IOR/L/PS/20/FO17

The volume consists of published copies of correspondence between the Admiralty, Board of Trade, Foreign Office, Government of Bombay, Government of India, India Office, British administrative and diplomatic staff, foreign governments and their staff, and private individuals. It was printed for use by the Foreign Office.

The volume contains the following publications:

• ‘Part X. Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Persia and Arabia. July to September 1902.’, (ff 4-142)
• ‘Part XI. Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Persia and Arabia. October to December 1902.’, (ff 143-354).

The correspondence concerns activity in Arabia including the Aden Protectorate, El Katr [Qatar], Muscat, Oman, and Yemen; activity in Persia [Iran], the Persian Gulf, and the Red Sea; and the activity of foreign countries in the region, including France, Italy, and Russia. It primarily covers the following:

• Political and diplomatic affairs, including the opposition of religious leaders to the administration of the Grand Vizier of Persia
• Banking and finance, including a copy of the loan contract signed between Russia and Persia at St Peterburgh [Saint Petersburg] in April 1902 (ff 338-339)
• Military affairs, including reports on Russian military movements in the Trans-Caspian region
• Tax and customs arrangements in Persia, particularly: Turco-Persian commercial relations, including a copy of the Turco-Persian convention on trade agreed in December 1876, ff 205-206; the ‘Russo-Persian Commercial Tariff’; and the customs provisions between the Government of Persia and the Sheikh [Shaikh] of Mohammerah [Khorramshahr]
• Naval affairs, particularly ‘piracy’ in the Shat-al-Arab [Shatt al Arab], the Gulf, and the Red Sea, and the trade in enslaved people in the Red Sea and the Gulf
• Border and frontier affairs, particularly: the joint Anglo-Turkish [Ottoman] boundary commission to delineate the frontier between Yemen and the Aden Protectorate; and the dispute between Persia and Afghanistan and the diversion of the waters of the Helmund [Helmand] River along the disputed boundary
• Transport and communications, including roads, railways, telegraphy, and postal services, including a copy of a concession for a road from the Russian frontier with Persia to Kazvin [Qazvin] (ff 339-340).

The following is also included:

• Monthly summaries of events for each month from July 1902–December 1902
• The visit of the Shah [Shāh] of Persia to Britain
• The activities of the ‘outlaw’ Muhammad Umar Khan [Muḥammad ‘Umar Khān] across the border between Persia and Baluchistan [Balochistan]
• The question of Turkish jurisdiction in El Katr, and the prospect of negotiating a British protectorate treaty with the Sheikh of El Katr
• The murder of relatives of the Sheikh of Bahrein [Bahrain] near Katif [Al Qatif] and proposals for mediation of the dispute by the Sheikh of El Katr
• The flying of the French flag by dhows from Sur.

The following maps are included:

• Two maps of the disputed frontier between Yemen and the Aden Protectorate, catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/FO17, f 28 and IOR/L/PS/20/FO17, f 29
• Three maps depicting the course of the Helmund River along the sections disputed by Persia and Afghanistan, catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/FO17, f 227, IOR/L/PS/20/FO17, f 258, and IOR/L/PS/20/FO17, f 315.

Material written in French is present throughout the volume, consisting primarily of diplomatic correspondence and the texts of international agreements.