IOR/R/20/E

R/20/E/1-317

POLITICAL AND SECRET DEPARTMENT, GOVERNMENT OF BOMBAY: FILES RELATING TO ADEN, 1837-1931

These volumes originated in the Bombay Political Department. In 1939 the Bombay Government offered to send to the Government of Aden some 500 volumes and 2,000 files relating to Aden affairs preserved in the Bombay Secretariat Record Office. The war intervened but in 1945 a Mr. Fernandes, an Aden official on retirement in India, was deputed to weed out the records concerned and to transmit to Aden all those of 'historical and political importance'. This task was completed by September 1946 and some 370* volumes were transferred to Aden shortly afterwards. Toussaint's report (see below) contained his comments on the procedure of weeding these records and the principles under which it was carried out, and although it is clear that some of the materials destroyed were ephemeral, his strictures upon the entire operation are substantially correct.

With the exception of some of the later files, the make-up of the records conforms to general Bombay Secretariat practice, i.e. annual compilations on particular subjects which were bound up together at the end of the year. Most of the compilations in the series naturally come under the main subject heading "Aden" but there are others (eg. Arms and Ammunition) which are noted in the list below. The compilations contain correspondence of the Bombay Political Department with Aden, the Government of India, the India Office, other Bombay Government Departments, etc, together with departmental noting and minuting.

In the majority of the volumes there is a list of the compilations originally contained within the particular volume and a note of those compilations subsequently destroyed or transferred to Aden.

This list itemises the surviving compilations contained in each volume. The order is chronological. In the original sequence of numbers assigned, presumably c.1946, there are some anomalies of dating; therefore, for the assistance of the reader, chronology rather than later volume number has been made the ordering principle.

*Not all of these survived.

From: A Toussant Report on the Aden Archives (1953)

6.ARTIFICIAL COLLECTIONS

49. In addition to the records of the Political Residency and its own, the Secretariat also houses certain sets of records which I have termed artificial collections because they were formed in an artificial manner. It seems therefore appropriate to deal with them now before proceesing to appraise records kept in agencies other than the Secretariat.

50. This artificial group includes at present the following series:

(1) records of the Bombay Government relative to Aden transferred from the Bombay Secretariat Record Office in 1946;

(2) select files on certain special topics received from Bombay before 1937;

(3) circular despaches received from the Colonial Office from 1937 onwards.

51. This group amounts to about 500 units stacked in the record-room in stack 5.

52. Series 1 originated thus: In 1939, after Aden had been detached from it, the Bombay Government offered to send over some 500 vols and 2,000 files relative to Aden affairs kept in its Secretariat Record Office. A detailed description of the material was applied for, in the first instance, but could not be obtained.

53. During the war the matter remained in abeyance. In 1945 it was taken up anew and Mr. Fernandes, an Aden official on retirement in India, was deputed to weed out the said records and send to Aden only those 'of historical or political importance'. The work was started on 28 February and completed on 18 september 1946, and the residue retained, amounting to 363 units, was transferred shortly afterwards with a check-list thereof and also an inventory of the material examined, amounting actually to 605 volumes and 1,221 files and compilations.

54. I have gone through that inventory and through all the papers relative to this affair and my impression is that it would have been preferably and possibly less expensive to transfer the records en bloc.

55. In the first place it is evident that the instructions given to Mr. Fernandes to retain only material of "historical and political importance" were too vague. Most of the records which he retained relate to the dealings with Arab chiefs in the Protectorate but this is not, by any means, the only important topic in the history of British rule in this part of the world. On the other hand, he destroyed quite a lot on topics such as the slave trade, commerce and emigration which have always been favourite subjects on research among students of colonial history.

56. Secondly, all the original volumes were broken up to remove the records that were discarded, with the result that the 363 units forming the present collection will have to be bound, sooner or later, at a cost of about Rs3,000 i.e. more than what was paid to Mr. Fernandes for the weeding-out.

57. Series 2 and 3 are, as far as I could see, of no great value for the historical student. they may be retained, however, as they do not take up much space and as they may be needed for administrative purposes.