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25. 'Persia, Herat, and Seistan'
- Description:
- Abstract: The memorandum concerns the state of diplomatic relations between Britain and Persia; it is the view of a number of British officials that the time is ripe to secure a privileged position for Britain at the expense of Russia. To this end it therefore discusses the pros and cons of ceding Herat, Seistan [Sīstān], or other Afghan territory to Persia.A narrative (from 14 January 1879 to 1 January 1880) of these diplomatic exchanges is outlined through extracts from correspondence (largely telegrams), and through recollections of conversations, between British and Persian officials. This then develops into more detailed proposals on the terms by which the British might be willing to cede, and the Persians willing to accept, Herat. Parts of the narrative are in French; presumably the original conversation/correspondence was in this language.The memorandum is signed by Owen Tudor Burne of the India Office.This narrative is continued in IOR/L/PS/18/C29/2.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description commences at f 79, and terminates at f 92, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the file also contains an original pagination sequence.
26. Ext 1410/47 'The Khodadad Bequest'
- Description:
- Abstract: This file consists of a letter, telegrams, and notes between officials of the Government of India, India Office, and the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations regarding the Khodadad Bequest.The file concerns the legacy of Khodadad bin Mohamed, who died in 1862. He left in his will a bequest for charitable purposes, with the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf and the Senior Naval Officer in the Persian Gulf named as executors.The letters discuss a possible change to the administrators of the legacy’s Trust.The file 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 front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 12, these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.
27. Letters and Enclosures on Persia to the Secret Department, 1809-1810
- Description:
- Abstract: This volume comprises a single packet addressed to the Secret Department, containing transcripts and supplementary duplicate copies of secret letters, excerpts of intelligence reports, itineraries, travel accounts, translated diplomatic letters, treaties, royal edicts or firmaun [farmān], and transcripts in original languages (especially French). The papers are divided into approximately thirty sections (without formal division), relating to diplomatic, political, military, and commercial transactions principally with Qajar Persia [Iran], as well as Bagdad [Baghdad], the Sublime Porte or Constantinople [Istanbul], Russia, the [British] Supreme Government of India, the East India Company [EIC] in Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, and England. Contents range in date from 17 February 1809 to 12 March 1810, and were received from the ship, HMS Rattlesnake, 12 March 1810. Appended at the opening of the volume is an abstract of contents (folios 5-14) arranged according to theme, not chronologically, with a brief note on the preceding flyleaf (folio 4) arranging broad subject headings in alphabetic order. This volume is of particular interest for material relating to British competition with the French and Russians in Qajar Persia, during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Papers focus primarily on the repercussions of the diplomatic controversy over the mission of Sir Harford Jones Baronet, representing the British Crown, to the Persian Court. Subjects include Jones’s journey from Bushire [Bushehr] to Tehraun [Tehran]; arrival and ceremonial presentation of the British royal letter to the King [Shāh] of Persia; expulsion of the French legation from the Persian Court; interception of a French packet of correspondence; advice to the Persians to prolong war with Russia; British arms and artificers promised to Persia; conclusion of a treaty of alliance with Persia; EIC objections; disavowal of Jones’s mission by the Governor-General, Calcutta; orders for the mission’s annulment and withdrawal; letter of the Governor-General to the King of Persia on the subject of the disavowal of Jones’s mission; EIC orders its own mission under General Malcolm to the Persian Court; Persian anxieties over Malcolm’s mission; Jones’s intention to remain at the Persian Court; report on Jones’s offer of a ‘bribe’ to be detained; the King of Persia declines permission for Jones’s withdraw; Jones accused of misconduct, his defence; dispatch of the Persian envoy to England; the Russians favour Jones.Physical description: The foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 362; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The volume contains several earlier foliation sequences.
