Abstract: This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 30 January 1874 and received by the India Office via Brindisi on 24 February 1874, forwarding a copy of papers relating to the projected exploration of the Persian Gulf by a British company to be established for the purpose of pearl fishing. The papers comprise letters from officers of the Persian Gulf Residency concerning the activities of Lieutenant Walter Grant, formerly of the Indian Navy, deputed by 'certain speculators' to investigate the projected establishment of a commercial company to obtain pearls from the Persian Gulf banks with 'modern scientific appliances' and to obtain concessions from the Chief of Bahrein [Bahrain] 'or other Arab Chiefs'. The scheme is considered undesirable by the Political Resident and the Government of India, a view supported in a fourteen-point report by Colonel Lewis Pelly, (Agent to the Governor-General, Rajpootna [Rajputana], and Resident in the Persian Gulf 1862-1872), to the Government of India Foreign Department (ff 428-249).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 246, and terminates at f 249, 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. The sequence contains two foliation anomalies: f 246a, and f 247a.
Abstract: This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 30 January 1874 and received by the India Office via Brindisi on 24 February 1874, forwarding a copy of papers relating to the projected exploration of the Persian Gulf by a British company to be established for the purpose of pearl fishing. The papers comprise letters from officers of the Persian Gulf Residency concerning the activities of Lieutenant Walter Grant, formerly of the Indian Navy, deputed by 'certain speculators' to investigate the projected establishment of a commercial company to obtain pearls from the Persian Gulf banks with 'modern scientific appliances' and to obtain concessions from the Chief of Bahrein [Bahrain] 'or other Arab Chiefs'. The scheme is considered undesirable by the Political Resident and the Government of India, a view supported by a fourteen-point report by Colonel Lewis Pelly (Agent to the Governor-General, Rajpootna [Rajputana] and Resident in the Persian Gulf 1862-1872), to the Government of India Foreign Department (ff 259-260 and 263-264).Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 258, and terminates at f 264, 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. The sequence contains three foliation anomalies: f 258a, f 261a, and f 262a.
Abstract: This file consists of letters written and received by James Felix Jones, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire. Aside from Jones, the two most prominent correspondents are Henry Lacon Anderson, Secretary to the Government of Bombay, and Commodore Griffith Jenkins, Commander of the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf. Other correspondents include: Henry Young, Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay; Cecil Beadon, Secretary to the Government of India, Fort William; and George Frederick Edmonstone, Secretary to the Government of India, Allahabad.The two main subjects of this file are the condition of the naval station at Bassidore [Bāsaʻīdū] and Britain's assumption of the sovereignty of India. The letters received from Griffith Jenkins are primarily concerned with the status of the naval station at Bassidore. In one of his letters to Jones (ff 5-8), dated 18 March 1858, Griffith Jenkins remarks on the total inefficiency of the naval establishment at Bassidore and solicits Jones's aid in presenting this issue to the Government so that arrangements can be made for its repair. The file includes a letter to Griffith Jenkins from a committee which has been appointed to report on the condition of the public buildings at Bassidore. This letter (ff 28-33), dated 18 March 1859, submits the committee's report on the condition of the port, the water tanks, the storehouses, the houses for liberated slaves, the smithy, the hospital and the sepoys' quarters at Bassidore.In his letters to Henry Lacon Anderson, Jones discusses the distribution of the ships of the Indian Naval Squadron and expresses his opinion on whether it is advisable for British subjects to engage in pearl fishing in the Persian Gulf.Jones's correspondence with Henry Young concerns the dissemination throughout the Gulf of copies of Her Majesty's proclamation on Britain's assumption of the sovereignty of India. Included with the received letters from India are printed extracts from the Government of India Act (1858) (ff 54-62), as well as translations of the aforementioned proclamation in Persian (handwritten, ff 43-46), Arabic (printed, f 48) and English (printed, ff 63-64).Further items on this subject include letters, both in Arabic (it is not clear whether the letters in Arabic are originals or transcriptions) and in English, from the Imam of Muscat, Sayyid Thuwaynī bin Sa‘id Āl Bū Sa‘īd, to Felix Jones (see ff 74-77 and f 80), in which Jones is informed that Her Majesty's assumption of the sovereignty of India was marked with the decoration and illumination of Muscat for three successive nights. In addition, there is a copy of a letter to the Resident which is written in Persian (ff 78v-79, name of correspondent unclear). These items are followed by translated purports of letters from the British Agents at Muscat and Sharjah (Khojeh Hiskale and Hajee Yacoob – see f 81 and ff 84-85 respectively), which convey the acknowledgements of the Imam of Muscat and other local rulers.Physical description: Foliation: This file has a foliation sequence, which is written in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto of each folio. It begins on the first folio of writing, on number 1, and ends on the final folio before the back cover, on number 96. This is the sequence that has been used to reference items within the file.
Abstract: This file consists mostly of translations of letters received by the Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, Major David Wilson, from a number of East India Company native agents. The letters concern developments on both sides of the Gulf. The most prominent correspondents are the following: Goolab [Gulab Anandadas], Native Agent at Muscat; Mirza Ally Akbar [Mirza Ali Akbar], Native Agent at Shiraz; and Moollah Houssein [Mullah Husain], Native Agent at Sharjah. In addition, there are letters from native representatives at Bahrein [Bahrain], Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh] and Isfahan. Aside from the aforementioned correspondence, this file contains a small number of translations of letters addressed to the Resident (and in the case of two letters, to Captain William Sowden Collinson and William Bentick, Governor General of India, respectively) from local rulers, including the following: His Highness the Imam of Muscat [Sa‘īd bin Sultān Āl Bū Sa‘īd, Sultan of Muscat and Oman]; Sooltan bin Suggur [Sulṭān bin Saqr Āl Qāsimī, ruler of Ra's al-Khaymah and Sharjah]; Shaik Abdool Russool Khan [Shaikh ‘Abd al-Rasūl Khān, Governor of Bushire]; Shaik Tahnoon [Tahnun bin Shakhbut Āl Nahyān, Shaikh of Abu Dhabi]; Shaik Abdoollah bin Ahmed [Shaikh Abdullah ibn Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah, Shaikh of Bahrain]; His Royal Highness the Shah of Persia [Fatḥ ʿAlī Shāh Qajar]; and His Royal Highness the Prince of Shiraz [Ḥusayn ‘Alī Mīrzā]. These letters appear either as attachments to the native agents' letters, or as singular items.Recurring themes found throughout the letters from the various native agents include relations between local rulers (both friendly and hostile) and the numerous visits undertaken by those rulers. The letters also discuss topics which are specific to the agent's region or location: agents writing from the ports of the Gulf report on the arrival and departure of ships (including French brigs); the Acting Agent at Bahrein provides updates on the pearl diving season; Mirza Ally Akbar [Mirza Ali Akbar], writing from Shiraz, relays information on the effects of the cholera outbreak in Tabreez [Tabrīz] and discusses relations between the Prince of Shiraz and the Russians.Physical description: Pagination: There is a pagination sequence which is written in ink, in the top right corner of the recto of each folio and in the top left corner of the verso of each recto.Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto of each folio. This sequence begins on the front cover, on number 1, and ends on the last folio of writing, on number 79. This is the sequence used by this catalogue to reference items within the file.Condition: Some of the folios in this file have been damaged at the edges; as a result, some of the text has been lost.
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 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.