Abstract: The volume contains papers relating to the right of navigation in the Shatt-el-Arab (also referred to as the Shatt-al-Arab).It includes correspondence relating to the following: the alignment of the Perso-Iraq frontier at the mouth of the Shatt-al-Arab; the right of Persian [Iranian] vessels to navigate the Shatt-al-Arab and to anchor in Iraq waters; the proposal that the Shatt-al-Arab should be treated as an international waterway, and that an international commission should be appointed to look after it; the proposed establishment of a Conservancy Board to control the navigation in the Shatt-al-Arab, and the proposal that the Conservancy Board should also be charged with the superintendence of lighting and buoying throughout the Persian Gulf.The main correspondents are as follows: the India Office; the Foreign Office; Sir Robert Henry Clive, HM Minister, Tehran; the Admiralty; the High Commissioner for Iraq; the Colonial Office; the Air Council (Air Ministry); and the Government of India Foreign and Political Department.The volume includes correspondence in French between Sir R H Clive and Mirza Abdul Hussein Khan Taimourtache (also spelled Teymourtache in the file) [Abdolhossein Teymūrtāsh], Minister of Court, Persia, dated 19 April 1928 (folios 353-354) and 26 July 1930 (folio 31).The volume includes a map and three charts of the Shatt al-Arab [IOR/L/PS/10/1098, f 131; IOR/L/PS/10/1098, f 163; IOR/L/PS/10/1098, f 262; and IOR/L/PS/10/1098, f 263].The volume includes a divider which gives the subject number, the year the subject file was opened, the subject heading, and a list of correspondence references by year. This is placed at the back of the correspondence.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 357; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves.A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.
Abstract: The letter book consists of correspondence primarily between Lewis Pelly, Agent to the Governor General in Rajputana [Rājasthān], and the individuals who reported to him including his assistants Henry Byam Abbott, Charles Allan Baylay and William Howell Beynon; the Political Agents for Jaipur, Mewar, Bhartpur, Naseerabad and Haraoti; Leslie Seymour Saunders the Commissioner at Ajmer; William Carnell, James Dawson Macdonald and John Dobrée Woolcombe the Commandants of the irregular forces in Rajputana; and Charles Umpherston Aitchison as Foreign Secretary to the Government of India.The correspondence relates primarily to administrative affairs within Rajputana focusing on the settlement of boundary disputes and the ill-health and subsequent death of Shambhu Singh, Maharana of Mewar.Other correspondents include William Wilson Hunter who was at the time travelling across India compiling his Imperial Gazetteer (published in 1881) and Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff, formerly under-secretary of state for India who was visiting the country.There are also a number of letters between Pelly and the New Bank of Bombay regarding Pelly's finances, money transfers and accounts with various merchant companies.Most of the correspondence in the volume has been entered on Lewis Pelly's behalf by other individuals, primarily Charlotte Beynon, wife of William Howell Beynon, assistant to Pelly, as he was suffering from eyesight problems that prevented him from writing and copying his own correspondence.Physical description: The volume has been foliated in the front top right hand corner of each folio with a pencil number enclosed in a circle.
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 11 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Tehran, to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 15 June 1825. The letter concerns relations between Russia and Persia, including:The ongoing negotiations for the demarcation of the frontier between Russia and Persia, including the determination of the Prince Royal (Crown Prince of Persia, 'Abbās Mīrzā Qājār) to continue negotiationsThe recall of the Russian Consul General, Vazenco, from TehranPoor relations between the Russian Chargé d’Affaires to Persia, Mazarowich [Semyon Mazarovich] and the Prince RoyalThe Prince Royal’s attempts to impress on the Shah (Fath-‘Ali Shāh Qājār) a belief that Russia seeks to disturb amicable relations between Russia and Persia.The letter also originally enclosed the definition of the frontier originally agreed, the definition of a new line of demarcation proposed by the Prince Royal, and a letter from the Prince Royal to the Governor-General of Georgia, General Yermoloff [Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov] (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/30-32).This document was originally enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 3 July 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/25).Physical description: 1 item (6 folios)
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 15 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Koordan [Kordan or Kurdan], to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 4 July 1825. The letter concerns relations between Russia and Persia, including:The departure of the Russian Consul General to Persia, Vazenco, from Tehran, and the subsequent request that Vazenco be permitted to reside at Resht [Rasht]Commercial relations between Russia and PersiaThe ongoing negotiations for the demarcation of the Russo-Persian frontier between the Prince Royal [Crown Prince of Persia, 'Abbās Mīrzā Qājār] and the Governor-General of Georgia, General Yermoloff [Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov].This document was originally enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 3 July 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/25).Physical description: 1 item (3 folios)
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 19 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Yankijah [Yengejeh], to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 4 September 1825. The letter concerns the ongoing negotiations between Russia and Persia for the demarcation of their frontier in the Caucasus. Willock gives his appraisal of the motives of the Prince Royal, Abbas Mirza [Crown Prince of Persia, 'Abbās Mīrzā Qājār], in his ‘procrastination’ of the settlement of the frontier, and gives an account of the communications and negotiations concerning the settlement of the frontier that occurred while the Court of the Shah of Persia was at Sultanieh [Solţānīyeh]. Included are details of:Willock’s representations to the Prince Royal and the Shah encouraging the settlement of the frontierCommunications between the Shah and the Governor-General of Georgia, General Yermoloff [Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov] concerning the ratification of a settlement previously agreedNegotiations between the Persians and the Russian Chargé d'Affaires to Persia, Mazarowitch [Semyon Mazarovich]The Shah’s request for the British to mediate in the dispute.The letter originally enclosed a translation of a letter from General Yermoloff to the Shah (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/47), and a copy of a letter from Major William Monteith to Willock (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/48).This document was originally enclosed, numbered 1, in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 10 September 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/45).Physical description: 1 item (14 folios)
