IOR/F/4/2729/198382

This item consists of copies of correspondence, resolutions, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, political letters from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, dated 18 March and 3 June 1858. The enclosures are dated 10 June 1857-20 April 1858.

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; the Court of Directors; Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident at Aden; and John Ord, Joseph Hindson, and James Henshall Hayes, grantees of the right to remove guano from the Kooria Mooria Islands [Jaza’ir Khuriya Muriya, also referred to as the Kuria Muria Islands in the item].

The item concerns restrictions on the transport of labourers to the Kooria Mooria Islands, for the purpose of harvesting guano. It includes a report by John Pares Bickersteth, Company Solicitor, explaining that only labourers who are not natives of India are permitted to travel to the Kooria Mooria Islands; and a list of rules, composed by Coghlan, for the protection of labourers proceeding from Aden to the Kooria Mooria Islands.

The item also contains:

• A letter from John Mawson, Secretary to the Bombay [Mumbai] Chamber of Commerce, requesting information held by the Government regarding supplies of guano on the Kooria Mooria Islands
• A letter from James Lewis, Paymaster, Royal Navy, requesting permission from the Government to transport thirty ‘Seedies’ [Sīdīs] to the Kooria Mooria Islands to dig for guano.

The item contains a table of contents (ff 10-11), and the title page (f 9) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1230-/58’, ‘Collection No. 2’, and ‘Examiner’s Office’.