IOR/F/4/2121/100024

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, a political letter from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai]. The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; the Government of India; and Captain Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf.

The item concerns a request by the Government of India for a report on the history of Britain’s relations with the states on the Arabian coast of the Persian Gulf, and the completion of this by Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Assistant Resident in the Persian Gulf. Kemball’s report was originally submitted with the political letter. The first part is included in this item, and the remainder can be found in IOR/F/4/2121/100025. An additional report on the territories belonging to the Imam of Muscat, produced by Captain Atkins Hamerton and also submitted with the political letter, is contained in IOR/F/4/2121/100026.

This item contains the following sections of Kemball’s report:

‘A memoir showing the nature and character of the political engagements existing between ‘the British Government and the Arabian Chiefs in the Persian Gulf’ (ff 95-109). This contains the following enclosures:

• ‘Treaty entered into by Sir W Grant Keir with the Chiefs of the Arab Tribes in the year 1820’ [General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf] (f 95)
• ‘Neutral Ground and Restrictive Line or War Limit’ (f 96)
• ‘Terms of a Maritime Truce for ten years agreed upon by the Chiefs of the Arabian Coast under the mediation of the Resident in the Persian Gulf, dated 1st June 1843’ (f 97).

‘A similar memoir on the subject of the engagements which from time to time have been entered into between the British Government and these Chieftains for the suppression of the slave trade’ (ff 110-133). This contains the following enclosures, dating from August-September 1822:

• Requisitions made by Captain Fairfax Moresby to the Imam of Muscat [Sayyid Sa‘īd bin Sulṭān Āl Bū Sa‘īd]; the English translation of the Arabic version of these requisitions and of the Imam’s answers; remarks by William Simson, Deputy Persian Secretary to Government, on the requisitions and answers; an additional requisition made by Captain Moresby, with a response by the Imam and a remark by Simson (ff 110-115).

‘Copies of three treaties entered into by the British Government with His Highness the Imaum [Imam] of Muscat, on the 12th October 1798, 16 January 1800, and 31st May 1839’ (ff 134-141).

The item contains a table of contents (ff 82-83), and the title page (f 81) contains the following references: ‘P C [Previous Communication] 5061, Coll. 5, Vol. 1’, ‘D/t 29/46’, ‘Collection No. 1 of No. 18’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.