Abstract: This volume was published by the Superintendent Government Printing in Calcutta in 1912 and marked as very confidential. The first part of the volume concerns the Relations of the British Government with the tribes and shaikhs of Arabistan and included list of officials in Arabistan (folio 6) and collections of reports and correspondence on: British interests in Arabistan between 1635 and 1800, the issue of frontiers between Turkey and Persia (folios 30v-34), information on the Sheikhs of Mohammerah [Khorramshahr, Iran] from 1567 to 1910 and their relations with the Turks, and piracies in the Shatt-Al-Arab from 1891-1900 (folios 28-30). The second part of the volume concerns irrigation schemes in Arabistan (folios 39-44) and land acquisition by foreigners in Arabistan (folio 44v-50).Physical description: The foliation sequence commences at the front cover, and terminates at the inside back cover; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
Digitization for the Arab Image Foundation Photo Negatives collection was sponsored by an Emergency Grant from the Modern Endangered Archives Program with funding from Arcadia.
Digitization for the Arab Image Foundation Photo Negatives collection was sponsored by an Emergency Grant from the Modern Endangered Archives Program with funding from Arcadia.
Digitization for the Arab Image Foundation Photo Negatives collection was sponsored by an Emergency Grant from the Modern Endangered Archives Program with funding from Arcadia.
Digitization for the Arab Image Foundation Photo Negatives collection was sponsored by an Emergency Grant from the Modern Endangered Archives Program with funding from Arcadia.
Digitization for the Arab Image Foundation Photo Negatives collection was sponsored by an Emergency Grant from the Modern Endangered Archives Program with funding from Arcadia.
Abstract: This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 87 of 1847, dated 13 October 1847. The enclosure is dated 26 August 1847.The primary document is a despatch from Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Acting Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] (acting for Henry Creswicke Rawlinson who had taken a leave of absence), forwarding for the information of the Secretary to the Government of India and the Secretary to the Government, Bombay, copies of his despatches to Lord Cowley, HM Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople [Istanbul], with relevant enclosures, on the ‘affairs of the Baghdad Pachalic [Pashalik]’.The documents notably cover the following matters:British attempts to verify the authenticity of the communication from the Mootsellim [Mutasallim] of Bussorah [Governor of Basra] to Sheikh Mahomed ben Khaleefa [Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah, Shaikh of Bahrain] inviting him to place himself under the protection of the Turkish [Ottoman] flag, including a corroborative document forwarded to Rawlinson by Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian GulfReactions of the independent Arab rulers of the Gulf regarding the appearance of an Ottoman brig of war [in the Gulf] and the alleged the claims by the Turkish officers on board of the intention to replace British influence in the Gulf with Turkish influence. Included are reports by John Croft Hawkins, Commodore Commandant Indian Navy, Squadron in the Persian Gulf, on the HC [Honourable Company] steam frigate
Queen, and the Agent at Shargah [Sharjah], regarding: the brig’s movements; the concerns expressed by Shaikh Mucktoom [Maktūm I bin Buṭṭī Āl Bū Falāsah of Dubai]; and the alleged ‘exultation’ of Sultan Ben Suggur [Shaikh Sulṭān I bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī, Ruler of Sharjah and Ra’s al-Khaymah, Al Jazirah Al Hamra and Ar Rams, variously] at the potential loss of British influence (ff 263-268)Reports that Nejib Pasha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] plans to survey ‘the old and ruined canals’ of Abooghraib [Abu Ghraib], Scindreeah [Sindria?] and Mahmoodiah [Mahmudiyah?], in order to repair them and bring the adjoining land back into cultivation and improve irrigationThe disturbed state of the country in Moosul [Mosul] due ‘principally to the internal dissensions in the large tribe of the Shammar [Šammar] Arabs’ (f 269)The question of whether British and Russian subjects travelling in the Turkish [Ottoman] dominions will be subject to new passport regulation fees, and Kemball’s scepticism, in communications with Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Minister at Tehran, regarding Nejib Pasha’s intention to exempt ‘native Englishmen’, taking into consideration the passport fees recently levied on Rawlinson and his party for the latter’s leave of absenceKemball’s scepticism, communicated to Sheil, regarding Nejib Pasha’s intentions of fulfilling instructions from the Turkish Government for the removal of a Turkish guard vessel from her anchorage off the mouth of the Haffer [Haffar] Canal to a station higher up the stream, and intention to escalate his dissatisfaction to the Porte via HM Minister at Constantinople (ff 272-273).Physical description: 1 item (20 folios)
Abstract: The file contains papers relating to the proposed visit of an Iraqi irrigation engineer to India, to see some of the major irrigation works which had been constructed there, and the areas which had been brought under cultivation and colonised through the irrigation works.The papers mostly consist of correspondence between the India Office (J P Gibson, Roland Tennyson Peel, and others) and the following: the Foreign Office, the External Affairs Department of the Government of India (Sir Herbert Aubrey Francis Metcalfe, O K Caroe, and others), and the British Council.The file includes a divider, which gives lists 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 37; 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 2-36; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled.
Abstract: The volume comprises correspondence, despatches, memorandum, notes, and reports on the Karun irrigation scheme, including many diagrams of the construction and layout.The principal correspondents are the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey), and representatives of the India Office and the Foreign Office.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 of the year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the back cover with 418; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: The volume comprises correspondence, despatches, a memorandum, notes and reports on a scheme devised by Sir William Willcocks for irrigation in Mesopotamia. It also includes a number of reports about the effect of the Baghdad railway both on relations with Persia and on the defence of India.Included in the volume are summaries of the financial costs involved in the project and a map of Mesopotamia (folio 184) to illustrate Sir William Willcocks's report.The volume has a divider which gives the subject and part numbers, year the subject file was opened, and a list of correspondence references contained in that part by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the main foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the back cover with 214; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: The volume contains correspondence in the form of telegrams, letters, reports, and minutes. The correspondence is mainly about the mission of John Hewett’s [also spelled in the volume as Hewitt] to Mesopotamia. On behalf of the War Office, the mission is to examine and report to the Army Council on the financial bearings of agricultural and irrigational schemes in Mesopotamia.Other issues discussed in the volume are the following:The work of the Chief Centre of Cultivation and the main corps and farming facilities in MesopotamiaThe ‘control of expenditure and of irrigation and river conservancy’ in MesopotamiaAppointment of officers from India to accompany Hewett, and their proposed salariesThe Egyptian Government agreeing to assist Hewett in Egypt and MesopotamiaThe Civil Commissioner, Baghdad complains that the activities of Hewett’s mission interfering with his own civil dutiesConcerns raised regarding a lecture Hewett delivered at Baghdad to British officers on Indian Reform Proposals and the influence the lecture could have on the prospects of civil or military Government employment in IndiaCorrespondence between the War Office, the Army Council, and the India Office on whether to take any actions towards Hewett, and Hewett’s response to that.The correspondence also includes a number of reports of the Army Agricultural Committee.Other correspondents in the volume are: the Foreign Office, London; the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; the Under-Secretary of State for India, Political Department; the Viceroy, Army Department; the Civil Commissioner, Baghdad; and the British Delegation, Paris.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 131; 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. The sequence contains one foliation anomaly, f 18a.