MAIL PACKETS 1843 - 1851

On 6 December 1843 East India House wrote to their Agent in Aden to inform him that the PMG in London had decided, as a control measure, to institute Time Bills for Indian mails going in both directions via Marseilles. The bills had to be completed in duplicate, giving the dates of arrival and departure and forwarded to the agent at the next port of call. This was followed on 30 December with another letter informing the agent that this control measure would come into effect with the despatch of the outward India time Bills with the mail via Marseilles which was leaving England on 4 January 1844.

A further letter dated 27 February 1845 stated that it was proposed to establish time bills for the Calcutta Mail steam packets which had recently been established between Suez and Calcutta (via Marseilles). These would begin with the Calcutta Mail that was leaving London on 24 March. In November the agent in Aden was informed that branch time bills between Aden and Bombay were being introduced for mail that arrived at Aden on the Calcutta Line of Packets and that a supply of time bills for Aden and Bombay were being sent by the packet leaving Southampton on 3 November.

By July 1847 the Staff Civil Surgeon in Aden, John Malcolmson, was also acting as postmaster there. He suggested that Mails from the UK for Mauritius could be sent via Aden, and onwards from there by merchant ships trading between Mauritius and Massaua (in Eritrea). This would be a much quicker route than via the Cape, which was how Mauritius was currently receiving its mail. The authorities were grateful for his suggestion but felt that the infrequency of vessels plying between the Red Sea ports and Aden did not make the idea very practicable.

In 1848 Malcolmson was reprimanded for an error of protocol, which gives one a good insight as to how the mails were transported. Some time previously it had been the practice for mails from Aden to England via Marseilles to be sent in a box addressed to the PMG in London, the box being opened by the (postal) agent in Malta who had then transferred the contents into iron boxes for the journey overland through France. For some reason the PMG had objected to mails addressed to him being opened in Malta and new instructions were given for the Aden Postmaster to send boxes via the agent in Alexandria. The problem was that Malcolmson had not interpreted these new instructions correctly and had addressed his boxes in such a way that they were being opened in Alexandria.

In 1851 the India Mail via Marseilles was still only a monthly service. On 24 September that year notice was given that in future the mail would leave London on the 8th of the month, instead of the 7th, and that if the 8th was a Sunday the mail would leave on the 9th.