IOR/L/PS/5/450, ff 34-69

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 56 of 1847, dated 16 June 1847. The enclosures are dated 10-29 May 1847 (although some internal copy documents date back to 1 April 1847).

The primary documents are letters from Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire [Būshehr], to Arthur Malet, Secretary to the Government, Bombay, enclosing his correspondence with Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia and British Consul in Baghdad, and other related documents.

Two subjects are covered:

• Hennell’s detailed defence (ff 37-44) of his suggestion that the Turkish authorities at Bussorah [Basra] and Baghdad co-operate with the British and Persian authorities in suppressing acts of ‘piracy’ by members of the tribes of the 'Arab Maritime Chiefs of the Arabian Coast' (see also IOR/L/PS/5/450, ff 2-33), including a history of British policy towards ‘piracy’ in the Persian Gulf and, since the General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf of 1820, Persian [Iranian] tacit approval of British policing measures; Hennell’s concerns about the ‘serious evils’ that might result to trade and commerce on withdrawing British ‘interference’ in this sphere; criticism of Hennell, by Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Persia, for exceeding his remit
• British policy of supporting the independence of the Arab Maritime Chiefs on the Arabian coast in face of the Ottoman Porte’s apparent desire to extend it influence and authority in the region, including Hennell’s report of a meeting with Sheik Mahomed bin Khuleefa [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah, Shaikh of Bahrain] on the 8 May 1847 to discuss the Porte’s attempt to make Bahrein acknowledge its supremacy on a similar basis as Koweit [Kuwait] by registering Bahreini ships under the Turkish flag; Arabic transcript and English translation of the ‘invitation to submit’ from the Governor of Bussorah to Shaik Mahomed bin Khuleefa, 1 April 1847 (ff 64-65); and intelligence on Turkish naval activity in Koweit and the Persian Gulf leading to Hennell’s suggestion that Company ships in the area sail near Bahrein to deter potential Turkish aggression.