IOR/L/PS/10/582

The file contains papers relating to the arrest at Shiraz by the Persian gendarmerie on 10 November 1915 of HM Consul at Shiraz (Major William Frederick Travers O’Connor), the Manager and other employees of the Imperial Bank of Persia at Shiraz, the Superintendent of the Shiraz section and other employees of the Indo-European Telegraph Department, and other British subjects.

The papers also concern: the arrested British men being deported to Borazjun [Borazjan, also spelled Borasgun in the volume] with their wives and families, from where the female members of the group were sent to Bushire, and most of the men were moved to the neighbourhood of Ahram, where they were held prisoners of the Tangistani Khans and the German agent Wilhelm Wassmuss; negotiations for the release of the prisoners, including the possibility of the release of captured German or Austrian or Tangistani prisoners in exchange for the release of the British prisoners; the release of all the Ahram prisoners except Major O’Connor on 10 August 1916, and the subsequent release of Major O’Connor on 20 August 1916.

The main correspondents include: the India Office; the Foreign Office; HM Minister, Tehran (Sir Charles Murray Marling); the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Deputy Political Resident in the Persian Gulf (Arthur Prescott Trevor); the Government of India Foreign and Political Department; Jess Christmas (whose husband, an official of the Indo European Telegraph Department, was one of the British subjects being held captive); and Livingstone Zeytoon and Company, Manchester.

The papers consist of correspondence and India Office Political and Secret Department minute papers.

The file includes three documents in French: a note verbale from the French Ambassador to London, Paul Cambon, 6 February 1916; a telegram from Aristide Briand, Prime Minister of France, to Cambon, 4 February 1916; and a note from the German Minister in Athens to the Greek Government, February 1916.

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.