IOR/L/PS/6/113, ff 81-89

This item consists of copies of a Political Despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secretary of State for India, dated 29 October 1873 and received via Brindisi on 24 November, forwarding copies of a letter from Sir Henry Bartle Frere to Earl Granville, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, dated 28 May 1873. The enclosure comprises a report by Frere who argues the case for additional consulates or agencies for 'Somali land' and the ports of the Red Sea, both for watching the 'slave-trade' which, Frere alleges, is increasingly carried on through all the Red Sea ports, and to report on proceedings of the Turkish and Egyptian officials on the coast of the Rea Sea. The Despatch covering letter refers to Political No. 57 of 16 June 1873 in which the Government of India had stated that it did not consider that the cost for the establishments proposed by Frere for Somali land and the ports of the Red Sea should be charged to the revenues of India, 'unless the Imperial Governement are prepared to undertake half the expenses of Aden' but that in the case of Jedda [Jeddah] the Government of India Foreign Department have no objection to continue the present contribution of £200 annually towards the maintenance of a Consulate and Agency there, or to raise the sum to £300.