IOR/F/4/2191/107340

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 31 March 1847. A copy of this Political Letter can be found at IOR/F/4/2191/107336. Further enclosures can be found at IOR/F/4/2191/107339. The item is the fifth in a series of five items on the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The item contains a letter from the Government of India to the Government of Bombay, dated 18 December 1846. The letter states that, since there are no existing agreements between the British Government and the people involved in the ‘slave trade’ that would justify the use of force to achieve the suppression or prevention of the trade, the Governor-General has no suggestions for how to achieve this goal. It also reiterates the point made by Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf, that he does not have sufficient influence with the maritime ‘chiefs’ [of the Gulf] to persuade them to abandon the trade and that even if he could, the trade would go on to be carried out by others. The letter is forwarded on to Hennell.

The title page of the item contains the following references: ‘Bombay Political Department’, ‘P.C. [Previous Communication] 5698, Draft 542/27, Vol: 5’, ‘Collection No. 2 of No. 47’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.