IOR/L/PS/5/415, ff 388-431

Enclosure nos. 2-17 to a despatch from the Secret Department, Government of Bombay, dated 30 December 1842. The enclosures are dated 16 November-30 December 1842.

The enclosures consist of copies of correspondence relating to affairs in Aden, primarily concerned with a significant campaign of building works in and around Aden, including:

• Lists of individuals given grants of land, and agreements signed by them to build houses or shops and to pay rent
• Arrangements for the paying of rents at a reduced rate after one year and then at full rate after three years
• A recommendation by the Political Agent, Aden, that fifty-nine houses occupied by Jewish residents, which he assesses to be of poor quality, ‘be gradually pulled down’ to make way for a new road
• An assessment by the Civil Surgeon, Aden, that the chosen location for the new Christian burial ground may be ‘injudicious to the public health’, and a rejection of this assessment by a Medical Committee convened by Lieutenant-Colonel William Croker, commanding the troops at Aden.

The item includes a ‘PLAN of the NEW TOWN BAZAR Shewing the permanent Buildings already granted’ (IOR/L/PS/5/415, ff 405-406).

The correspondence also covers: a claim by Sultan M Houssain of Lahidge [Muḥsin bin Faḍl al-‘Abdalī, Sultan of Lahej] that he will soon abdicate and travel to Mecca, which the Political Agent dismisses as ‘a mere “ruse” on his part’; and complaints from British Indian merchants of ‘unjust, and oppressive conduct’ towards them by Ottoman authorities in the Red Sea.

The correspondents are: the Political Agent; the Civil Surgeon; Lieutenant Croker; and the Government of India.