"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٥‎٩‎١] (١٧٨٢/١٧٤٦)

1591
Political Agent's position was therefore legally a strong one. But
about ISb'i, m view of the dissatisfaction of the Ilajij which had been
vigorously manifested in 1878 and 1881, the Government of India
directed the Political Resident in Turkish 'Iraq to report what other
arrangements for a house could be made ; and meanwhile the rent paid
to the Ilaji was increased to R250 a month on an understanding that no
objection should be made to the retention of the house by Government
during the year 1881. Good sites on which a house might be built by
Government were available on the further bank of the Shatt-al-'Arab
at Gardilan, Tanumah, etc., but there were obstacles in the way of their
purchase^ and a fresh lease of the house occupied by the Consulate had
to be taken for the year 1885, and apparently for subsequent years.
Eventually, in consequence of recommendations made by Colonel
Tweedie as Resident in 1385, the Government of India in 1890
decided to buy the premises for so long hired, together with other land,
for K65,000. The great delay in reaching this decision was due to diffi
culties regarding validity of title and other points, which were at last
overcome.
When the time arrived for registration of the transfer of ownership,
the Turkish authorities tried to insist that some private individual
should be entered in their official records as the owner, and objected
strenuously to the property being shown as acquired by the Government
of India, Her Majesty's Secretary of State, Her Britannic Majesty's
Ambassador at Constantinople, or even "the British Consul." Their
obstruction seems to have been prolonged from 1890 or 1891 until 1895,
when His Majesty the Sultan at last, by an Irade, sanctioned the registra
tion of the property in the name of the British Embassy at Constantinople.
About 1900, owing to subsidence of the foundations, the Consulate
building became uninhabitable; and in 1901-02 the Consul had to
take up his abode temporarily in a hired building. The Basrah appoint
ment had in the meantime passed to Her Majesty's Government; but
the Government of India, in view of the bad state of the building at the
time of its transfer, undertook to reconstruct it at their own expense ;
and a new and good building on the same site was completed in 1903,
under arrangements made by them, at a cost of about <£4,000. A
special agreement was made as to the division of the cost of futuie icpaiis
between His Majesty^s Government and the Government of India,
the post office rooms in the building being regarded as the pioperty of
the latter.