'Complaints Preferred Against the Political Agent in Turkish Arabia by the Agent...

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 21 of 1844, dated 29 February 1844. The enclosures are dated 8 December 1843-29 February 1844. The enclosures comprise an explanation by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Taylor, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], as submitted to the Chief Secretary to the Government of Bombay and forwarded to the Government of India, with regard to the complaints made against him and the Bagdad [Baghdad] agency by British merchants Messrs Hector & Co, on matters of trade. Taylor defends the trading activities of the poorly paid native staff of the Agency and the firm Lynch & Co, which is the only competitor of Hector & Co in Bagdad. He also stresses that: he has no power to influence the 'proverbially slow' and 'often corrupt' processes of the local courts and public officials; the local inhabitants are understandably unhappy about European traders affecting their own profits and previous sources of gain; and that the Pacha [Pasha] of Bagdad is perfectly entitled to apply to any of the mercantile community for steam vessels or steam apparatus for his flotilla of ships to keep the peace in the seas.

There is an abstract of contents of the despatch, numbered 1-4, on folio 251. These numbers are repeated for reference on the verso of the last folio of each enclosure.

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