IOR/L/PS/6/544, Coll 61/3

This item is a collection to India Political Despatch No. 61 of 23 August 1866, from the Secretary of State for India to the Government of India Foreign Department (the Political Despatch itself is not included in this item). The collection consists of papers forwarded with the Government of India Foreign Department Letter Political No. 71 of 21 April 1866 to the Secretary of State for India (received 4 June 1866), on the subject of disputes between the Sultan of Muscat and the Wahabees [Wahhābī], including:

• The protection of British subjects and their property in Muscat territory
• The lease of Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas] by the Government of Muscat
• The views of the Government of Bombay regarding the proceedings at Muscat of the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Pelly, after the death of the late Sultan of Muscat, Syud Thoweynee [Sayyid Thuwaynī bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
• The arrival in Bombay of two envoys deputed by the Sultan of Muscat, Syud Salim [Sayyid Sālim bin Thuwaynī Āl Bū Sa‘īd]
• The adoption of measures for the protection of Gwadur [Gwadar]
• The course to be adopted in regard to the overtures of the Wahabee envoys at Katif [Qatif]
• The attitude to be adopted towards Syud Salim.

The enclosed papers consist of correspondence between the Secretary to the Government of Bombay and the Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department, dated 13 March to 18 April 1866. These papers also include enclosed letters from correspondents including: the Political Agent at Muscat on duty in Bombay, Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Disbrowe; Pelly; the Commissioner in Sind [Sindh] at Kurrachee [Karachi]; and Syud Salim.