Abstract: This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, and consultations, cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai]. The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; merchants from Surat; William Augustus Pelly, Collector of Continental Customs and Excise.The item concerns a petition from the merchants of Surat asking that their agents and merchandise in the Red Sea might be protected; all British subjects are offered help in removing their property from Mocha when it was about to be evacuated by the Egyptian troops.The item includes a contents page and the title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Collection No. 10, Draft 31, P.C. [Previous Communication] 3302, [Season] 1842’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with f 255 and terminates at f 261, 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 extracts of Political Letters and Political Consultations from the Government of Bombay concerned with the action taken by the Resident at Mocha, Captain Bagnold, in response to a dispute between Surat merchants and the Dola [Governor] of Mocha. The dispute relates to outstanding accounts owed to the merchants for goods supplied to the Dola. Topics covered include:Instructions to the Resident at Mocha regarding the use of an East India Company cruiser with the order not to take action unless authorised by Henry Salt, Consul General at CairoThe Resident at Mocha’s and the Consul General at Cairo's differing views on how to settle the disputeThe Pacha [Pasha] of Egypt's offer to write to the Imaum of Senna [Imam of Ṣanʻā', Yemen] on behalf of the Company and the Pacha's general concerns regarding the weaknesses of the Imaum's governmentThe Resident at Mocha’s unauthorised action of requesting Captain Bremer to bring his squadron to Mocha and the Company’s concerns that this move may have caused the Pacha of Egypt and the Turkish Government to suspect that the Company is attempting to widen its influence in the Red SeaThe death of a Turkish soldier as a result of an affray between ‘some of the Factory’ at Mocha and a group of Turkish soldiers, and the Company’s wishes to stress that this incident was unconnected to the presence of the squadron at MochaThe successful settlement of the dispute due to the actions of the Resident at Mocha.The correspondence consists mainly of letters between the Resident at Mocha and William Newnham, Chief Secretary of the Government of Bombay. The other correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; the Court of Directors; the Agent at Surat; the Secretary of the Government of Bombay; the Secretary of the Supreme Government at Fort William; Syed Abdulla [Sayyid ‘Abdullāh, of Mocha]; Imaum H Mehdee [Al-Qasimi, Mahdi Abdullah, Imam of Yemen]; Henry Salt, Consul General at Cairo; Stratford Canning, Ambassador to Constantinople; Admiral William Hall Gage; Captain Bremer; Captain Robert Taylor, Political Agent at Bussora [Basra].The item also contains a table of contents noting the page number, date, author and recipient of each letter (f 195 recto) as well as a copy of the petition against the Dola of Mocha made by the Surat merchants (ff 203 recto – 206 verso).The bulk of the item dates from the years 1826 and 1827.The title page of the item contains the following references: 'P.C. 681, Draft 367, 1829/30', ‘Collection No. 9’ and 'Examiner's Office 1829'.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at 194, and terminates at 270, 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 file also contains an original printed pagination sequence.
Abstract: This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 4 of 1853, dated 13 January 1853. The enclosures are numbered 3-9. Enclosure numbers 3-6 are dated 12 December 1852 to 5 January 1853.Enclosure numbers 3 and 5 consist of two letters from the Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay. The letters report:The state of affairs at Aden and within its vicinity, including an incident in which a 'marauding party' of forty men of the Subiee [aṣ-Ṣubayḥī] 'tribe' attacked a kafila [caravan] of camels and plundered the goods it was carryingActions taken by Haines in response to complaints from merchants at Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] claiming British protection that they had been treated unjustly by the Turkish [Ottoman] government of Hodeida in relation to increased customs dues, and in being forcibly removed from their houses so that Turkish soldiers could be accommodated in them.Enclosure number 5 includes enclosed copies of correspondence between Haines and the Senior Naval Officer at Aden, Charles William Montrion, and correspondence between other Indian Navy officers.Enclosures 4 and 6 are minutes by the Governor of Bombay, directing that copies of Haines's letters be sent to the Government of India and the Secret Committee, and approving of Haines's reported actions.Numbers 7-9, listed in the abstract of contents as copies of the
Bombay Overland Times, the
Bombay Overland Telegraph & Courier, and the
Bombay Overland Gazettenewspapers dated 13 January 1853, are noted as missing.Physical description: There is an abstract of contents of the despatch, numbered 1-9, on folio 48. These numbers are repeated for reference on the verso of the last folio of each enclosure.
Abstract: Copies of four letters from Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], to John Malcolm, Envoy of the Governor-General of Bengal to Persia [Iran], sent from Bagdad and dated 20 November-30 December 1800.The correspondence mainly concerns Jones's attempts to procure finance for Malcolm's mission in Persia, including a consignment of specie sent by Jones via Aga Mohammed Salah [Āghā Muḥammad Sāliḥ], a merchant in Cazvene [Qazvin]. The correspondence also covers developments in the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, the dispatch of cossids [messengers] from Bagdad to Persia, and plague in the region.Also attached is an invoice for the specie sent by Jones to Cazvene.Physical description: 1 item (6 folios)
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 29 of 1850, dated 11 May 1850.Enclosure No. 3, dated 28 April 1850, is a letter from the Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet, reporting on affairs at Aden and within its vicinity. Haines states that ‘the several Arab Tribes’ adjacent to Aden are at peace with each other, the roads leading to Aden are ‘unmolested’, daily supplies are regular and abundant, and that no smallpox or other contagious disease exists at Aden or in the neighbourhood.Enclosure No. 4, dated 20 April 1850, is a letter from Haines to Malet, forwarding a report from the Senior Naval Officer at Aden station, Captain John Parke Sanders, commanding the Honourable Company’s sloop of war
Elphinstone, reporting on affairs at Jiddah [Jeddah, also spelled Judda in this item], Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] and Mocha. Sanders reports on matters including complaints from the ‘British Native merchants’ (also referred to as ‘Indian Merchants’) at Jiddah of the (in Haines’s words) ‘impositions, exactions, and other unlawful and arbitrary proceedings’ (folio 5) of the Turkish [Ottoman] Pasha of Jiddah, Haysb Pasha [Ḥasīb Pāshā], towards them, and the perceived lack of support and protection they had received from the British Vice Consul there.Enclosure Nos. 5-6, listed in the abstract of contents as copies of the
Bombay Overland Timesand the
Bombay Overland Telegraphdated 11 May 1850, are recorded as missing in a note dated 31 October 1906.Physical description: 1 item (9 folios)
Abstract: This file contains correspondence pertaining to the re-entry of Hindu merchants to al-Hasa and Qatif after a number of them had been ordered to leave in 1928.The majority of the correspondence in the file is between British officials, but it also contains a limited amount of letters that were exchanged between British diplomatic staff in Jeddah and the King of Saudi Arabia, Ibn Sa'ud [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Fayṣal Āl Sa‘ūd] and one of his closest advisors, Yusuf Yassin.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 58; these numbers are written in pencil and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.