28. Letters and Enclosures on Persia received from Bassora, 1799-1811
- Description:
- Abstract: Originals and duplicates of correspondence, comprising secret letters, excerpts of reports, schedules, translated letters and transcripts in original languages (Ottoman Turkish and French), in 331 enclosures received from Bassora [Basra, Iraq] and addressed to the Secret Department. Papers relate to diplomatic, political, military, and commercial transactions principally with Qajar Persia [Iran], and affairs in what is now present-day Iraq, as well as Syria, Egypt, Arabia, the Sublime Porte or Constantinople [Istanbul], Oman, Russia, Afghanistan, independent states of India, and the East India Company [EIC], dating between 1799-1804 and 1809-1811. This volume is of particular interest for material relating to the Napoleonic Wars and French actions across the eastern Mediterranean, West Asia and India. Other matters covered in the volume include the report of a plot to expel the British from India; insults to the British in Bassora; repercussions of the dispute between Sir Harford Jones and Brigadier-General John Malcolm as representatives of the British Crown and the EIC respectively; dynastic revolution in Afghanistan; raids on British overland packet trains by Whahabee [Wahhābī] Arabs; schedules of postal traffic to and from India and Europe via Bassora; disputes between EIC officials in Constantinople and Bassora resulting in disciplinary action; the description of the garrison at Bombay [Mumbai]; the trade in weapons; textile trade; Armenian merchants; the British seizure of ‘Bania’ property; and the reported surrender of the Muscat Government to British officials. Correspondents include Samuel Manesty, Resident, Bassora; John Spencer Smith, His Britannic Majesty’s Minister Plenipotentiary to the Sublime Porte; Peter Fooke, Agent for the Honorable United English East India Company at Constantinople; Charles Pasley, Political Agent, Persia; Sir William Sidney Smith, Commander-in-Chief of His Britannic Majesty’s Fleet.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 767; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio. The volume also contains an earlier foliation sequence.
29. Letter from Sir Patrick Murray to the Secret Committee
- Description:
- Abstract: A copy of a letter from Sir Patrick Murray, Secretary of the Board of Control, to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, dated 13 March 1810. The letter grants permission to the Secret Committee to share dispatches from Sir Harford Jones, British Envoy Extraordinary to Persia [Iran], with other members of the Court of Directors in order to make them aware of the present state of treaty negotiations with Persia.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
30. Letter from Secretary to the Board of Control, Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, at Whitehall, to the Secret Committee of the East India Company
- Description:
- Abstract: Letter from the Secretary to the Board of Control, Thomas Peregrine Courtenay, at Whitehall, to the Secret Committee of the East India Company, of 2 May 1815. The letter indicates the Board of Control’s permission for the Secret Committee to communicate to the Court of Directors of the East India Company letters and enclosures from HM Ministers to Persia [Iran], James Morier and Henry Ellis, of 30 November 1814 (not included in this item, see IOR/L/PS/9/60/158), which include details of the negotiations for the cessation of the subsidy paid by the Company to Persia.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
31. Bagdad Pachalic Affairs
- Description:
- Abstract: This item comprises a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 134 of 1846, dated 14 November 1846. The enclosure is dated 8 September 1846.The enclosure consists of a copy of a despatch from Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], to Henry Wellesley, HM Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople [Istanbul], relating to affairs in the Bagdad Pachalic [Baghdad Pashalik]. The despatch is copied to the Governor and President in Council, Bombay, and the Governor-General of India, for information.Rawlinson forwards to Wellesley copies of two letters received from Nejib Pasha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā], Governor of Bagdad, which the latter wishes to be transmitted to HM Envoy and Minister at the Court of Tehran. In the letters, Nejib Pasha solicits the Envoy’s co-operation in persuading the Persian Government to: issue orders for the removal of ‘rebel’ subjects Ahmed Pasha former ruler of Sulimanieh [Aḥmad Pāshā Bābān of Sulaymaniyah] and Russool Pasha [Rasūl Pāshā], former Governor of Rowanduz [Ruwandiz or Rawandiz], from the Persian frontier town of Ooshney [Oshnaviyeh?]; and to arrange for the appropriate punishment of Abdullah Beg, Sharaf Baini [‘Abdullāh Beg of the Sharaf Baynī tribe, also spelled Sharriff in this item], a Persian subject who previously joined with Ahmed Pasha in attacking Sulimanieh and who has committed many ‘outrages’ in Turkish [Ottoman] territory in the past few years.Physical description: 1 item (13 folios)
