IOR/L/PS/5/447, ff 271-339

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 144 of 1846, dated 2 December 1846. The enclosures are dated 20 April-26 November 1846.

The enclosures relate to affairs in Aden, as follows:

• The approval by the Secret Committee of the vigilance shown by Captain Stafford Bettesworth Haines, Political Agent, Aden, regarding a contemplated attack on Aden, and refusal to sanction his ‘plan for punishing the Arab Chieftains by an inland expedition to destroy their Castle’ (f 279)
• Measures to be put in place for the prevention of steamer passengers from India, en route to Suez and Europe, landing at Aden during the prevalence at that place of cholera or other epidemic diseases which are likely to cause the apprehension of the Egyptian authorities, including: the reasons for the Bombay Medical Board suggesting the measure; the drafting of a Notification for the Indian public and subsequent decision not to publicise the decision; notification to Haines, HM Consul-General in Egypt and the Superintendent of the Indian Navy to instead alert passengers of the landing prohibition as and when circumstances require (ff 282-302)
• The report by Lieutenant MacDonald of the HC [Honourable Company’s] schooner Mahi, on his investigation into the fate of the persons missing from the schooner High Flyer while off the coast of Zeyla [Zeila], and the conclusion of Haines and the Government of Bombay that the boat capsized in a squall and those on board perished, and that local people were not in any way connected to their disappearance (ff 303-310)
• An estimate of the probable cost of repairing the roads and pier at Aden, supplied by Captain James Kilner, Executive Engineer, Aden, and the Military Board’s request that Kilner supply a more detailed report on the requirements and the proposed methods of works (ff 311-316)
• The extent of building ground granted in the new town of Aden and the amount of quit rent [tax or land tax imposed on occupants of freehold or leased land in lieu of services to a higher landowning authority, usually a government or its assigns] that will be payable when the Government of Bombay orders Haines to levy it, including the question of rate of the levy and a statement showing the grants of ground and the leviable amounts (ff 318-323)
• The request that the Kilner arrange the repair of the sea wall and road near Ras Sheik Ahmed [Ra’s Shaykh Aḥmad] (coal point) which was washed away in several places by the violence of the sea (ff 324-326)
• Haines’s request for authorisation to employ two labourers to tend and water the ‘Government Experimental Garden at Aden’, his explanation to the Government of Bombay of its utility in supplying vegetables to the military hospital during times of scarcity due to road closures, and the latter’s decision to transfer responsibility from the Political Department to the Military Department (ff 327-334)
• Haines’s authorization for his assistant, Lieutenant Charles John Cruttenden, to proceed to sea (travelling to Ceylon [Sri Lanka], Bengal and back to Aden) for three months for the benefit of his health, including a copy of a medical certificate signed by the Civil Surgeon, Aden (ff 335-339).

The principal correspondents are: Haines; the Government of Bombay; the Medical Board, Bombay; and the Government of India.