Abstract: This file consists of an agreement between the British Government and the Persian Government [a provisional agreement that was never ratified; it was later known as the Anglo-Persian Agreement], dated 9 August 1919. In the agreement, which consists of six clauses, the British Government agrees to continue to 'respect absolutely the independence and integrity of Persia'. It promises to supply – at the cost of the Persian Government – the services of whatever expert advisers may be required for reforms by the several departments of the Persian administration, as well as military officers, munitions and equipment. For the purpose of financing the aforementioned reforms, the British Government offers to provide a substantial loan for the Persian Government. The British Government also states that it is prepared to co-operate with the Persian Government 'for the encouragement of Anglo-Persian enterprise' in railway construction and other means of transport. The agreement concludes with a statement that both Governments agree to the appointment of a joint committee of experts for the examination and revision of the existing customs tariff.The agreement is followed by another agreement which concerns a loan of 2,000,000
lfrom the British Government to the Persian Government. This agreement is followed by an extract from a contract between the Persian Government and the Imperial Bank of Persia, regarding a previous loan of 1,250,000
l, dated 8 May 1911.The file concludes with two letters from Sir Percy Zachariah Cox, Acting British Minister at Tehran, to His Highness Vossug-ed-Dowleh [Woṯūq-al-dawla, Prime Minister of Persia], both dated 9 August 1919. In the first of these letters, Cox states that the British Government is prepared to co-operate regarding the following issues: the revision of existing treaties between the two powers, Persia's claims to compensation for damage suffered at the hands of other belligerents, and the rectification of the Persian frontier. In the second letter, Cox states that the British Government will not claim for the cost of the maintenance of British troops that were sent to Persia to defend its neutrality during the First World War, while on the other hand the Persian Government will not claim from the British Government an indemnity for any damage caused by British troops in Persian territory.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 205, and terminates at f 206, as 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
Abstract: The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 31 January 1848. A copy of this Political Letter can be found at IOR/F/4/2238/112322, alongside details of further enclosures. The item is the fifty-fifth in a series of fifty-nine items on events in the Persian Gulf.The item relates to a letter, dated 8 November 1847, from Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf, to the Government of Bombay. Hennell confirms that the loan forcibly taken from a British subject by the Chief of Asseeloo [Shaikh of Bandar-e ‘Asaluyeh] has been repaid and therefore the boat detained as security for this payment has been returned to the owner, Ab-dool Nubbee [‘Abd al-Nabī]. An act of ‘piracy’ committed by the people of Khirrah [Kherreh] on a bugla belonging to the Company’s associate, Hajee Yacoob [Ḥājjī Ya‘qūb], is also briefly mentioned.The title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Bombay Political Department’, ‘Draft No. 345/48, Coll: 2, Vol: 55’, ‘Collection No. 11 of No. 21’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 595, and terminates at f 599, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the item also contains an original pagination sequence.
Abstract: The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence, minutes and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 3 July 1847. A copy of this Political Letter can be found at IOR/F/4/2238/112322, alongside details of further enclosures. The item is the eighth in a series of fifty-nine items on events in the Persian Gulf.The item contains letters from the Government of Bombay to Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf, responding to his earlier reports on his tour of the Gulf.The item also contains correspondence regarding:Commanding Officer of the Company ship,
Mahi, Lieutenant Macdonald's intervention in a ‘piratical’ attack against a bugla by members of the Chaab [Banū Ka‘b] tribePotential inconveniences of affording assistance to British subjects who loan money to local authorities and governors in Persia [Iran], as discussed by Hennell and Lieutenant Colonel Sheil, HM Minister at the Court of TehranRequests by merchants of Bombay [Mumbai] for protection of their merchant ships when travelling to Bahrein [Bahrain], copies of which can be found at folios 289-290 and 291-292Discussions between Hennell and the Government of Bombay with regards to arrangements for the trial of Ahmed Dad Kurreem [Aḥmad Dād Karīm], and in particular whether he should be tried by the authorities in Muscat or tried in Bombay at the High Court of Admiralty.Copies of the above correspondence are forwarded by the Government of Bombay to the Government of India, along with Hennell’s proposal that Lieutenant Arnold Burrows Kemball should replace Major Rawlinson during his temporary absence from the Baghdad Residency.The title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Bombay Political Department’, ‘Draft No. 345/48’, ‘Collection No. 2 of No. 87, Vol: 8.’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 272, and terminates at f 304, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the item also contains an original pagination sequence.
