IOR/R/15/1/145-179

The records consist of correspondence sent and received by the Residency at Bushire. The holders of the office of Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (permanent or acting) during the period were Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Captain (James) Felix Jones, Lieutenant Herbert Frederick Disbrowe (also Assistant Resident), and Lewis Pelly. The correspondence is bound under major subject heads and then further subdivided, rather than arranged in a purely chronological manner, as was the case with earlier correspondence. The main correspondents are the Government of Bombay, other British officials in the Persian Gulf, commanders of the Persian Gulf Naval Squadron, commanders of British forces during the Anglo-Persian War of 1856-57, officials of the Court of Persia, and local rulers.

The main topics are as follows:

• Persian affairs (especially IOR/R/15/1/148, 150, 154, 156, 164, 169, 170);
• Persian Gulf Naval Squadron and other ships (especially IOR/R/15/1/148, 161, 172);
• the slave trade (especially IOR/R/15/1/149, 157, 168, 171, 177);
• the Anglo-Persian War of 1856-57 (especially IOR/R/15/1/151, 153, 158, 159, 170, 174);
• affairs of the maritime Arab states (especially IOR/R/15/1/152, 154, 157, 166, 173, 178);
• fines imposed on Trucial Coast rulers for breaches of maritime peace (especially IOR/R/15/1/162);
• affairs of Muscat and Oman (especially IOR/R/151/155);
• correspondence relating to British Agents responsible to the Bushire Residency (especially IOR/R/151/163);
• shipwrecks, plunder, piracy and other maritime outrages (especially IOR/R/15/1/165, 175);
• Bahrain and the Wahhabis (especially IOR/R/15/1/167, 179);
• Resident's tour reports (especially IOR/R/15/1/176).

Other matters covered include:

• telegraphs;
• the opium trade;
• the Crimean War;
• transmission of dispatches;
• Russia;
• the Ottoman Empire;
• Residency accounts;
• maintenance of Residency buildings;
• the pearl trade.