IOR/L/PS/20/CA4

Confidential printed abstracts of letters received by the India Office from the Government of India, and from senior officials in certain areas outside India, during the year 1864. The letters are dated 9 January 1864-31 December 1864. The abstracts are numbered 1-136 and each have one of the following titles:

• Abstract of Letters Received from India
• Abstract of Military Letters Received from India
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from India
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from the Resident at Aden
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from the Political Resident at Aden
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from the Governor of the Straits Settlements
• Abstract of Secret Letters Received from the Political Agent at Zanzibar.

Each abstract contains summaries of one or more letters from the specified source, each with a title giving the subject of the letter. Letters from India are divided within each abstract by the branch or department of the Government of India they originated from. The correspondence included in the volume concerns events in British India, Affghanistan [Afghanistan], Bootan [Bhutan], Burmah [Burma or Myanmar], the Straits Settlements, Aden, Oman, the Persian Gulf, and the coast of East Africa, including:

• Revenue and expenditure
• Finances, including taxation, the issue of bullion and currency, and the Bank of Bengal
• Communications, including postal services and telegraph lines
• Public works and transportation, including railways and trams, irrigation, river navigation, roads and viaducts, canals, forestry, steam shipping, lighthouses, land reclamation, harbour improvements
• Legal affairs, including the establishment of courts, judicial appointments, legal reform and the salaries of High Court judges
• The retirements, dismissals and appointments of military and civil personnel
• The pay and pensions of military and civil personnel
• Military affairs, including the recruitment and disbandment of military units, organisation and supply, military reform, the distribution of prize money, the reduction of the army, the sanitary commission for the reduction of disease in the army, and the issuing of Enfield rifles to ‘Native Troops’
• Internal affairs, including police forces, missionaries, and medical services and hospitals
• Education in India, including the funding for educational institutions and provisions for the education of ‘native females’
• The production of crops, particularly cotton and tea
• Naval affairs, including the reduction of the navy, the jurisdiction of the Royal Navy and the purchase of ships from the Anglo-Chinese Squadron
• The military expedition against the ‘Sittana fanatics’ on the Punjaub [Punjab] frontier
• The death of the incumbent Governor-General of India, Lord Elgin, and his replacement by Sir John Lawrence
• The ongoing construction of the telegraph line between Britain and India, including through Mesopotamia and Persia [Iran]
• Affairs in the Gulf, including claims by the Persian Government over Charbar [Chahabar] and Guadur [Gwadar]
• The affairs of the Princely States, including finances, succession and issues of jurisdiction
• Affairs in Affghanistan, including the accession of the Ameer of Cabul [Amīr of Kabul], Shere Ali Khan [Shīr ‘Alī Khān], the dispatch of an envoy to Peshawur [Peshawar] requesting a treaty of alliance between Affghanistan and Britain, and the imprisonment of Sirdar Mahomed Afzul Khan [Sirdār Muḥammad Afḍal Khān] by the Ameer of Cabul
• Affairs in the Straits Settlements, including shipments of arms from Singapore to China, ‘disturbances’ on the Malaya peninsula, and the affairs of the ‘Native States’ of the east coast of Sumatra, where Dutch influence is spreading
• ‘Revolution’ in Abyssinia and the detention of the British Consul, Captain Charles Duncan Cameron
• Affairs at Aden, including the dispute between the Sultan of Lahej, Fodhil [Faḍl IV bin Muḥsin al-‘Abdalī], and ‘the old Foodlee Chief’, Ahmed Bin Abdullah [Aḥmad bin ‘Abdullāh al-Faḍlī, Sultan of Fadhli]; an attack on Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] by Aseerees [ʿAsīris]; and the sale of Little Aden to the British
• The trade in enslaved people on the coast of East Africa, including efforts to deter the trade at Zanzibar, and the use of the French flag by traders
• British relations with Bootan, including the military expedition against Bootan in retaliation for the treatment of the British mission to Bootan led by Ashley Eden [Duar War, 1864-1865].

The primary correspondents are:

• The Government of India (Ecclesiastical, Educational, Financial, Foreign, General, Home, Indo-European Telegraph, Judicial, Legislative, Marine, Mekran Telegraph, Political, Public, Public Works, Railway, Revenue Departments)
• The Governor-General of India
• The Governor of the Straits Settlements
• The Political Resident, Aden
• The Political Agent, Zanzibar.

The abstracts were printed and bound in London, and each one includes the following colophon: ‘LONDON: Printed by GEORGE E. EYRE and WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE, Printers to the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty. For Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.’