IOR/V/23/53, No 245

Administration Report on the Persian Gulf Residency and Muscat Political Agency (no 245, Foreign Department serial no 20) for the year 1887-88, published by Authority and printed by the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta [Kolkata]. A copy of a letter from Colonel Edward Charles Ross, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul-General for Fars, to Henry Mortimer Durand, Secretary to the Government of India (Foreign Department), dated 14 June 1888, is included in the report (folio 4), the original of which submitted the report to Government, under the following headings:

Part 1 (General Summary), submitted by Ross (folios 5-11), containing numbered summaries of local political affairs, and incidents or events of particular note for: 1) Muscat state; 2) Oman pirate coast; 3) El-Bahrain (referred to as Bahrain in the text); 4) El-Katr [Qatar]; 5) Nejd, El-Hasa [Al-Hasa]; 6) Fars and the Persian Coast, including Shiraz, Bushire and its districts, Lingah [Bandar-e Lengeh] and Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbās]; 7) Persian Arabistan; and 8) Persian Baluchistan. The report also includes summaries for: 9) Climatic observations, recorded by the observatory at Bushire, and 10) British actions against the slave trade. Appendix A contains tabulated meteorological data for the year, supplied by the Bushire observatory.

Part 2 (Administration Report of the Muscat Political Agency for the year 1887-88), submitted by A. S. Jayakar, Surgeon Major in Charge of the Political Agency (folios 12-18), containing a summary of affairs at Muscat, under the headings: political affairs, official changes, and slave trade. Appendix A to Part 2 is a sketch of the career of Seyyid Sultan bin Ahmed, the Imam Muscat, written by Colonel Samuel Barrett Miles.

Part 3 (Report on the trade of South Persia for the year 1887-88), submitted by Ross and dated 15 April 1888 (folios 18-30). The report comprises a short summary of the year’s trade, with notes on: exports (opium, tobacco, cereals); imports (Manchester [cotton] goods, sugar, metals and rice); shipping; exchange; custom; and notes supplied by Lieutenant Vaughan on the economic state at Yezd [Yazd], where Ross advocates the establishment of a British agent. Appendix A comprises tabulated data on import, exports and revenue, in the Gulf ports of Bushire, Bandar-e Lengeh, Bandar-e ʻAbbās, Bahrain and the Arab (Oman) coast. An index to the trade tables can be found at folio 20.

Part 4 (Muscat trade report for the year 1887-88), submitted by Jayakar (folios 30-36), comprising a brief summary of the year’s trade at Muscat, and also containing tabulated data on imports and exports at Muscat (listed by commodity), and the nationality and average tonnage of vessels visiting Muscat.