IOR/R/15/1/96

The file contains letters received by Captain Samuel Hennell, British Political Resident in the Persian Gulf in 1841, mainly from J P Willoughby, Secretary to the Government of Bombay. At this period, the British Residency was based temporarily on the island of Karrack. The letters to the Resident contain information, guidance and instructions from the Governor in Council of Bombay. They also frequently include copies of pertinent correspondence between other British officials, mainly the Governor in Council of Bombay, the Governor General of India, the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, London and Lord Palmerston, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London. The letters and their enclosures discuss events in East Africa and the Persian Gulf in 1841 and their implications for British foreign policy, relations and interests in these regions. The main topics discussed in the correspondence are as follows:

• Captain Atkins Hamerton’s mission to Zanzibar on behalf of the British Government, to investigate French ambitions in the East African territories of the Imam of Muscat, attempts by the French Government to establish a French Consular Agent at Zanzibar, French occupation of territory on the island of Nasbeh or Nos Beh [Nosy Bé], near Madagascar and the history of tribal warfare between its inhabitants. There are English translations of four documents seen by Hamerton in Zanzibar, including an agreement dated 29 April 1838 between Queen Smeko [Tsiomeko] of the Sucklavee [Sakalava] Tribe on the Island of Nos Beh and the Imam of Muscat. There is also an English translation of a letter sent by Lord Palmerston to the Imam of Muscat in September 1840 (folios 2-8, 14-17, 24-26, 75-90);

• Plans for the evacuation of British troops from their military station on the island of Karrack [Khārk, Jazīreh-ye], following the return of the island to the ownership and control of Persian authorities, in accordance with a recent commercial treaty between Persia and Great Britain. The desirability of retaining a British settlement on Karrack and the British Government’s view that the British Resident should remain on the island and continue to conduct Residency business in the Persian Gulf from Karrack (folios 21, 63, 67-69, 74, 92-99, 107-110);

• Discussion of British policy and measures for suppression of the maritime slave trade between ports in India, East Africa, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. The intention of the British Government to increase its demands on the Trucial Coast Chiefs of the Persian Gulf to actively prohibit the slave trade in their ports and equally the Imam of Muscat, with regard to his ports in Zanzibar and other East African territories. The intention of the British Government to ask the Persian Government to prohibit the slave trade in the Persian Gulf ports subject to its authority and control (folios 19, 33-36, 56-57,102-106, 111-117).