Abstract: The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 31 January 1848. A copy of this Political Letter can be found at IOR/F/4/2238/112322, alongside details of further enclosures. The item is the forty-eighth in a series of fifty-nine items on events in the Persian Gulf.The item relates to a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Minister at the Court of Persia [Iran], to Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf, dated 18 August 1847. Sheil advises Hennell that Her Majesty’s Government has confirmed that they should not interfere in cases where British subjects have loaned money to Persian subjects in Persia. Hennell passes this information on to the Government of Bombay and cites it as relevant to the recent case of Messrs Mills and Co.The title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Bombay Political Department’, ‘Draft No. 345/48, Col: 2, Vol: 48’, ‘Collection No. 4 of No. 21’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 547, and terminates at f 550, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the item also contains an original pagination sequence.
Abstract: This file consists of a memorandum describing the historical background to the Persian debt to the Government of India and to the British Government. The memorandum records a number of proposals for debt relief put forward by the Government of India, the Foreign Office and the Chancellor, made on the basis firstly that the majority of the debt consisted of war loans against which it was feared the Persian Government might have grounds for a counter-claim, and secondly that a number of concessions might thereby be won. The memorandum was written by John Gilbert Laithwaite, India Office.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio 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 file reproduces telegrams written between the Secretary of State for India, the Viceroy of India, the First Minister at Teheran (Sir Arthur Hardinge), and the Foreign Secretary (Marquess of Lansdowne), in which the authors assess the merits and logistics of a proposed loan to the Persian Government.The chief considerations concern the British and Indian Governments' desire to neutralize the Russian monopoly on loans to Persia, and to prevent Russia from gaining influence in southern Persia. Proposals include using revenues from customs houses in southern Persia as security against the loan, eliciting political agreement not to allow foreign road or railway construction projects in southern Persia, and a plan for the Indian Government to purchase a large stake in the Imperial Bank of Persia in order to facilitate similar loans in the future.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 150, and terminates at f 160, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: This file, written by John Evelyn Shuckburgh, India Office, concerns what is referred to as a moratorium scheme for Persia.According to the report, the scheme was first suggested by the Persian Government in March 1915, when it proposed that Persia should be relieved, for a fixed period of two years (dated from the beginning of the First World War), of all payments on its British and Russian loans.The report discusses an adopted joint Anglo-Russian subvention, by which the Persian Government should be paid the sum of £30,000 a month (with one quarter of this amount – £7,500 – being taken from Indian revenues), back-dated to January 1915 and continuing until six months after the end of the war.Shuckburgh reports that Charles Murray Marling, British Minister at Tehran, now proposes that Persia be paid 200,000 tomans a month, equivalent to £57,800, which will require a payment of £14,450 a month from Indian revenues.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 115, and terminates at f 116, as 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. A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: The memorandum provides a brief outline of the development of the 'half and half arrangement'; the principle by which British expenditure in Persia was divided between the British (UK) and British Indian Exchequers. It notes situations where the question of this division has emerged between 1901 and 1914.At the front of the memorandum (folio 144) is a covering letter dated 21 June 1916 from Sir Arthur Hirtzel, Political Department, India Office, addressed to Sir Thomas William Holderness, Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India.The author of the memorandum is H W Garrett.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at f 144, and terminates at f 149, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.
Abstract: The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence, minutes and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 16 July 1853.The item relates to multiple requests to the Government of Bombay for aid, in the forms of loans and allowances, by Syud Maheen Shah [Sayyid Māhīn Shāh, also rendered in text as Syed Muheen Shah]. The item contains details about his financial difficulties and previous loans given to him by Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Persia [Iran], and the Government of Bombay. His requests are based on the fact that he previously helped Captain Arthur Conolly travel from Afghanistan to India and holds a certificate (copy included, folio 483) to be used 'in case of need', given to him by a former Governor-General of India.Syud Maheen Shah's request for an allowance is forwarded to the Government of India, who respond with comments on previous favours given to Syud Maheen Shah and their decision not to provide him with an allowance.Correspondents include: Sheil, Syud Maheen Shah, and the governments of Bombay and India.The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', Draft Number '877 1855', 'Collection No. 25 of No. 73 of 1853', and 'Examiner's Office'.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 464, and terminates at f 487, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the item also contains an original pagination sequence.
