IOR/R/15/1/21, ff 37-43

The letter and its enclosures concern British efforts to establish a territorial base in the Persian Gulf. Willock writes to Dow, enclosing an unsealed letter to be forwarded to the Governor of Bombay. He requests that a copy of the letter is made for the Residency records. The copy of the letter, addressed from Willock to the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, President and Governor in Council at Bombay, and dated 10 May 1820, is enclosed (folios 41-43). Willock reports of his efforts to negotiate the presence of a British settlement in Persia with the Shah and his representatives. Willock states that the Shah did not recognise that he had the authority on behalf of the British King or the East India Company to make such a request. Willock recommends that further talks be stalled until the anticipated arrival of a ambassador to the Court of Persia arrives in Tehran from Britain, appointed by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent. Willock describes the 'great repugnance' of the Shah to the idea of a British settlement in the Gulf, and his reluctance to accept British mediation in his desire to exact tribute from Bahrain. Willocks letter to Elphinstone contains an enclosure, a letter (folios 37v-40v) from Willock to Major General Sir William Grant Keir, dated 10 May 1820. In the letter Willock discusses the original need for a British presence in the Gulf, Britain's search for a suitable base in the region, with particular respect to Britain's designs on the island of Keshma [Qeshm], and Willock's own negotiations with the Shah of Persia.There is a piece of correspondence copied between Willock's covering letter and his letter to Elphinstone, possibly the result of a clerical error. The letter (folio 37) is from the Military Pay Master at the Bombay Pay Office Extraordinary, to Captain William Bruce, Resident at Bushire, dated 26 April 1820. The Pay Master writes to inform Bruce that sundry bills for contingent charges (outlined in an accompanying list, not included in the file), totalling 876 rupees, two quarters and 93 Pias [? piasters], have been passed to the Military Auditor General.