IOR/L/PS/5/445, ff 205-274

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 105 of 1846, dated 15 September 1846. The enclosures are dated 18 April-11 September 1846.

The papers relate chiefly to progress in the construction of the defences of Aden.

The principal correspondents are: Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, Political Agent, Aden; the Government of Bombay; the Military Board, Bombay; and the Secretary to the Government of India. Also included are numerous minutes of the Governor and President and the members in Council, Bombay, and enclosures.

The papers notably cover and include the following:

• Memoranda by Captain James Kilner, Executive Engineer, Aden, and Captain C W Tremenheere, Engineers, on the state of the works as on 15 August and 29 August (ff 214-217)
• Discussions regarding certain dwellings that interfere with the range of the guns on the Ras Morbut [Ra’s Marbut, also spelled Ras Marbut in this item] battery, including the possibility of their owners claiming compensation should they need to be destroyed and instructions from the Government of Bombay that the Senior Engineer should ensure that nothing is erected which could interfere with the efficiency and integrity of the works
• Suspension of works to erect a small room adjoining the Political Agent’s house on Ras Morbut for the accommodation of public guests, pending the opinion of Kilner and the Military Board
• The unsuccessful attempt by Kilner to obtain plans or descriptive statements of houses on Ras Morbut from their owners and occupants, and the intention of Mr Thomas, the Oriental Company [Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company] Agent at Aden, to persist in the erection of his bungalow about 200 yards in front of the Ras Morbut battery (f 237)
• Suggested modifications to the plans for the fortifications at Aden, submitted by Haines, which he considers will: prevent the need to disturb private dwellings on Ras Morbut; save the Government the expense of compulsory purchases; and prevent any hostile opinion forming towards the Government by the residents who consider Ras Morbut as a retreat for ‘invalids’ and from the heat of Aden during the monsoons (ff 242-245)
• The opinion of Lieutenant-Colonel C W Grant, Engineers, Poona [Pune], on Haines’s suggested modifications (ff 252-257) and the Bombay Government’s subsequent recommendations of measures to be carried out (ff 259-261)
• The request of the Governor-General of India to know how many ‘artificers and workmen’ can be employed on the works at Aden in order to expedite their completion as quickly and economically as possible, and suggestion that the rules controlling the ingress and egress of the population of Gibraltar could be applied, with modification, at Aden, so that the population does not exceed the supply of water and in order to manage the composition of the population (ff 269-270).

The item also contains a ‘Plan of the Summit of Marbut shewing the Houses and Forts recommended’ (IOR/L/PS/5/445, f 246) and a ‘Plan of Ras Morbut and Entrance to Western Bay Aden’ (IOR/L/PS/5/445, f 247).