Abstract: The volume comprises telegrams, despatches, correspondence, memoranda, and notes, relating to a loan made to the Persian Government in April 1903, and further advances made during 1904 and 1905.The discussion in the volume relates to the terms of the loan agreements including possible concessions and collateral that could be secured against them; and agreements with the Imperial Bank of Persia through whom the money was loaned. Also discussed is the definition of the term 'Fars and the Persian Gulf' in relation to customs duties, as this was one of the concessions that the 1903 loan was secured against.Further discussion surrounds loans and advances which the Persian Government were negotiating with the Russian Government; and a proposal for an irrigation scheme on the Karun River which was considered as a possible concession in return for a further loan advance.Included in the volume is a copy of the
Règlement Douaniersigned on the 29 August 1904 between representatives of the Persian Government and His Majesty's Government (ff 193-232).The principal correspondents in the volume include the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Lord Lansdowne, Sir Edward Grey), the British Minister to Persia (Sir Arthur Henry Hardinge), the Under Secretaries of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Charles Hardinge, Sir Thomas Henry Sanderson), and for India (Earl Percy, Sir Arthur Godley), the Viceroy of India (Lord Curzon of Keddleston), the Secretary to the Political and Secret Department of the India Office (Sir Richmond Richie) and the London Manager of the Imperial Bank of Persia (George Newell).The volume is part 1 of 4. 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.Physical description: The foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 526; 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, telegrams, despatches, notes and memoranda relating to financial loans made by the Governments of Great Britain and Russia to the Government of Persia from 1901 to 1905; and potential loans to be made during 1906 and 1907.The volume discusses the failure of the Persian Government to meet repayment schedules for existing loans and the securities such as customs revenue and concessions which the loans were guaranteed against.Also discussed in the volume are a possible joint Anglo-Russian loan to the Persian Government, which was eventually dismissed owing to the illness and subsequent death of the Shah (Muẓaffari’d-Dīn Shāh Qājār) in January 1907.The principal correspondents in the volume are the British Ambassador to Persia (Sir Cecil Spring Rice), the British Ambassador to Russia (Sir Arthur Nicolson), the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey), and representatives of the India Office, Foreign Office, and Treasury.Other correspondents include the Chargé d’Affaires for the British Legation at Tehran (Evelyn Grant Duff), the Russian Imperial Minister for Foreign Affairs (Count Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky) and his Assistant Minister (Count Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky), and the Secretary of State for India (Sir John Morley). Also included is correspondence with the Manager (George Newell) and Chairman (Sir Lepel Griffin) of the Imperial Bank of Persia through whom British loans to the Persian Government had been arranged.The volume is part 2 of 4. 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.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 527; 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 comprises correspondence, despatches, memoranda, notes and reports on the financial situation in Persia and the possibility of a joint Anglo-Russian loan to the Persian Government. The terms of the joint loan, including financial reforms which would have to be undertaken by the Persian Government, are discussed in detail.Included in the volume are summaries of the financial situation from 1903 onwards, records of the loans made to the Persian Government in 1903 and 1904 and repayments made against them, and discussion on the Persian Government’s difficulties in paying their debts. Also discussed is a request from the Persian Government in 1910 for a conversion loan from the Imperial Bank of Persia in order to consolidate their debts.The principal correspondents are the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey), the British Minister in Tehran (Sir Charles Murray Marling, Sir George Heard Barclay) and the British Ambassador to Russia (Sir Arthur Nicolson), along with representatives of the India Office, Foreign Office and Treasury.Other correspondents include the Russian Imperial Minister for Foreign Affairs (Count Alexander Petrovich Izvolsky), the French Financial Adviser to the Persian Government (Eugène Bizot) and the Belgian Administrator-General of Persian Customs (Joseph Mornard).The correspondence from the Government departments from May 1910 onwards contains a thick black border according to official mourning protocol following the death of King Edward VII on 6 May 1910.The volume is part 3 of 4. 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.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 605; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.