IOR/L/PS/5/450, ff 145-197

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 58 of 1847, dated 16 June 1847. The enclosures are dated 7 April-27 May 1847 (although some internal copy documents date back to 23 January 1847).

The primary documents are letters from Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf, to Arthur Malet, Secretary to the Government, Bombay, enclosing his correspondence with Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia (in Baghdad), and the Honourable Mr Henry Wellesley, HM Chargé d’Affaires in Constantinople [Istanbul, Ottoman Empire], and other related correspondence and documents.

The main subject covered is British efforts for the suppression of the ‘African slave trade’ in the Persian Gulf, notably:

• The Ottoman Porte’s order of 23 January 1847, (ff 154-155) implying [rather than explicitly granting] powers granted to British and East India Company vessels in the suppression of the slave trade with regard to vessels under the Turkish [Ottoman] flag landing at Turkish ports on the Euphrates river, notably Bussorah [Basra]; the Porte’s desire for secret Anglo-Turkish communications on the matter due to political sensitivities; and the Porte’s request that the new prohibition measures not be put into effect until 1 June 1847 in order to provide sufficient warning for Turkish vessels
• Rawlinson’s suggestion to the Nejib Pasha [Mehmed Necib Pasha also known as Muhammad Najib Pasha], Governor of Baghdad, and Hennell that the ‘slave cargoes’ of Persian [Iranian] and Arab vessels in Turkish waters be considered ‘contraband’ and therefore subject to measures for the suppression of ‘piracy’
• Hennell’s report of his success in obtaining the agreement of the Arab Maritime Chiefs for the total abolition of the trade in enslaved peoples from the African coast involving their boats and those of their subjects; empowering British cruisers to detain, examine suspected vessels and seize and confiscate those carrying slaves; and for the agreement to come into force in the next season (10 December 1847 onwards). Includes translation and copy in Arabic of the engagement entered into by Sheik Sultan ben Sugger, Chief of Ras-el-Khymah and Shargah [Shaikh Sulṭān I bin Ṣaqr al-Qāsimī, Ruler of Ra's al-Khaymah and Sharjah] dated 30 April 1847, appended with names of additional signatory sheiks [shaikhs] (ff 180-182)
• Empowerment of the British authorities to arrange the return of enslaved people to their country of origin on the African coast, due to alleged Turkish lack of desire or resources for the task; logistical arrangements; and suggestion that returnees could be transmitted as labourers on the African coast or to the West Indies
• Hennell’s concerns about the lack of agreement by the Persian Government to suppress the trade in enslaved people, and possible evasion of British policing measures by Arab Maritime Chiefs and their Persian connections, notably at Mohamerah [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah].