IOR/R/15/1/121, ff 80-85

This letter concerns complaints made against the Agent at Shiraz, Meerza Mahmood, and the origins of a gold watch which was recently sold by him. Justin Sheil disagrees with Samuel Hennell's opinion that the complaints, made by Mahomed Hoosein and Meerza Ahmed Khan respectively, are without any foundation and disputes Hennell's suggestion that their letters are not genuine. Sheil refers to Meerza Ahmed Khan's letter to Hennell, in which Meerza Ahmed Khan denied having made complaints against the Agent; Sheil suggests that Meerza Ahmed Khan has been bribed, cajoled or frightened into issuing a denial. Sheil encloses a copy of two letters (not included), dated 2 December 1848, from Meerza Mahmood, in which the Agent apparently states that a watch that he had received from Moolla Mehdee was stolen while it was being transported across Shiraz for safekeeping. Sheil writes that it will give him great satisfaction if Meerza Mahmood can relieve himself of the heavy suspicion that the transaction has placed him under and he requests that Hennell point this out to the Agent.