IOR/L/PS/9/71/260

Copy of Dispatch No. 93 from the East India Company Envoy to Persia [Iran], Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, in Tabreez [Tabriz], to the Governor-General of India, Lord Amherst, of 28 March 1828. The letter originally enclosed an extract of Macdonald Kinneir’s private journal, detailing ‘the most remarkable transactions’ (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/71/261). Macdonald Kinneir reports the ‘far from prosperous’ state of affairs in the interior of Persia, detailing uprisings in Astrabad and Mazinderaun [Mazandaran], Yezd [Yazd] and Kermaun [Kerman], and arguing that the agreement of peace in the war between Russia and Persia [Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828] has averted ‘confusion, anarchy, and bloodshed’ in Persia. Macdonald Kinneir also indicates that he will endeavour to reduce the expenditure of HM Mission to Persia, but that he will not be able to do so without specific instructions, and that recalling the British soldiers in the service of Abbas Meerza [ʿAbbās Mīrzā Qājār, Crown Prince of Persia] might impact Britain’s ‘predominant’ influence in Persia, particularly as it would encourage Abbas Meerza to take up military assistance offered to him by Russia.

This document was originally enclosed in Macdonald Kinneir’s dispatch No. 34 to the Secret Committee of the East India Company of 28 March 1828 (IOR/L/PS/9/71/253).