IOR/L/PS/20/CA8

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 1868. The letters are dated 5 December 1867-11 December 1868.

The abstracts are numbered 1-123 and each have one of the following titles:

• Abstracts of Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Military Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Letters received from Colonel Merewether, on Special Duty in Abyssinia
• Abstracts of Letters received from Abyssinia
• Abstracts of Secret Letters received from India
• Abstracts of Letters received from 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, Abyssinia [Ethiopia], Burmah [Burma/Myanmar], Affghanistan [Afghanistan], Persia [Iran], Zanzibar, Oman and Muscat, and Aden, and covers the following subjects:

• Pay, pensions, and other personnel issues in the Indian Civil and Military establishments
• Revenue and expenditure, including income taxes, license taxes, disaster relief, and land revenue rates
• Communication, including postal services, and telegraph systems
• Public works and transportation, including railways, canals, roads, hospitals, ports, irrigation, jails, and lighthouses
• The foreign relations of the Government of India, including with Persia, Burmah, Affghanistan , Muscat [Muscat and Oman], Abyssinia, and France
• Education, including the Government of India’s support for use of vernacular languages in education, and financial support for female education in Bombay
• Border disturbances on the North-West Frontier
• Efforts by the British to repress ‘Wagheer outlaws’ in Kattywar [Kathiawar]
• Introduction of European freshwater fish into Indian waterways
• Payments, land grants, and tax reductions offered to British Indians for assisting the British during the Indian Revolt
• Events in the Princely States, including British payments to rulers and ex-rulers, gifts sent to Queen Victoria, successions, visits of rulers to England, and the deposition of the Nawab of Tonk
• Proposals for the manufacturing of ordnance in India
• Proposals for the annexation of the Nicobar Islands
• Rescue of shipwreck survivors in the Andaman Islands
• Proposal for an expedition to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Russian activities in Affghanistan, Persia, and Bokhara [Emirate of Bukhara]
• Turkish [Ottoman] activities at Maculla [Mukalla] and Shehur [Ash-Shihr], Yemen
• French activities in Burmah, China, and Yemen
• Civil war in Affghanistan
• A British treaty with the King of Burmah, ratified 26 November 1867
• The progress of an exploratory expedition to Western China
• Opium production and exportation to China
• Emigration of ‘Coolies’ to French Guiana
• The British expedition to Abyssinia
• Discussion of possible locations for a quarantine station in the Red Sea
• Increase of the stipend paid to the Foodlee [Faḍlī] Sultan by the British
• Payments to the Abdalee [Abdalī] Ruler for his support of the British against the Foodlee
• Disputes concerning the payment of a subsidy from the Sultan of Zanzibar to the Sultan of Muscat
• Destruction of slave-trading vessels by the Sultan of Zanzibar
• Naval attacks by the Rulers of Bahrein [Bahrain] and Abuthaby [Abu Dhabi] on the inhabitants of Gattar [Qatar]
• Retaliatory attacks by the Ruler of Guttar [Qatar] against Bahrein
• Punishment imposed by the British on the Rulers of Bahrein, Abuthaby, and Gattar for their ‘breach of the peace at sea’, including the deposition of Shaikh Mahomed bin Khalifeh [Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah] of Bahrein
• Growing hostility between the Sultan of Lahej [Laḥij Sultanate] and the Sultan of Houshebi [Ḥawshabī Sultanate]
• Plans made by Syud Torkee [Sayyid Turkī bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd] to take the Sultanate of Muscat while living on a British stipend in Bombay [Mumbai]
• Capture of Muscat and deposition of Sultan Syud Salim [Sayyid Sālim bin Thuwaynī Āl Bū Sa‘īd] by Azan bin Ghias [Imām ‘Azzān bin Qays]
• Proposals for the creation of a dedicated British naval force in the Persian Gulf
• Disputes between Persia and Muscat concerning the lease of the island of Bunder Abbas [Bandar Abbas] and the ownership of the island of Angaum [Hengam]
• Proposal for the housing of the ‘Ming-Goon-Dine Prince’ [Prince Myingundaing of Burma] in Bhaugulpore [Bhagulpur] following an unsuccessful rebellion against the King of Burma
• Escape from British custody and recapture of the ‘Myeng-Goon Prince’ [Prince Myingun of Burma]
• British ‘anti-piracy’ measures in the Mergui Archipelago
• Ownership of enslaved persons by British Indian subjects in Zanzibar
• An embassy sent from Zanzibar to England to discuss the suppression of the slave trade
• French naval bombardment and military occupation of Mohéli Island
• Extracts from the 16 June 1868 and 30 June 1868 editions of the London Gazette, containing reports of the Abyssinian expedition.

A detailed index of subjects, places and people mentioned in the correspondence is included on folios 484-502.

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.’

The primary correspondents are:

• The Government of India
• The Governor-General of India
• Colonel William Lockyer Merewether
• Lieutenant-General Robert Cornwallis [Cornelis] Napier
• The Political Agent at Zanzibar.