IOR/L/PS/9/68/251

Copy of a letter from the Governor of Bombay [Mumbai], Mountstuart Elphinstone, at Bombay Castle, to HM Chargé d’Affaires to Persia [Iran], Henry Willock, of 15 December 1819. The letter discusses the British expedition to the Gulph of Persia [Persian Gulf] against the Joasmee [al-Qawasim] and their allies, whom the British accuse of engaging in piracy, including:

• Assuring the Persian Government of the good intentions of the expedition
• The necessity of exerting British control in the Gulph of Persia to ensure freedom of navigation
• Establishing of a British base on the island of Kishmee [Qeshm]
• The British mediating for the purpose of rendering Bahrein [Bahrain] a tributary of Persia
• Restoring the influence of the Persian Government over the Persian coast
• Removing the Sheikh [Shaikh] of Currack [Bandar-e Charack] on the grounds of his being accused of piracy
• The possibility of the expedition attacking ports on the Persian coast.

The letter also originally enclosed:

• Copy of a letter from Elphinstone to the Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William, the Marquess of Hastings, of 15 December 1819 (not included in this item, see IOR/L/PS/9/68/252)
• Copy of a letter from the Chief Secretary at Bombay Castle, Francis Warden, to Major-General Sir William Grant Keir, of 15 December 1819 (not included in this item, see IOR/L/PS/9/68/253).

The letter was enclosed in Willock’s letter to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 16 March 1820 (see IOR/L/PS/9/68/250), which was received on 22 July 1820.