Barbey (FF 1088) - Naval Cruise Book

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BOMBAY, INDIA BOMBAY: TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1988 RS • ARTS • RANJI TROPHY • NEHR The American Centre al New Marine Lines, Bombay. Sesquicentennial fete of U.S. consulate By Our Special Correspondent THE American consulate-gen- era! in Bombay is celebrating 115 150th anniversary on Tuesday, it was in 1 838 that the US govern- nient appomted its first consul in Bombay, though he arrived in India only m August 1839. Nol ihal there was no American c insut in India before that dale The firbi Amencan consul to in aia was appointed in 1792 m Calcutta. He was Benjamin Joy. who tned without suc- cess to appoint a consular agent in Bombay which he regarded as an important port. .-America ' s trading lies with India, however, predate even Joy ' s appoint- ment to just after the 1776 American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. Bui the British refusal to recognise the American consul in Calcutta de- layed strengthening of Indo-US trade. Americans mostly sought cotton goods and spices and sent their missionaries to work here. It was nnly when the Easi India Company ' s monopoly was abolished in 1813andit was ordered not to interfere with the trade of nations freindly to Britain, did Indo-US trade receive a niiip. The American Foreign Service had yet to come inio existence then and appointments were made on the basis of business, political or family connec- tions. The consul s had to live on consular fees till 1899, when annual salaries were introduced, so much so that one consul who found it imposs- ible to live on the $ 200 he received as a commercial agent, went to work for the East India Company as a super- iniendent of cotton cultivation at $ S 800 a year! Nevertheless, in 1 852, the US had its first British -recognised consul in Bom- bay in Edward Ely. In 1864, the con- sulate established its first consular agency in Karachi and a second one in Cochin in 1893. The importance of the consulate, which was located m the Jehangir Building on Mahalma Gandhi Road till 1935. increased with World War 1 when it took on the responsibility of representing German. Austro-Hun- ganan and Turkish interests in western India, In 1945. after World War II ended, it was elevated to a consulate- general, the highest level of diplomatic representation after the embassy. The sesquicentennial celebrations of the Amencan consulate have a special significance because President Ronald Reagan this year proclaimed October 2. as a National Day of Recognition, for Mahalma Gandhi, following a sen- ate resolution. Gandhi is, in a way, a symbol of the interchange of ideas between India and the US from as far back as the early 19th centur ' . when the works of Indian philosophere were known in the US. especially in New England.