IOR/L/PS/5/476, ff 415-424

This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 17 of 1853, dated 1 March 1853. The enclosures are numbered 3-9. Enclosure numbers 3-6 are dated 3 to 24 February 1853.

Enclosure number 3 is a letter from the Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet, reporting that he has requisitioned the East India Company’s schooner Mahi to proceed to Mussowa [Massawa or Mitsiwa] with despatches for HBM Consul at Abyssinia [the Ethiopian Empire], and requested that its Commander, Lieutenant King, stop at Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] and Mocha on its return and report to Haines on the state of political and commercial affairs at each port. The letter includes an enclosed copy of the requisition letter from Haines to the Senior Naval Officer at Aden. Enclosure number 4 is a minute by the Governor of Bombay concurred in by the Board, approving Haines’s actions.

Enclosure number 5 is a letter from Haines to Malet reporting on the state of affairs at Aden and in its vicinity. Haines reports matters including:

• The intention of the Sultan of Lahedge [Lahej or Lahij], Sultan Ali M Houssain [‘Alī I bin Muḥsin al-‘Abdalī], to build a small fort at Sheik Othman [Ash Shaikh Outhman] to protect the roads leading to Aden, opposition to this from Sultan Hamed Ibn Abdulla Foutheli [Aḥmad bin Abdullāh al-Faḍlī] and Haines informing the Sultan of Lahedge that in his opinion he had the right to erect any building he wished on his territory and to prevent other tribes entering and crossing his territory
• The sea port towns of Mocha, Hodeida and Loheiha [al Luhayyah] being in danger of attack from the Bedouin divisions of the Beni Yam [Banī Yām] tribe
• ‘Mahomed’ Pashah [Kurd Muḥammad Pāshā] reaching Hodeida with a firman from the Sublime Porte [the Government of the Ottoman Empire] as Supreme Pashah over all the Turkish possessions in Yemen, and that finding on his arrival all the interior roads closed on their seaport towns and the inhabitants in great alarm, he has been collecting together all the Turkish soldiers he can, and that therefore news of a conflict may be expected.

Enclosure number 6 is a minute by the Governor of Bombay concurred in by the Board, stating that a copy of Haines’s letter (enclosure No. 5) is to be sent to the Government of India and the Secret Committee.

Numbers 7-9, listed in the abstract of contents as copies of overland summaries of the Bombay Times, the Bombay Telegraph & Courier, and the Bombay Gazette newspapers, dated 1 March 1853, are noted as missing.