IOR/L/PS/20/CA7

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 1867. The letters are dated November 1866-December 1867. The abstracts each have one of the following titles:

• Abstracts of Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from the Resident at Aden
• Abstracts of Letters received from Colonel Merewether, Commanding Abyssinian Reconnoitering Force.

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 covers issues including:

• Famine in Madras and Bengal Provinces, in particular Orissa [Odisha], and a subsequent enquiry into the handling of the Orissa famine by British officials
• Public works, including railways, irrigation, roads, docks, lighthouses, navigational locks, and land reclamation
• Pay, pensions, recruitment, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments, including the employment of ‘Natives’ in the Civil administration
• Issues concerning Princely States, including: issues of succession; pensions; local administration; land claims; extradition treaties; debts; subsidies for railway passage; an attempt to overthrow the Rajah of Munnipore [Manipur] [Raja Chandrakirti Singh] by exiled Munnipooree [Manipuri] revolutionaries; the disarming of the Maharaja Scindia’s forces; and the proposed deposition of the Nawab of Tonk [Nawāb Muḥammad ‘Alī Khān]
• Issues concerning the Indo-European Telegraph, including negotiations with the Governments of Persia [Iran] and Bagdad [Baghdad] for overland telegraph routes
• Land issues, including: plantations of cash crops such as cotton, cinchona, and tea; the sale of ‘waste lands’; forestry; land revenue settlements; and tenant rights
• Revenue and expenditure, with tables for the financial years 1865-66 and 1866-67 and estimates for the financial year 1867-68
• Judicial affairs
• Education
• Finance
• Issues concerning emigration from India to French colonies
• Military affairs, including: the supply, transport, and accommodation of troops; sanitation; proposed deployments of Indian troops in the Straits Settlements and China; the deployment of a local counterinsurgency force in Kattywar [Kathiawar]; and claims of military units on ‘prize money’ [property looted by British forces] consequent to service in the ‘Mutiny’ [Indian Uprising of 1857]
• The murder of British ships’ crews on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and proposed retaliatory expeditions
• Frontier affairs, including: a campaign against the Hussun Kheyl Afreedies [Ḥassan Khel clan of the Afrīdī tribe] on the Northwest Frontier; raids and fortifications on the frontiers of Punjab and Sind [Sindh]; and frontier policy in Beloochistan [Baluchistan]
• Civil conflict in Affghanistan [Afghanistan] between the Ameer Shere Ali [Amīr Shīr ‘Alī Khān] and Mahomed Ufzal Khan [Amīr Muḥammad Afẓal Khān], and suspected Persian designs on the country
• Affairs in the Persian Gulf, including the seizure of a ship from Bahrein [Bahrain] by Colonel Lewis Pelly, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and subsequent protest from Persia; the presence of Turkish [Ottoman] warships in the Gulf; proposed deployments of ships to combat the slave trade; the relations of the Chief [Shaikh] of Bahrein with the Wahabee [Wahhābī movement]; and complaints from the British India Steam Navigation Company concerning trade embargoes on some products by Persian authorities
• Affairs in the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, in particular attempts by Syud Toorkee [Sayyid Turkī bin Sa’īd Āl Bū Sa’īd] to capture Muscat
• Affairs in and around Aden Settlement, including conflict with the Foodlee [Faḍlī Sultanate] and Turkish [Ottoman] attempts to make Mukalla and Shehur [Ash Shihr] tributary
• Affairs in Zanzibar, including slavery, the construction of a new capital in Dhar Salaam [Dar es Salam] by the Sultan, and reports of the death of the missionary Dr David Livingstone
• The imprisonment of British and other nationals by Emperor Theodorus [Tewodros II] of Abyssinia [Ethiopia] in the context of civil conflict in the country, and preparations for a British expedition to Abyssinia. Includes reports from an advance mission by Colonel William Mereweather, Commanding Officer of the Abyssinia Reconnoitering Force, to identify an invasion route for the expedition
• Affairs in Burmah [Myanmar/Burma], including trade relations and customs duties, civil unrest in and around Mandalay and the flight of Burmese princes to India; proposed roads or railways to China; and a Burmese mission to France to conclude commercial agreements and acquire weapons
• The annexation of three districts of Cochin China [Vietnam] by France
• Affairs in Central Asia, in particular the Russian advance; a request from the Ameer [Amir] of Bokhara [Bukhara] for British support against Russia; and insecurity in Eastern Toorkistan [Xinjiang] following the capture of Khotan [Hotan] by Kokandee [Kokandi] raiders

The primary correspondents are:

• The Government of India
• The Government of Bengal
• The Government of Madras
• The Government of Bombay
• The Viceroy and Governor-General of India
• The Resident in Aden
• The Political Agent in Zanzibar
• Colonel William Mereweather, Commanding Officer of the Abyssinia Reconnoitering Force.

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.’