ABSTRACT
Viscount Castlereagh applied to Dundas for a list of works on the Government of India generally, and on recent India policy in particular, and spent his first few weeks at the Board in studying this information. He later failed to procure the election of James Strange, Dundas’s son-in-law, and to prevent the elections of John Bebb, James Pattison and George Millet, all three of whom strongly supported the Shipping interest. Castlereagh visualised his new office as a springboard to a more important political position, and he set to work to develop an India policy which was to make his mark. His immediate tasks, therefore, were to placate the Directors after their tussle with Dartmouth, and to settle their altercations with their Governors. Before Castlereagh had become President, the Directors had urged Addington to appoint a provisional successor to Wellesley in case the latter should resign.
