CORRESPONDENCE regarding the claim of the Nizam Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command LONDON: PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE. To be purchased directly from H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses: Adastral House, Kingsway, London, W.C.2; 28, Abingdon Street, London, S. W.1; York Street, Manchester; 1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff; or 120, George Street, Edinburgh; or through any Bookseller. 1925. Price 1s. 6d. net. Cmd. 2439. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 1. Letter from His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad to His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, dated 25th October, 1923 ANNEXURE TO No. 1. Memorandum APPENDICES TO NO. 1. A. Agreement of 18th December, 1902 B. Extract from Treaty of 1766 PAGE. 1 15 58 58 " " " L. Treaty of 1853 M. Extract from Sir C. Metcalfe's Minute, of 14th August, 1826 .. O. Supplemental Treaty of 1860 H. Extract from Lord Mornington's Instructions of 2nd Novem J. K. ber, 1798.. .. Lord Mornington's Despatch, of 15th June, Lord Dalhousie's Minute, of 30th March, 1853 .. 66 65 66 67 P. Letter from Sir Salar Jung and Co-Regent of Hyderabad to the Q. Despatch of Secretary of State for India to the Government 80 R. Letter from Government of India (Foreign Department), to 83 Maps (not reproduced) 2, Letter from the Viceroy and Governor-General of India to His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad, dated 11th March, 1925 85 Letter from His Exalted Highness the Nizam of Hyderabad to His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India, dated King Kothi, Hyderabad, Deccan, the 25th October, 1923. MY DEAR LORD READING, You are aware that the Province of Berar, an integral part of my Dominions, came to be leased in perpetuity to the British Government by an Agreement dated the 18th of December, 1902 (1), on certain terms and conditions. This was the outcome of an interview that took place at Hyderabad between Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy of India, and my late lamented father, Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, on the 30th of March of that year. 2. After my accession to the Throne of my forefathers, in 1911, I had the circumstances under which this Agreement came to be executed carefully examined. Were it not that the Great European War broke out in 1914, I should long ago have asked for the reconsideration of the Agreement. But as an Ally of the British Government, I felt it my duty to throw the energies of my State into the struggle, and to refrain from raising this political question at a time when the Empire found itself in the throes of a life and death conflict with a formidable enemy. I intended, however, to take action. on the conclusion of the War, but the political ferment and unrest in British India became so acute, that, from 1919 to almost the closing months of 1922, I had again to wait, in order to save possible embarrassment to the Government of India. Happily, the victorious British Empire is now fast recovering from the effects of the War; and Your Excellency's rule has succeeded in restoring a calm political atmosphere in British India. In the circumstances, I feel no hesitation now in addressing this letter to you, in full confidence that the claims of the Faithful Ally of the British Government will receive at the hands of the Viceroy of India and His Majesty's Government the sympathetic consideration called for by the justice of the case and the relations of the parties. 3. How the possession of the Berars passed from my ancestors to the British Government is shown in the written Claim, which I annex hereto in the form of a Memorandum, containing a full historical survey of the relevant facts, Treaties, and other documents. Your Excellency will see that, even as early as the year 1766 (2), the Districts on the East of my Dominions, known as the Northern Circars, were ceded in perpetuity to the British Government by one of my ancestors, in exchange for the right to aid from British troops for the preservation of internal tranquillity. The engagement (1) App. A. (2) App. B. to furnish substantial military aid was further guaranteed by Lord Cornwallis, in 1789 (1), the East India Company undertaking that the military force was to be granted" whenever your Highness will apply for it," without any restriction except that it was not to be employed against any Power in alliance with the Company." 4. In 1798 (2), the military aid was increased to a Subsidiary Force of 6,000 Sepoys, with a proportionate number of field pieces, stationed in the Hyderabad Dominions for service of the Nizam, in whose pay they were declared to be from the day of their crossing his frontiers. As regards the preservation of internal tranquillity, the Fifth Article of the Treaty provided: ་་ 44 "The said Subsidiary Force will be at all times ready to execute services of importance, such as the protection of the person of His Highness, his heirs and successors, from race to race, and overawing and chastising all rebels or exciters of disturbances in the Dominions of this State; but it is not to "be employed on trifling occasions, nor, like Sebundy, to be stationed in the country to collect the revenues thereof." The then Nizam engaged to pay an annual subsidy of Rs. 24,17,100/for the maintenance of this Subsidiary Force. 