IOR/L/PS/20/FO18

The volume consists of published copies of correspondence between the Admiralty, Board of Trade, Colonial Office, Foreign Office, Government of Bombay, Government of India, India Office, Treasury, 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 XII. Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Persia and Arabia. January to March 1903.’, (ff 4-221)
• ‘Part XIII. Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Persia and Arabia. April to June 1903.’, (ff 222-431).

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 and Russia. It primarily covers the following:

• Political and diplomatic affairs, including religious unrest at Tabreez [Tabriz] in Persia and opposition to the Grand Vizier from the ‘Court party’ in Tehran
• Banking and finance, including British and Russian efforts to supply financial assistance to the Government of Persia, and memoranda detailing: the value of British exports to Persia (ff 168-171); the principal British and Russian banks operating in Persia (ff 268-269); and the financial situation of the Government of Persia (ff 403-406)
• Military affairs, including reports on Russian military movements in the Trans-Caspian region
• Tax and customs arrangements in Persia, including the conclusion of an Anglo-Persian Commercial Agreement and concurrent customs arrangements between Russia and Persia, including the text of the Anglo-Persian agreement (ff 142-143)
• Naval affairs, including the suppression of ‘piracy’ in the Shat-el-Arab [Shatt al Arab] and of ‘piracy’ and the trade in enslaved people in the Red Sea
• Transport and communications, including roads, railways, and telegraphy
• Border and frontier affairs, particularly: the joint Anglo-Turkish [Ottoman] boundary commission to delineate the frontier between Yemen and the Aden Protectorate, including a memorandum on the territory of the Amir of Dthala [Emir of Dhala] (ff 21-28), with an accompanying map of the disputed frontier, catalogued as IOR/L/PS/20/FO18, f 26; and the British mission to arbitrate in the dispute between Persia and Afghanistan over the waters of the Helmund [Helmand] River on the border between the two countries.

The following is also included:

• Monthly summaries of events for each month from July 1902 to December 1902
• The Russian plague quarantine cordon in Khorassan [Khorasan]
• The flying of the French flag by dhows from Sur, particularly a dispute between Britain and France concerning the detention of sailors from dhows flying the French flag
• The reported appointment of Turkish Mudirs [governors] to various locations in El Katr, including the arrival of Mudirs at Wakra [Al Wakrah] and Zobara [Zubarah]
• The case of Salem Kemri [Sālim Kimrī (?)], a Christian convert from Zanzibar who claims to have been imprisoned by a French diplomat to write for a subversive anti-British Arabic-language publication
• An agreement between the Government of Persia and the Sheikh [Shaikh] of Mohammerah [Khorramshahr] to strengthen the Sheikh’s authority.

Material written in French is present throughout the volume, consisting primarily of diplomatic correspondence and agreements between Britain, Russia, Persia, France, and Turkey [Ottoman Empire].