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 22 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Tabriz, to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 24 October 1825. The letter details tensions on the frontier between Russia and Persia at the shores of the lake of Gokcha [Lake Sevan], territory which is the subject of an ongoing dispute between the two sides. Correspondence concerning these tensions was originally enclosed with this letter (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/52-54). The letter also reports the assassination of Lieutenant-General Leesanowich [Dmitri Lisanovich] and General Gerkoff [Nikolai Grekov], during conflict between Russia and the Chichens [Chechens].This document was originally enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 3 December 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/50).Physical description: 1 item (4 folios)
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 24 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Tehran, to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 28 November 1825. The letter concerns the ongoing frontier dispute between Russia and Persia regarding land bordering on the lake of Gokcheh [Lake Sevan], where a force of Russian soldiers have re-occupied a contested position, detailing:The Russian justification for the occupation on the grounds of an unratified agreement made at Tiflis [Tbilisi]The Persian desire for Great Britain to mediate in the disputeThe Persian plan to send an embassy to St Petersburgh [St Petersburg]The hopes of the Prince Royal [Crown Prince of Persia, 'Abbās Mīrzā Qājār] for receiving a subsidy from the BritishThe complaints of the Prince Royal concerning the tone of communications from the Governor-General of Georgia, General Yermoloff [Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov] (see IOR/L/PS/9/70/56)The Prince Royal’s hope for assistance in the dispute from the new East India Company Envoy to Persia, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir.The letter also originally enclosed instructions from the Prince Royal and the Shah of Persia, [Fath-‘Ali Shāh Qājār], to the Persian envoy being sent to Tiflis to discuss the frontier dispute, Meerza Saudik [Mirza Muhammad Sadiq Marvazi] (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/57). Also originally enclosed was correspondence concerning the dispute (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/56, 58-59).This document was originally enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 3 December 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/50).Physical description: 1 item (6 folios)
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 3 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Tehran, to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 5 February 1825. The letter concerns the progress of negotiations between Russia and Persia concerning the settlement of their frontier, reporting that the Prince Royal [Crown Prince] of Persia ['Abbās Mīrzā Qājār] has demurred in ceding some lands north of the lake of Gokhcheh [Lake Sevan].This document was originally enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 8 February 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/5).Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: Copy of dispatch No. 6 from HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, in Tehran, to HM Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George Canning, of 1 April 1825. The letter originally enclosed correspondence between the Prince Royal [Crown Prince] of Persia, Abbas Meerza ['Abbās Mīrzā Qājār], and the Governor-General of Georgia, General Yermoloff [Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov] (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/13-15), and a document concerning discussions between Russia and Persia concerning their frontier from a secret informant (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/70/16). Willock reports his expectation that the discussions concerning the frontier have been closed successfully, and details a dispute concerning the efforts of the Russian Chargé d’Affaires to Persia, Mazarovich (Semyon Mazarovich), to prolong discussions regarding the establishment of a Russian Consul General at Resht [Rasht].This document was originally enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 2 April 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/11).Physical description: 1 item (4 folios)
Abstract: Copy of a letter from Major William Monteith, in Tabreez [Tabriz], to HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, of 17 July 1825. Monteith reports his observations from his mission to survey the Russo-Persian frontier in the Caucasus, including a disputed area around the lake of Goukcha [Lake Sevan] (see IOR/L/PS/9/70/46-47). The letter details the suitability of the territory on the frontier for the conduct of military operations, and indicates possible routes of passage for military forces in the event of war between Russia and Persia.This document was originally enclosed, numbered 3, in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 10 September 1825 (IOR/L/PS/9/70/45).Physical description: 1 item (6 folios)
Abstract: A copy of a letter from Brigadier-General John Malcolm, Envoy of the Supreme Government of India to Persia [Iran], to Lord Minto, Governor-General of Bengal, sent from a camp near Shiraz and dated 10 May 1810, concerning route surveys on the frontiers of Persia ordered by Malcolm. The letter reports the death of Captain Grant and Cornet Fotheringham on the road from Baghdad to Isfahan [Eṣfahān]; and the arrival in Shiraz of Captain McDonald and Lieutenant Monteith from Bussora [Basra] across southern Persia.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
Abstract: A copy of a letter from Bridgadier-General John Malcolm to Captain Grant, Bengal Native Infantry, sent from Bombay [Mumbai] and dated 13 January 1809. The letter instructs Grant to proceed to Guada [Gwadar] and to travel from there across Mekran [Makrān] and Baloche [Balochistān] to Bunder Abbass [Bandar-e ‘Abbās], in order to collect information and assess the threat of an invasion of India by a European force using that route.Physical description: 1 item (8 folios)