IOR/V/10/553/3

Annual administration report of the Aden Settlement, providing a summary record of the main events and developments in each department of the Administration of Aden during the financial year 1868-69. The report is addressed by Major General Edward L Russell, Political Resident at Aden, to the Secretary to Government, Bombay, and is dated 14 April 1869. It is arranged in sixty-eight numbered paragraphs (Nos. 2-68), some of which include tables of statistics. The paragraphs are grouped by ‘headings’ in left margin of the pages, apart from paragraphs 12-31 which are preceded by a heading ‘Public Works in the Military Department’ and paragraphs relating to the civil hospital which are unheaded.

The matters covered by the report are as follows (headings transcribed directly from the report appear in single inverted commas in the list below):

• ‘Judicial’ (paragraphs 2-9)
• ‘Revenue’ (paragraph 10)
• The delay in producing the trade returns, largely due to the ‘laziness and misconduct of the Chief Clerk in that Department’ who has now been dismissed (paragraph 11)
• ‘Public works in the military department’ (paragraphs 12-31)
• ‘Water supply’ (paragraphs 32-33)
• ‘Political’, including: the health and activities of administrative personnel managing the Settlement; and relations with the Sultan of Lahej, relations between the Sultan [Sulṭān] of Lahej and the Houshebi [Ḥawshabī] Sultan; relations with the Fudtheli [Faḍlī] Sultan (paragraphs 34-39)
• ‘Aden Troop’ (paragraphs 40-42)
• ‘Postal’ (paragraphs 43-44)
• ‘Marine’ (paragraphs 45-47)
• ‘Vice-Admiralty Court’ (paragraphs 48-49)
• ‘Financial’ (paragraphs 50-52)
• ‘Educational’ (paragraph 53)
• Civil hospital cases (paragraphs 54-55)
• ‘Small-pox’ (paragraph 56)
• ‘Vaccination’ (paragraphs 57-58)
• ‘Municipal conservancy’ (paragraphs 59-63)
• ‘Military’ (paragraphs 64-67)
• Closing statement (paragraph 68).