IOR/L/PS/5/452, ff 471-500

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 108 of 1847, dated 31 December 1847. The enclosures relate to the resumption of the payment of the stipend previously granted by the British Government to the Sultan of Lahedge [Lahej, also spelled Lahidge in this item]. They are numbered 3-12 and are dated 16 August to 31 December 1847.

The enclosures discuss the following:

• The Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, reporting in a letter to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay, Arthur Malet, on the state of affairs in the vicinity of Aden, including the Chief of Lahedge, Sultan M’Houssain Fudthel [Muḥsin bin Faḍl al-‘Abdalī], again soliciting the forgiveness of the British Government for his previous conduct, and seeking the resumption of the payment of his monthly stipend, promising to remain on friendly terms with the British
• The background to the stipend, which was stopped in August 1846 after, Malet states, the Sultan had taken a prominent part in a plan to attack Aden
• The recommendation of the Government of Bombay to the Government of India that the stipend be restored, on certain conditions, due to the influence and power the Sultan possesses, and the dependence of the welfare and prosperity of Aden on the maintenance of good relations between the British Government and the Chiefs of the interior
• The authorisation of the restoration of the stipend by the Government of India
• The Governor of Bombay authorising the continuance of the stipend to the successor of Sultan Mahomed Houssain Fudthel, following news of the latter’s death, as it was intended that the stipend originally granted in 1839 should be a hereditary grant
• The Government of Bombay instructing Haines that in consideration of the contrition shown by the late Sultan of Lahedge for his past conduct, the payment of the stipend to his successor will be resumed, upon the new Sultan personally waiting on Haines and entering into a similar engagement to the one concluded with the Sultan of Lahedge on 11 February 1843, and a clause being added to this bond stating that in the event of the Chief of Lahidge violating at any time the terms of the engagement, the stipend will be irrevocably ended
• The Government of Bombay also directing that Haines should take the opportunity to obtain a suitable engagement from the Sultan to revise the transit duties levied in his territories, in a manner least discouraging to trade.

The enclosures consist of the following: correspondence between Malet and Haines; letters from Malet to the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor General; a letter to Malet from the Officiating Secretary to the Government of India; minutes of the Government of Bombay; and a summary by Malet of the proceedings of Government in regard to the stipends granted to the Sultan of Lahedge and some of the other ‘influential Chiefs’ in the vicinity of Aden after its capture by British troops in January 1839, including a copy of the agreement between Haines and the Sultan dated 11 February 1843.