IOR/L/PS/10/626

The volume contains papers mostly relating to expenditure incurred in Persia, and the issue of how this expenditure should be divided between the Imperial and Indian Exchequers.

The papers mainly consist of correspondence between the India Office and the following: the Foreign Office, the Foreign and Political Department of the Government of India, and the Treasury; as well as India Office Minute Papers, Reference Papers, and other India Office papers and notes.

The volume mostly concerns diplomatic and consular expenditure, specifically: the question of revising the existing arrangements under which, following the recommendations of the Welby Commission of 1900, the cost of this expenditure in Persia had been shared roughly equally between the Indian and Imperial Revenues (between the Indian Political Department and the Foreign Office); the proposals of the Foreign Office that Indian Political Department posts in Persia should be transferred to the Levant Consular Service, and thus come under the responsibility of the Foreign Office, with the Government of India paying a yearly contribution towards the posts; and the objections of the Government of India to the Foreign Office’s proposals.

The volume also includes papers regarding: the cost of troops from the Indian Establishment employed in Oman and Persia during the First World War; and the projected contribution from Indian Revenues of a moiety of a loan of £2,000,000 to the Persian Government under the ‘Curzon Agreement’ [Anglo-Persian Agreement] of 1919. In addition, it includes some papers relating to expenditure on diplomatic and consular establishments in Turkish Arabia, Muscat and China, as well as Persia.

The file 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.