32. Persian Gulf Affairs
- Description:
- Abstract: This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 79 of 1841, dated 30 September 1841. The enclosures are dated 14 June-14 September 1841.The principal correspondents are: Captain Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf; Commodore George Barnes Brucks, Indian Navy, Commanding the Naval Squadron in the Gulf of Persia, on the EIC [East India Company’s] ship of war Coote; the Acting Secretary to Government, Bombay; and the Secretary and the Officiating Chief Secretary to the Government, Bombay.The item covers and includes the following:A letter from the Agent at Shiraz conveying intelligence from that area, including the arrival of Hubeel Olloh Khan [Ḥabīb Allāh Khān, also spelled Habeeb Oolla Khan in this item], Commandant of Artillery at Tuft [Taft], near Yezd [Yazd], en route to Kerman with eight guns and 6000 troops (ff 145-146), ostensibly on a mission which was initially to invade and destroy Kerman and was revised to destroying and plundering only the towns that had sent adherents to Aga Khan [Ḥasan 'Alī Shāh, Āqā Khān-i Awwal] and then to return to FarsHennell’s report of the hostile conduct of Shaik Nasir, Governor of Bushire [Āl Madhkūr, Shaikh Nāṣir II, Governor of Bushehr], towards British government officials there, including: an intimation that no officers from Karrack [Kharg Island, also known as Khark Island, also spelled Karrak and Kharrack in this item] are allowed to visit Bushire; punitive measures taken against the pilot of the Braemarwho sailed to Bussorah [Basra] ignoring Shaik Nasir’s orders for the ship’s detention in Bushire harbour; and the unsuccessful attempts by Shaik Nasir to prevent the transmission of supplies to Karrack (where Hennell is currently stationed)Hennell’s requisitions to Brucks to undertake a tour of the Persian Gulf during the current pearl fishery season (ff 147-153) including instructions for: one war ship to accompany the Coote; the route and the stops Brucks is to take along the Arabian coast from Bahrein [Bahrain] to Muscat, with the war ship calling at Bassadore [Basaidu] and Lingah [Bandar Lengeh] on its return to Karrack; delivering presents to the principal ‘Arabian chiefs’; investigating the political and military situation in Kateef [Qatif]; and for investigating and seeking redress for two acts of ‘piracy’ allegedly committed by subjects of Shaik Abdoolah bin Ahmed [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah, Shaikh of Bahrain] as described in a letter from the Native Agent at Bahrein (ff 154-155). This is followed by a series of reports by Brucks to Hennell (ff 156-173) notably describing: the state of affairs in Katiff [Qatif] and Nedged [Najd]; a ‘war’ on the coastal area between Rass-ul-Khyma [Ras Al Khaimah] and Abothabbee [Abu Dhabi]; his actions regarding the two cases of ‘piracy’; his intentions in relation to the trade in enslaved persons allegedly carried on between the Lingah ‘chiefs’ and the families of the ‘chiefs’ of Rassul Khyma [Ras Al Khaimah] and Amulgaveen [Umm Al Quwain]; and the state of the pearl fisheriesThe agreement of the Government of India with the Government of Bombay that it is inexpedient at present to withdraw the European part of the force from the Island of Karrack, in view of the purported intentions of Persia [Iran] towards Afghanistan (f 174)Correspondence regarding: arrangements for the conveyance of an important packet (letter), in duplicate, from the Government of India to Sir John McNeill, HM Envoy to Persia, via the Government of Bombay and Hennell, utilising both HMS Endymionand the HC [Honourable Company’s] schooner Emily; and arrangements for the receipt of McNeill’s reply, emphasising the importance of its arrival at Aden in time for the November mail. The letter instructs McNeill to ascertain the attitudes and plans of Persia towards Afghanistan and gives him authority to withhold the order to evacuate