IOR/L/PS/5/450, ff 264-289

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 67 of 1847, dated 2 August 1847. The enclosure is dated 28 May 1847 (although some internal copy documents date back to 6 April 1847).

The primary documents are letters from Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, British Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] and British Consul at Baghdad [also spelled Bagdad in the volume], to the Secretary to the Government of India and the Secretary to the Government, Bombay, enclosing his correspondence chiefly with the Honourable Henry Wellesley, HM Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople [Istanbul, Ottoman Empire]; Major Samuel Hennell, Resident in the Persian Gulf; and HE Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Tehran.

The subjects covered notably include:

• Rawlinson’s opinion that Hennell’s suggestion that non-Turkish [Ottoman] vessels convicted of ‘piracy’ on the high seas can be seized at Bussorah [Basra] by the Turkish authorities, could be viewed as an infringement of international law and inflammatory to Turkish-Persian relations
• Rawlinson’s concerns about the Ottoman Porte’s revival of an obsolete Aliens Act which if put into operation by Nejib Pasha [Mehmed Necib Pasha also known as Muhammad Najib Pasha], Governor of Baghdad, could deleteriously affect the properties owned by British Indians in the Ottoman Dominions as well as Persian [Iranian] property holders in Baghdad
• Information on persons exiled by the Shah of Persia who are now residing in the vicinity of Baghdad and are potential focal points for Persian dissent
• Failure of a Turkish-Persian conference at Khannikeen [Khanaqin] to settle over 200 claims of Turkish villagers against Persian ‘marauding’ tribes on the Turco-Persian border, and proposal for each country to instead keep small forces on the border area to deter further incursions
• Rawlinson’s concerns about Turkish attempts to place the Sheikh of Bahrein [Shaikh of Bahrain] in dependence on the Ottoman Porte and generally to influence the independence of the Arab Maritime Chiefs, following reports of senior Turkish officials visiting Bussorah [Basra] and Muscat
• Papers relating to the trade in enslaved peoples on the Arabian coast, including statistics compiled by Hennell of those imported each year to Bussorah; ability of the Arab Maritime Chiefs to evade suppression measures at Turkish ports by using Haffir Creek and Mohamerah [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah]; Governor of Bussorah’s lack of powers over Arab and Persian boats carrying ‘slave cargoes’ apart from preventing them landing at Turkish ports; impact that suppression measures might have on the local labour economy, notably date groves cultivation; and the fate of manumitted ‘slaves’ at Bussorah.