'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' [‎16r] (33/226)

I &
SUMMARY.
In a letter dated the 5th October 1844 Mr. Currie, Secretary to the
Government of India, communicated to this Government the request
of the Right Hon'ble the Governor-General in Council to be furnished
with—
" a succinct report showing our first connection 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. , the names of the
several Political Agents, with dates of appointment and salaries, and cost of establish
ment, <fec.; in short, all the changes and modifications in the establishments, &c., of
that agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. from our first connection with it up to the present time."
2. On receipt of this letter, the Hon'ble Board directed that a
summary should, as soon as more pressing duties might admit, be pre
pared by the Secretary in the Political Department, of the kind called
for by the Government of India. It was at the same time resolved that
the Civil Auditor should be required to furnish the information neces
sary in regard to the salary and establishments at different periods
of the several officers who have filled the office of 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
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. , and that information should also be obtained in regard
to the annual expense of the steamer Nitocris, then employed on the
Euphrates River.
3. In reply to a call made upon him, in conformity with the above
resolution, the Civil Auditor, on the 13th December 1844, forwarded to
Government a statement showing the names, salary, and establishment
of the several officers who filled the appointment of 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
lurkish Arabia from the year 1788 to 1844, the former being, the Civil
Auditor stated, the earliest date from which this infwrmation could be
traced from his records.
4. The Military Auditor-General, in a letter dated the 18th
^November 1844, stated, in reply to a call made upon him, that the total
annual expense of the remaining steamer (the Nitocris) employed on the
Euphrates River amounted to Rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. 55,098-5-0. The Civil Auditor
and Military Auditor-General's reports, containing the above informa
tion, were, on receipt, forwarded to the Government of India, with an
intimation that the remainder of the information required by that
authority would hereafter be forwarded, and which, as above stated, the
Secretary in the Political Department was requested by the Hon'ble
Board to prepare from the old records of this Government.
5. The delay which has taken place in complying with this call of
the Hon'ble Board has been occasioned by a great and constant pressure
of business in the departments under the charge of the Political Secre
tary, and also from the extreme labor attendant on tracing out the
requisite data from the old records, occasioned partly from a great diffi
culty in deciphering the character of the writing adopted in the seven
teenth century, which has rendered a perusal of the records of that date
an exceedingly tedious occupation; and partly from there being no Index
in existence for the records of that period to assist in directing attention
to the particular subject on which information has been called for by the
Government of India. I now beg to submit to the Hon'ble Board the
result of my search.
A