'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' [‎78v] (158/226)

126 PRECIS OF INFORMATION REGARDING CONNECTION OF E. I. COMPY.
the subject of the requests preferred by the Pacha of Bagdad. We perceive that your
refusals to comply with those requests was partly grounded upon the apprehension that
this country might even then be at war with Turkey, and that orders might even possi
bly be received by the next arrivals from England to prosecute hostilities against those
dependencies of the Ottoman Porte which are assailable from the side of India.
" It is unnecessary for us now to enter into any discussion of the reasonableness of
this apprehension which if it was at any time justified by circumstances had ceased to
exist in this country several months before the date of your letter. We believe you may
now trust that it will be the constant object of His Majesty's Government to maintain
the friendship which has almost uninterruptedly subsisted between this country and
Turkey. It is our interest, both as an European and as an Asiatic State, that the Otto
man Porte should preserve all its present power, and in all your future intercourse with
the dependencies of that empire you will make the maintenance of the integrity of the
Turkish dominions the unvaried object of your policy.
" The war in which the Ottoman Porte is now engaged has assumed a national and
a religious character. It has united all Mabomedans in a common cause, and we do not
think you need be under my apprehension that whatever strength the Pacha of Bagdad
may acquire will in any case be turned against the Sultan. We do not expect that the
Pacha will derive any great advantage from the services of the British officers he is desirous
of having sent to him, but we should derive advantage from any influence those officers
might acquire, and we should obtain by means of their constant and unsuspected
intercourse with those associated with them in the Pacha's service that full information
as to everything that passes in the Pachalic, which as a neighbouring power it is
important for us to possess.
" There is nothing comparatively so cheap and at the same time so valuable to a
Government as information. It gives to the Government which possesses it over that
which has it not the advantage of a knowledge of futurity. We wish you to bear
this constantly in mind not merely as regards the Pachalic of Bagdad but as all the
countries to the west of the Sutlege. Information, however, is not always best obtained
by ostensible agents. In many parts of Asia it will be best acquired through the
extensive commercial communications of India.
" The alarm of the Pacha of Bagdad, which was occasioned by the near approach
of the Russian army, being for the present removed by the restoration of peace
between Russia and Persia, it is possible that he may be less desirous of obtaining the
aid of British officers or less willing to pay for it, and if he should be still disposed to
have Europeans in his service he may possibly, discouraged by your rejection of his
requests, have recourse to other powers which will assuredly not reject the opportunity
of placing their officers about him. We are desirous of having British officers in the
Pacha's service, but we are still more desirous that the officers of no European power
should be employed in disciplining the Pacha's troops. You will therefore take
advantage of any opportunity, which may hereafter occur, of complying with any
request of the Pacha similar to that which you have lately rejected as far as regards
the employment of British officers in his service, but as we do not understand in what
manner the possession of armed ships can enable the Pacha either to fix his authority
in the extensive countries of his Pachalic, or to defend himself against a foreign enemy
invading his territories by land, we desire that you will discourage all attempts on his
part to establish a military marine.
" Should you be enabled to place British officers in the Pacha's service, you will
take the greatest care in the selection of the individuals you send. Upon their ability
and discretion must depend the whole advantage of the measure we direct you to
adopt.
" You will order Major Taylor to take the proper steps for securing to us the re
imbursement by the Pacha of their military pay and allowances. In the event of the
Pacha's refusing to enter into a stipulation to this effect, or of his violating it, the
persons you may have sent must be withdrawn from his service.
"We regret that the state of our finances should impose upon us the necessity of
insisting upon this condition.
"You will permit Major Taylor to reside at Bagdad or at Bussorah as the public
interests may require. It is for your consideration whether, during his absence from
Bussorah, it would not be expedient that his duties should be performed there by one
of our European servants.