and Political Department. Other correspondents include the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Hugh Vincent Biscoe) and the High Commissioner for Iraq (Sir Francis Henry Humphrys).Draft copies of the memorandum (to which further revisions are made following the creation of a British Legation at Jeddah) are included with the correspondence.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 (folio 2).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the last folio with 95; 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 3-94; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: This item contains four documents:1. A copy of a letter from Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], to Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay, sent from Bagdad and dated 12 December 1799. In response to Duncan’s letter of 16 October (see IOR/L/PS/9/76/100), Jones discusses routes of communication between Bussora [Basra] and Constantinople [Istanbul], recommending the route via Bagdad. The letter includes tables displaying the estimated travel time from Bussora to Constantinople via Bagdad and the rulers of the territory on this route.2. A list of presents sent by Tipoo Sultan [Tīpū Sulṭān of Mysore] to the Grand Signior [Selim III, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire] and the Grand Vizier [Yūsuf Ẓīa al-Dīn Pāshā] which arrived in Bagdad on 24 December 1799.The list was compiled by Jones on 26 December 1799.3. A copy of a letter from Harford Jones to Rear-Admiral John Blankett, Commander of the British naval squadron in the Red Sea, sent from Bagdad and dated 13 November 1799. The letter forwards dispatches and an intelligence report from Aleppo (not enclosed).Another copy of the same letter is catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/96.4. A copy of a letter from Rear-Admiral Blankett to Jones, sent from HMS
Leopardat Mocca [Mocha] and dated 31 July 1799. It covers subjects including:The retreat of the French forces led by General Napoleon Bonaparte from Accre [Acre]Planned Turkish [Ottoman] and Mameluke attacks on the French occupation forces from Suez and Upper EgyptThe French capture of Cossire [Al Qusayr]Relations and trade between the Government of Mecca and the French forcesThe supplies of the French forces in CairoReports from Maltese defectors that the French forces intend to offer peace termsThe disruption of the coffee trade by Bedouin tribesThe state of the British-occupied island of Perim.Physical description: 1 item (10 folios)
Abstract: An extract from an anonymous letter from Bussorah [Basra], dated 31 May 1781. Subjects covered include:The presumed death of a French traveller heading inland from Scanderoon [Iskenderun]The supposed loyalty of local ‘Arabs’ [tribes] to William Digges Latouche, Resident in Bussorah, after he had purchased the freedom of captives following a Persian [Iranian] attackMeans of crossing the desert to and from Bussorah, with details of the Porte’s [Ottoman Empire] system of communication.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: An extract of a letter from Peter Tooke, East India Company Agent in Constantinople [Istanbul], to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], dated 27 March 1801.The letter concerns a labour shortage of ‘Tartars’ [couriers]. Tooke stresses the need to employ four couriers exclusively for carrying mail between Constantinople and Bagdad.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: An extract from a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to Marquess Wellesley, Governor-General of Bengal, dated 31 October 1803.The letter reports that a messenger employed by Manesty has been plundered en route to Aleppo by members of the Shummer [Shammar] tribe, who sent the captured mail to the Whahabee Sheik [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin Muḥammad Āl Sa‘ūd, Emir of Diriyah], and describes Manesty’s efforts to recover the captured mail.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: An extract of a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to Marquess Wellesley, Governor-General of Bengal, dated 31 October 1803.The letter concerns the transit of mail between Bussora and India.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)