5. Then came the Treaty of 1800 (3), whereby the Districts of Bellary and Cuddapah, valued at Rs. 63,00,000/- yearly, were ceded by the Nizam to the British Government, in commutation for ever of the annual subsidy of Rs. 24,17,100/- The Subsidiary Force became thenceforward answerable for the defence of the Hyderabad State against assaults on its tranquillity of whatever description-external and internal and was to do all that was required to coerce any "subjects or dependants of the Nizam" who should either excite rebellion or disturbance" or "withhold payment of the Circar's just claims upon them" without any reference to the magnitude or otherwise of the occasion. 6. As a result of the Treaties of 1798 (2) and 1800 (3), both framed by the Earl of Mornington (afterwards Marquis of Wellesley), the Nizam had, on the one hand, to cede in perpetuity Bellary and Cuddapah and disband his Corps under Raymond and other French officers, and the British Government, on the other, gave the pledge, by Article Seventeen of the Treaty of 1800, that : "If in future the Shorapore or Gudwall zemindars, or any "other subjects or dependants of His Highness's Government "should withhold the payment of the Circar's just claim upon "them, or excite rebellion or disturbance, the Subsidiary Force, "or such proportion thereof as may be requisite, after the reality of the offence had been duly ascertained, shall be ready, in concert with His Highness's own troops, to reduce "all such offenders to obedience.” 66 66 7. Your Excellency will observe that these arrangements left no manner of doubt as to the obligations created by these two Treaties being interdependent, and that the right of the Nizam to military aid against internal disturbance and external aggression (1) App. D. (2) App. F. () App. G. was placed beyond dispute. But only eleven months later, when the zemindar of Shorapore failed to pay the tribute due to the Nizam, and otherwise conducted himself with great contumacy, the requisition for the services of a part of the Subsidiary Force was not complied with till after a delay of six months, and only after other conditions not provided for by the Treaties had been superadded, greatly impairing the force of the Nizam's authority over his Tributaries. 8. This denial of the full services of the Subsidiary Force secured by Treaty was followed, in 1804, by insistence on the part of the Governor-General for a provision from the Nizam's own revenues of a separate body of Selladar Horse actually to do the same service, which the Subsidiary Force, under Treaty obligations, was to render, and in consideration for which the Districts of Bellary and Cuddapah had been ceded only shortly before. At first the Nizam resisted the proposal, but plain denial of his Treaty rights and the refusal of the services of the Subsidiary Force to which he was entitled, combined with his helplessness due to other reasons, led to the inauguration of a new Force, called the Hyderabad Contingent, at the Nizam's cost. Contemporaneous records will show that, at its inception, the Contingent was "to save the Subsidiary Force the labour" and was created for the purpose of “ reducing to obedience the refractory zemindars ❞—a duty which is mentioned by name, in the Seventeenth Article of the Treaty of 1800 (1), as incumbent on the Suɓsidiary Force. The Nizam was thus paying heavily twice over for the services to which he was entitled under the Treaty of 1800. Further, it has to be noted with regret, that though the Contingent had been created with the object of affording to the Nizam' military support for internal purposes and the cost of its maintenance was a serious burden upon his treasury, its services were repeatedly refused 'when the Nizam's interests demanded their employment. 9. The Contingent took its birth at a time when the Nizam was permitted no voice in the administration of his country, with the result that this new Force was placed and maintained under British control, and Rupees forty lakhs per annum out of the Nizam's revenues were appropriated for its support. This period in the annals of the Nizams forms a gloomy chapter in the history of India. One disloyal and traitorous Prime Minister succeeded another, and a perusal of the documents relating to the subject will, I am sure, convince Your Excellency that the inauguration of the Contingent was without the free consent of the Nizam, expressed or implied. There is ample British evidence that Chundoo Loll, the most traitorous of Ministers, acceded to the creation of the Contingent for his own personal ends, and that it was he who granted assignments on the revenue of certain districts for the pay of a portion of this new Force. Lord Metcalfe, in a Minute dated the 16th of March, 1832, described the Contingent Force as "in reality a joint concern between Raja Chundoo Loll and us." Sir F. Currie, a Member of Lord Dalhousie's Government, in his Minute of the 2nd of April, 1853, also very truly wrote: "The Contingent seems to have been the device of Mr. Russell, the Resident, and Chundoo Loll, the Minister of the (1) App. G. |