Aden Province
Aden Settlement (1839–1932) Chief Commissioner's Province of Aden (1932–1937) إقليم عدن | |||||||||
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Dependency of British India | |||||||||
1839–1937 | |||||||||
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Colony of Aden | 1937 | ||||||||
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The Chief Commissioner's Province of Aden was the administrative status under which the former Aden Settlement (1839–1932) was placed from 1932 to 1937. Under that new status, the Viceroy of India assumed direct control over Aden, which had hitherto been administered by the government of the Bombay Presidency. The Aden Protectorate remained unaffected by this change.
Background
For nearly a century following the capture of the port of Aden by forces of the East India Company in 1839, the town and immediate surrounding area under direct British rule, known as the Aden Settlement, had been a dependency of the distant Bombay Presidency. The Settlement's indeterminate position at the southwestern end of the Arabian peninsula was bound to cause difficulties and historian R. J. Gavin points out that "Aden’s whole history since 1839 had been marked by administrative confusion and complication."[1] Before taking action, the chief British official at Aden, the Resident, was often required to obtain sanction from three different authorities, the Bombay Government, the government of British India (headed by the Viceroy) and the Colonial Office in London.[2]
Matters came to a head during World War I and in 1917, the Government of India, recognising its inability to provide sufficient forces to defend Aden against invading
Creation of the Chief Commissioner's Province
The issue gained urgency at the end of the 1920s when discussions on constitutional reforms in India began. Far-away Aden with its Arab majority could not be accommodated in a new federal India where a considerably empowered Bombay legislative assembly would remain in charge. Therefore, it was decided that, until the final status of Aden was decided, Bombay would yield its administrative control over the territory which would become a Chief Commissioner's Province under the direct control of the Viceroy. This status, which took effect on 1 April 1932, was expected to be short-lived, and one provision of the
Sir Bernard Rawdon Reilly, who had been named Resident in 1931, then Chief Commissioner in 1932, became the first Governor of Aden Colony.
Composition of the population of Aden in 1933
Arabs 29,820
Indians 7,287
Jews 4,120
Somalis 3,935
Europeans 1,145
Miscellaneous 331[9]
Chief Commissioners
For previous British ruling officers see
- Sir Bernard Rawdon Reilly, first as resident in 1931, then as Chief Commissioner.[10]
Views of Aden
See also
- Postage stamps and postal history of Aden
- Aden Protectorate
- Trucial Oman
- Territorial evolution of the British Empire
- Baloch Regiment
- Robert Moresby (Survey of the Red Sea)
References
- ^ R. J. Gavin, Aden Under British Rule, 1839-1967, Barnes and Noble, 1975, p. 254.
- ^ Robert R. Robbins, "The Legal Status of Aden Colony, and the Aden Protectorate", The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Oct., 1939), p. 702.
- ^ Gavin, p. 252.
- ^ Gavin, p. 253.
- ^ Gavin, p. 253–255.
- ^ Gavin, p. 256.
- ^ Glen Balfour-Paul, The End of Empire in the Middle East. Britain's relinquishment of power in her last three dependencies, Cambridge University Press, 1991, (1996 paperback edition), p. 58–59.
- ^ Robbins, p. 702.
- ^ Figures given by Chief Commissioner Reilly (Aden, Administration and Control: changes consequent on Indian constitutional reforms; transfer to HMG (1933-34))
- ^ Sir Bernard Rawdon Reilly - The British Empire