IOR/L/PS/20/FO19

The volume consists of published copies of correspondence between the Admiralty, 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 XIV. Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Persia and Arabia. July to September 1903.' (ff 4-231)
• 'Part XV. Further Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Persia and Arabia. October to December 1903.' (ff 232-389).

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

• Political and diplomatic affairs, including: the removal of the Grand Vizier from office and the formation of a new government in Persia, with a list of the newly appointed members (ff 259-260); the visit of the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, to Bushire [Bushehr] during his tour of the Gulf; and the discussion of spheres of influence in Persia between Russia and Great Britain
• Unrest in Persia, particularly religious unrest in the north of the country against Bábism
• Banking and finance, including possible financial reform of the Government of Persia
• Trade, tax, and customs, including a copy of the customs regulations that the Persian government proposes to sign with both Russia and Great Britain (ff 41-49), and tables annexed to the regulations (ff 153-178)
• Quarantine arrangements, particularly Russian quarantine cordons in Khorassan [Khorasan] and Seistan [Sistan]
• Communications and transport, including: telegraphy, telephony, river navigation, railways, roads, caravan routes, transport insurance, and Russian steamships operating in the Gulf; a copy of a concession for a telephone monopoly in Persia (f 34); and papers based on Russian official documents concerning roads, caravan routes, and railways in Persia, acquired from a confidential source (ff 331-344)
• Military affairs, including: monthly reports on Russian military movements in the Trans-Caspian region; and a report on the Persian Cossack Brigade by Major James Archibald Douglas, the British Military Attaché to the British embassy in Persia (ff 220-221)
• Naval affairs, including the suppression of 'piracy' in the Gulf and the Red Sea
• Oil and coal exploration in Persia, including by the D'Arcy Concession
• Territorial and border disputes, including: the joint Anglo-Turkish [Ottoman] boundary commission to delineate the frontier between Yemen and the Aden Protectorate, including a memorandum and accompanying treaties and genealogical tables concerning British treaties concluded with the Upper Yaffai [Yafai] tribe in the Aden Protectorate (ff 245-249); and the British mission to arbitrate in the territorial dispute between Persia and Afghanistan.

The following is also included/covered:

• Monthly summaries of events for each month from July 1903 to December 1903
• French activity in Muscat and Oman, particularly the long-running dispute over the French flag being flown by Suri dhows
• The continued attempts of Turkey [Ottoman Empire] to exercise authority over the El Katr peninsula following the withdrawal of Mudirs appointed to Wakra [Al Wakrah] and Zubara [Zubarah]
• Affairs in Seistan, including British opposition to the reported plans of the Persian government to remove the Governor-General of Seistan from office
• Affairs in the Hedjaz [Hejaz].

Material written in French is present throughout the volume, consisting primarily of diplomatic correspondence and agreements between Britain, Russia, and Persia.