IOR/L/PS/12/3423

Correspondence relating to food and supply shortages suffered by staff of the Indo-European Telegraph Department manning telegraph stations along the Persian coast of the Persian Gulf. The file’s principal correspondents include the India Office (John Gilbert Laithwaite), Imperial and International Communications Limited (J O Stevens Perry), the British Legation at Tehran (Charles Dodd, Lacy Baggallay, Reginald Hervey Hoare), and the Foreign Office (Charles William Baxter, George William Rendel). The shortages were a result of the introduction by the Persian Government of a Trade Monopoly Law, banning the import of goods into Persia without goods of equivalent value being exported in the opposite direction. The correspondence focuses on the wording of the Telegraphs Agreement under negotiation between the British and Persian Governments, classification of official stores, and the issue of import licenses for supplies. The file includes lists of the private stores (ff 119-122) and official stores (ff 109-112) for staff of Imperial and International Communications Limited, based at telegraph stations in Bushire, Henjam [Jazīreh-ye Hengām], Jask, and Charbar [Chabahar].