IOR/L/PS/5/464, ff 17-69

This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 31 of 1850, dated 25 May 1850. Enclosure Nos. 3-29, dated 27 December 1849 to 24 May 1850, consist of correspondence, and minutes of the Government of Bombay.

The enclosures cover matters including:

• The Political Agent at Aden, Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, reporting that the ‘tranquillity’ of the neighbourhood of Aden had been threatened by a serious quarrel between the Sultan of Lahedge [Lahej or Lahij, also spelled Lahidge in this item], Sultan Ali M’Houssain [‘Alī I bin Muḥsin al-‘Abdalī], and his brother Abdullah, but that it has been settled
• Haines requesting the sanction of the Government of Bombay for a bill for 156 Rupees one Anna and ten Pies for the pay of an Interpreter employed at the request of the Senior Naval Officer at Aden, Captain John Parke Sanders, commanding the Honourable Company’s sloop of war Elphinstone, to accompany him to Judda [Jeddah], Hodeida [Al Hudaydah] and Mocha
• Haines reporting the return to Aden from Mussowah [Massawa, also spelled Mussowa in this item] of the Honourable Company’s schooner Constance; his immediately sending to Egypt and England the despatches of HM Consul for Abyssinia [the Ethiopian Empire] at Mussowah, Walter Plowden; and Haines stating that he intends to send the vessel back to Mussowah for the protection of British interests there
• The Governor of Bombay in Council confirming that as the ‘Arab Contractor’ Ali Boo Bucker [Alī Abū Bakr, also spelled Ali Boo Bukur in this item] is willing to carry out repairs to the bridge over the Khore Muksa [Khawr Maksar] creek at Aden at his own expense, the superintendence of the Executive Engineer may be dispensed with, and it is not necessary to erect another bridge while that one lasts. The correspondence on this subject includes a letter from the Executive Engineer at Aden to the Commanding Engineer at Aden, with an enclosed ‘PLAN ELEVATION & SECTION of the Old Arab Bridge across the “Khore Maksa”’ (folio 54)
• Haines submitting an audit to the Government of Bombay on the stipends paid by him in German Crowns to the Sultan of Lahidge and other ‘Arab Chieftains’, and questions raised about whether these stipends should be paid in Company’s Rupees or German Crowns in future, and the rate of exchange of Rupees to German Crowns which should be used.

The correspondence (including enclosed correspondence) is between the following: the Government of Bombay; the Political Agent at Aden; the Civil Auditor, Bombay, William Simson; the Military Board, Bombay; the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General; Lieutenant G N Adams commanding the Honourable Company’s schooner Constance; HM Consul for Abyssinia; the Executive Engineer at Aden, Captain William Swainson Suart; the Commanding Engineer at Aden; and the Senior Naval Officer at Aden.

Enclosure Nos. 30-31, listed in the abstract of contents as copies of the Bombay Overland Times and the Bombay Overland Telegraph and Courier dated 25 May 1850, are recorded as missing in a note dated 31 October 1906.