Page 225 - Gulf Precis (VI)_Neat

Chapter XI. 199
C. AVhonovor you may have a sufficient number of steamers for the duties of tlic Gulf
as well as for thoso of tho Red Sea, tho despatches by the former line may lie forwarded with a
degreo of precision and coitainly that is not attainable by Bailing vessels, but it would be
contrary to our wish, as woll ns inconsistent with the arrangement into which tho Court have
entered with Her Majesty’s Government to divert for the duties of tho Gulf, the steamers
which arc required lor service in tho Red Sea, although if a steamer could occasionally be
employed on the duties of the Gulf, without detriment to the service of the Ked Sea, an oppor­
tunity would bo afforded to you of communicating both with Persia and Baghdad, and also
with this country rapidly by that line.
7. It is our intention to transmit to yon duplicates of our most important despatches by
tho routo of Roy rout and (ho Persian Gulf, and to guard against accident it might be as well
that you should also forward to ns by the Persian Gulf duplicates of the most material of your
despatches sent by way of tho Red Sea.
119. In 1839 the Court of Directors of tlie East India Company sent out to
Basrah three iron steamers for use on tho Tigris, specially constructed for rivor
navigation, and a letter service was established between the Vice-Consulate*
at Basrah and the Consulate General at Baghdad. In 1843-•'Ll* tho Dromedary
Post was re-established across the Syrian desert from Baghdad to Damascus,
and from Damascus via Beyrout communication was maintained with Constan­
tinople and England, and except when opportunities occurred for the despatch
of mails by sea to Bombay by an Indian Navy vessel, letters from Baghdad
and Basrah for India wero sent by tho desert route via Damascus and Beyrout
through Egypt; and from Busliire via Tehran and Alexandria.!
120. As late as 18G2 British merchantmen were seldom seen in the
Persian Gulf, which bore a bad name as the haunt of pirates on account of
tho intricate navigation of the Arabian littoral. Opportunities, therefore, for the
despatch or receipt of mails by sea were few and lar between. Bor some years
the Bombay Government had urged on the Secretary of State for India the
necessity for a regular steamer service between Bombay and the Persian Gulf,
and in a letter to the Government of Bombay, dated the 3rd March 1862, tho
Secretary of State wrote:—
“I learn from tho Government of India that in their opinion tho chargo for the Police
for the Persian Gulf may lie much reduced if a regular line of mail steamers be established
for running from Karachi to Busra touching at Maskat, Bunder Abbas and one port on tho
Mekrnn Coast. The mere fact of a steamer, it is added, running to and fro, may have a
sensible effect in stopping piracy * * I am willing to sanction the
establishment of a line of steamers for postal purposes between Bombay and tho Persian Gulf
calling at Karachi, limiting the number of annual trips to eight.”
121. On receipt of this letter a notice was issued by the Bombay Govern­
ment inviting tenders for—
(1) Mail Service between Bombay and Karachi and vice versa twice a
month in connection with the arrival of mails (from England)
to commence on and after the 1st July 1862.
(2) Mail Service eight times in the year between Bombay and the Persian
Gulf via Karachi and vice versa.
122. The contracts were undertaken by the British India Steam Navigation
Company and a regular six-weekly service established between Bombay and
Basrah.
123. In the samo year the Secretary of State accepted an offer from Messrs.
Lynch & Co., the Euphrates and Tigris Steam Navigation Company, to run a
six-weekly or monthly steamer, as might be required, on tho Tigris between
Basrah and Baghdad, in connection with the British India Steam Navigation
Company’s Ocean lino to Bombay, on a subsidy of £2,400 a year
124. The establishment of through communication between India and the
Persian Gulf naturally gavo rise to a
Opening of Post Offices.
demand for properly organized post offices.
For a short time packets of letters wero forwarded from Bombay and Karachi
to Basrah and ports in the Gulf and distributed by the local Agents of the
British Iudia Steam Navigation Company, who also collected letters for
despatch. At tho different ports at which the steamers touched the Captain or
* Sco Colonel Itawlinion’a Despatch No. 12, datod 2Gth December 1843, consultation dated 9th March 1844,
Xos. 23—21.
f Por the subsequent history of the Dromedary Post, see Chapter XII (Hi), popes 1G9—171.