IOR/R/15/1/32, ff 6v-12

This letter concerns the case of Mirza Hassan, a Persian writer at the Bushire Residency, who has been accused of murdering his pregnant wife. Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, informs William Newnham, Chief Secretary to Government, Bombay, that he has delivered the suspect to the authorities at Bushire. The letter is followed by a series of enclosures:

• Letter no. 1: Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, to Shaikh Abdool Russool [Shaikh ‘Abd al-Rasūl Khān], Governor of Bushire, dated 12 January 1824, in which Stannus objects to the way in which the murder enquiry has been conducted and requests that the court proceedings be allowed to go on in his presence;
• Letter no. 2: Shaikh Abdool Russool, Governor of Bushire, to Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, dated 13 January 1824, in which Stannus's request to examine the witnesses is rejected on the grounds that they are all female and therefore not permitted to appear before strangers and hold public conversation, under Mohamedan [Muhammadan] law;
• Letter no. 3: Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, to Shaikh Abdool Russool, Governor of Bushire, dated 13 January 1824, in which Stannus proposes to send his assistant, Robert Cotton Money, to take the examination of the witnesses at the house of the Cazy [Cadi];
• Letter no. 4: Shaikh Abdool Russool, Governor of Bushire, to Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, dated 13 January 1824, in which Stannus's proposal to send his assistant to hear an examination of the witnesses is accepted and confirmed;
• Letter no. 5: Robert Cotton Money to Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, dated 15 January 1824, in which Money reports both on the examination of the female witnesses (two of whom declined to give evidence in person) and on Money's own questioning of the suspect, via an interpreter;
• Letter no. 6: Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, to Shaikh Abdool Russool, Governor of Bushire, dated 15 January 1824, in which Stannus states that he has decided to deliver the suspect up to the Governor's officers so that he can be tried according to the law for the crime of which he stands accused;
• Letter no. 7: Shaikh Abdool Russool, Governor of Bushire, to Ephraim Gerrish Stannus, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, dated 15 January 1824, in which the Governor acknowledges Stannus's most recent letter and states that the suspect has been delivered over to the public officers of the Bushire court, to receive his final trial.