Karrack ‘until perfectly satisfactory assurances shall be obtained from the Shah in these respects’ (f 178) (ff 174-196)Hennell’s views regarding the need for an enhanced naval presence in the Gulf to increase British influence over the maritime Arabian states (ff 197-199), and the Government of Bombay’s confirmation that it cannot make any permanent addition to the Gulf Squadron but that HMS Endymionhas recently proceeded to the GulfInstructions by Hennell and Brucks for surveillance of Asseeloo boats [Bandar-e Asaluyeh, also spelled Assaloo in this item] which are suspected of intercepting supplies to the Island of Karrack and interrupting ‘the free navigation of the Gulf’ (f 203).Physical description: 1 item (69 folios)
33. Persian Gulf Affairs
- Description:
- Abstract: This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 16 dated 2 February 1856. The enclosures are dated 24 December 1855-12 February 1856.The principal document is a copy of a despatch from Commander James Felix Jones, Indian Navy, Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire [Bushehr], to the Secretary to the Government, Bombay, reporting that a letter from Charles Augustus Murray, HM Envoy in Persia [Iran], indicates that the dispute between the Imam of Muscat and the Persian Government regarding Bunder Abbas [Bandar Abbas] has been settled, and enclosing a translated copy of the terms the Imam has subscribed to.Physical description: 1 item (4 folios)
34. Persian Gulf Affairs
- Description:
- Abstract: This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 30 of 1856, dated 16 April 1856. The enclosures are dated 17 March-8 April 1856.The enclosures cover and include the following:Minutes of the Governor of Bombay and members in Council discussing the course to be pursued in the event of any requisition being made on the Government of Bombay by Charles Augustus Murray, British Ambassador to the Court of Persia [Iran], for the despatch from Bombay of an armed force to the Persian Gulf, consequent to Persia’s apparent military campaign to occupy Herat. The minutes cover: the decision not to take any action solely on the requisition of Murray but only and if orders are received from the Secret Committee indicating that the British Government has called for an expedition, in addition to Murray’s request; the need to confirm Persia has taken Herat and is not ‘defending’ it against an attack from Dost Mohammed Khan [Dūst Muḥammad Khān Bārakzāy]; and a reluctance to send a land force to the Persian GulfConcerns expressed by Commander Felix Jones, Acting Resident, Persian Gulf, on the unsuitable location of the Residency at Bushire [Bushehr], notably its exposure to the sea, tendency to be cut off from the sea beach, excessive heat, the sea wall built by the Persian authorities in front of the Residency and the Persian garrison towers overlooking the private apartments, and the Government of Bombay’s sanction of 500 rupees for the cost of erecting verandahs with blinds to ensure privacy.Physical description: 1 item (13 folios)
35. Enclosure in Sir Harford Jones's Letter No. 3 of 3 Feb 1810
- Description:
- Abstract: A copy of a letter from Thomas Sheridan, assistant of Sir Harford Jones, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia [Iran], to Captain Charles Pasley, Political Agent of the Governor-General of Bengal in Persia, sent from Tauris [Tabrīz] and dated 27 January 1810. The letter reports the arrival of instructions from Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, stating that Jones should continue in his post as Envoy, and instructs Pasley to desist from all communication with Persian ministers and hand over his mission.The letter was enclosed in Jones's Letter No. 3 to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company dated 3 February 1810.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)
36. Enclosure in Sir Harford Jones's Letter No. 5 of 23 May 1810
- Description:
- Abstract: An extract of a letter from Lord Minto, Governor-General of Bengal, to Brigadier-General John Malcolm, Envoy of the Supreme Government of India to Persia [Iran], sent from Fort St George [Chennai] and dated 26 October 1809. The letter sets out the Supreme Government of India's view of the necessity of sending an Envoy to Persia to replace Sir Harford Jones, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Persia.The extract was enclosed in Jones's Letter No. 6 to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company dated 23 May 1810.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)