IOR/L/PS/10/563/1

Correspondence discusses cost and type of ammunition required by the Idrisi including the dispatch of one million rounds of Le Gras ammunition to Aden and instructions to the British Ambassador, Rome, regarding Vetterli ammunition (and the behaviour of the Zaranik shaikhs). Also discussed are the views of the Political Resident, Aden, on the position of the Idrisi.

Includes copy (folios 445-446) of a treaty concluded with 'Saiyid Muhammad bin Ali bin Muhammed bin Ahmed bin Idris, the Idrisi Saiyid and Amir of Sabia' [Sayyid Muḥammad bin ‘Alī al-Idrīsī], which lays out the agreement to 'war against the Turks'. In return the British promise to support the Idrisi Sayid with ammunition, protect him from attack, adjudicate a dispute with Imam Yahya [Yaḥyá Muḥammad Ḥamīd al-Dīn] and allow the Idrisi ports to trade freely with Aden despite a British blockade of all Turkish-controlled ports in the Red Sea. Also included is a report (folios 415-418) by the First Assistant Resident, Aden (Harold Fenton Jacob), of a visit to the Idrisi Saiyid Muhammad bin Ali bin Muhammad bin Ahmed at Jezan.

Correspondents include: Government of India, Finance Department; Accountant General, Bombay; the Political Resident, Aden (Brigadier Charles Henry Uvedale Price); the Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign and Political Department, Simla; Secretary of State for India (Austen Chamberlain); the French Ambassador to London; the British Embassy, Rome; the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Sir Edward Grey).