IOR/L/PS/10/533

Papers concerning the advance of financial relief to British Indians stranded in Baghdad and elsewhere in Ottoman territory, in the wake of Britain’s invasion of Mesopotamia [Iraq] in November 1914. The papers cover: proposals for funds to be forwarded to and distributed by the United States Consul at Baghdad; the advance of funds to Britain’s Vice-Consul at Kerbala [Karbala] (Mohamad Hassan Mohsin), now in Constantinople [Istanbul]; the payment of relief and pensions to British Indians and their dependents in Baghdad; payments for accommodation for British Indians in Baghdad, made by the United States Consul at Baghdad; expenditure incurred by the withdrawal of British consular staff from Baghdad and Kerbala. A large portion of the file concerns arrangements for the continuation of pension payments to the widow and heirs (now resident in Constantinople and Smyrna [İzmir]) of the late Said Yacoub Khan (various spellings throughout the file) who had been awarded a pension prior to his death for ‘high services’ rendered to Queen Victoria (f 80). The file’s principal correspondents are: the Foreign Office, including the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Sir Algernon Law; the British High Commissioner in Constantinople, Horace George Montagu Rumbold; the Political Department of the Government of Bombay.

The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.