IOR/L/PS/9/68/245

Copy of a letter from Major-General Sir William Grant Keir, aboard HMS Liverpool off Sharga [Sharjah], to HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, of 2 February 1820. The letter originally enclosed:

• Copy of Captain Francis Augustus Collier’s instructions to Captain Lock (Captain Francis Erskine Loch) of 3 January 1820 (see IOR/L/PS/9/68/246)
• Copy of Captain Lock’s dispatch to Captain Collier of 26 January 1820 (see IOR/L/PS/9/68/248)
• Copy of a paper by the Shaik of Bahrein [Shaikh of Bahrain], Abdulla bin Ahmed [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah] (see IOR/L/PS/9/68/247)
• Copy of Keir’s letter to Captain Collier of 1 February 1820 (see IOR/L/PS/9/68/249).

The letter also details the ongoing British expedition against the Joasmees [al-Qawāsim] and their allies, including:

• Keir’s orders to Captain Lock to attack the vessels of Rahma Bin Jauber [Shaikh Raḥmah bin Jābir al-Jalhamī] in retaliation for an attack on a Persian vessel
• The Shaik of Bahrein’s agreement not to harbour vessels from the ‘Piratical Ports’
• Keir’s having advised the Imaum [Imam] of Muscat against his proposed attack on Bahrein.

The letter was enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company, of 13 March 1820 (see IOR/L/PS/9/68/244), which was received on 13 July 1820.