'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎77r] (155/226)

WITH TURKISH ARABIA A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. —1646 TO 1846.
123
and progress of the different establishments in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. they
had been induced to compare the charges at Bushire and Bussorah, with
which the Government was then (1830) burthened, with those that had
sufficed for the same establishments at periods when the Hon'ble Com
pany's trade and intercourse in that quarter had been more active and
flourishing than at the date of their report, and that the result on their
minds was that no reasonable ground whatever existed for continuing
such costly Agencies in the Gulf of Persia as were then maintained.
The Committee accordingly recommended that one Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. alone should
be maintained in the Gulf, and that Bushire should be its station. The
Committee concluded this branch of their Report with the following
remark:—
"The duties which will devolve on the Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. in the Gulf by the abolition
of the Bussorah Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. will be very trifling."
The Government of India, in transmitting to this Government a copy
of this Report, stated that the above suggestions had met with their
entire approbation, and that so far as they were able to form a judgment
the economical measures proposed were both expedient and judicious.
271. In reviewing the above proceedings the Hon'ble the Court
of Directors in a despatch to the address of this Government, dated the
26th February 1834, observed that the then actual state of the Pachalic
of Bagdad, and the peculiar complication of circumstances in which the
relations of the various powers connected with that part of the world
were at that period involved, put out of the question the idea of any
change at present in the system under which the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. at
Bussorah was managed. The Court, however, desired that the contem
plated measure of bringing the entire business of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran.
under one management might not be lost sight of, but be carried into
effect whenever a change of circumstances might render that arrange
ment expedient.
272. On the 6th September 1824 the Hon'ble Mr. Newnham, then
a Member of this Government, recorded, with reference to the despatch
from the Hon'ble the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. above alluded to, and to a
letter which had intermediately been addressed to the Government of
India by the Hon'ble the Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. on the then unsettled state
of Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. , a Minute, from which the following is an extract,
in which he advocated the abolition of the Political Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. in that
country, and stated it to be his opinion that the duties devolving on
that functionary could with advantage be entrusted to a Native Agent Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. :—
" The advantages of our situation at Bushire must be permitted to be great, both
past and present, and must continue to be so long as we determine to keep up our present
imposing character in the Gulf, but I am at a loss to point out one specific advantage
which has accrued from our establishment at Bussorah or Bagdad since the down
fall of the great Napolean in 1814, nor do I know any that are to be derived in future
except it be from watching the acts of the Russian Agents in that quarter. The Pacha
of Bagdad is servant of the Porte, and any engagement with him personally cannot
be viewed otherwise than with jealousy by the Government of Constantinople where
we have a Resident Ambassador. The situation of the Resident is viewed in the Secret
Committee s despatch as one surrounded with difficulties, all or either of which are
more likely to involve us in ultimate embarrassment than to be attended with public
good. Bussorah is no longer of any importance as a place of commerce, and no longer
requires the presence of a Political functionary to watch our interests in that quarter.