IOR/L/PS/20/MM16

The volume consists of monthly memoranda of information received by the Government of India’s Foreign Department in relation to affairs in Arabia, the North-East Frontier of India, and Burma [Burma/Myanmar] from January 1910 to June 1912. The memoranda are divided into sections, the most common of which are: ‘Aden’, ‘Arabia’, ‘Assam’, ‘Bhutan’, ‘Burma’, ‘Nepal’, ‘Tibet’ and ‘Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq]’.

The memoranda cover the following topics:

• Irrigation in Mesopotamia
• Contracts and concessions for trade and resource extraction in the Persian Gulf
• Commercial and political affairs in Maskat [Muscat]
• European expeditions to the Arabian interior
• Alleged acts of ‘piracy’ and ‘murder’ in the Gulf
• Tribal affairs and disputes in the Aden Protectorate
• Ottoman and Yemeni activity in the Aden Protectorate
• The affairs of the British Residency at Baghdad
• The arms trade and traffic, particularly in the Aden Protectorate, the Red Sea and off the southern Arabian coast
• The pearl trade in the Gulf, including the depletion of pearl banks
• German commercial activity in the Gulf
• Civil, legal and administrative affairs in the Baghdad Wilayat [Vilayet]
• Naval affairs, including steam navigation on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and the lighting and buoying of the Shatt-el-Arab [Shatt al ‘Arab]
• The establishment of wireless telegraphy in the Gulf
• The question of Ottoman claims of suzerainty in the Gulf, particularly over Kuwait
• British and Ottoman postal services
• British treaty relations in the Gulf, particularly the proposed extension of those with Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial Coast
• The desire of the Wahabi Amir [Wahhābī Amīr], Ibn Saud [Amīr of Najd, Ibn Sa‘ūd], to establish closer relations with the British
• The rebellion of the Imam [Imām] of Yemen against the Ottoman Empire
• The outbreak of war between Italy and the Ottoman Empire, including the Italian blockade of Yemen
• Military and political affairs on the North-East Frontier of India, including in Assam, Burma, Nepal, Sikkim, and Tibet, which include the Chinese military expedition to Tibet, questions of Chinese influence and suzerainty, and border disputes.

There are tables of contents preceding each monthly memorandum.