"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎٩‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١٥٤٨)

llffiN,
Un
1393
Hon^ble East India Company could desire in that quarter might be
attained either by an Assistant to the Resident in the Persian Gulf being
stationed at Basrah, or by the appointment of a Consul to Her Majesty
on something of the same footing as Her Majesty's Consul at Masqat^ by
which arrangement a saving would be effected of about two-thirds of the
expenditure actually being incurred.
This reversion on the part of the Government of Bombay to the
principle found impossible of application in 1809-10 and 1822 seems to
have been prompted partly by their dissatisfaction with the Political
Agent of the day, Colonel Robert Taylor. This gentleman's obnoxious
recommendations that the Pasha of Baghdad should be helped to create a
Turkish commercial flotilla on the Mesopotamian rivers, accompanied, it
may be observed, by another that the Pasha should be allowed to purchase
2C,000 cannon shot of different sizes at Bombay, have already been
mentioned ; and it is true* that in connection with the Karbala tragedy of
18i3 Colonel Taylor had shown himself remiss and supine, if not actually
a partisan of the local Turkish authorities.
The Government of India, however, while admitting that the arrange-
mmts suggested by the Government of Bombay might not be unworthy
of adoption at some future time, considered that at the moment, it being
of paramount importance to preserve the peace between Turkey and Persia
wiich many events had tended to exasperate against each other, an
mgent necessity existed for the despatch of an officer possessed of the
confidence of Government to represent British interests at Baghdad.
Major Rawlinson, C.B.,t a young officer who had attracted the favourable
notice of the Governor-General and who was at the time at Calcutta, was
accordingly selected, at his own request, to be Political Agent in Turkish
Iraq in succession to Colonel I ay lor. He was given a passage from
Unsatis
factory
conduct of
the
incnmbent
(Colonel
Taylor),
Maintenance
of the
Political
Agency, and
appointment
thereto by
the
Government
of India of
Major
Rawlinson
with special
instructions
and powers,
1843
nk
* Colonel Taylor is perhaps unfortunate in the connections in which his name has
been preserved in official documents. We learn from Layard that " he was a man of
much learning and an excellent scholar, acquainted with various Eastern languages
amongst which was that of the Sabaeans, whose books he had studied under one of their
priests also that he possessed " a valuable library rich in manuscripts and rare works
relating to Oriental geography and history" (Layard's Early Adventures, Volume
II, pages 171 and 213). His hospitality also was great (Mitford's Land March,
Volume I, page 325).
f Major (afterwards Sir H. C.) Rawlinson (Bart.), was born in 1810 and died in 1895.
He belonged to the Indian Army, and was one of the 1834 batch of British military
instructors lent to Persia. In the Afghan War he was 'Political Agent in charge of
Qandahar during its occupation by the British. In 1859, after leaving Baghdad
and retiring from the service, he was British Minister at Tehran. His fame as a scholar
especially in connection with the decipherment of cuaeiform writing, is hardly inferior
tohis repatation as a political officer.
97