IOR/L/PS/9/69

Copies of letters and enclosures sent by Henry Willock, HM Chargé d'Affaires in Persia [Iran], to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company dated October 1819 to December 1824, and by Major George Willock, Acting Chargé d'Affaires, during the period August 1822 to October 1823.

The main themes covered in the file include:

• The Persian reaction to the 1819 British expedition against 'piracy'
• Britain's push for a permanent base in the Gulf, including the 1820 British occupation of Kishm [Qeshm] island
• Arrears in subsidy payments from Britain to Persia
• A British proposal to transfer to India responsibility for diplomatic relations between Britain and Persia
• Persia's relations with the Russian Empire, in particular the disputed frontier between the two countries.

The principal British correspondents are: Henry and George Willock; the Governments of Bombay [Mumbai] and Bengal; the Resident in Bushire [Būshehr]; and Sir William Grant Keir, Commander of the 1819 expedition to the Gulf. The principal Persian correspondents are: the Shah (Fath-‘Ali Shāh Qājār); ‘Abbās Mirza, Crown Prince; Husayn ‘Ali Mirza Farmānfarmā, Prince-Governor of Fārs; the Foreign Minister, and other ministers and vakils (agents). Some of the correspondence is in Farsi. The file also includes correspondence from Alexey Petrovich Yermolov, Russian Governor-General of Georgia, and from the French Embassy in Constantinople [Istanbul].