IOR/L/PS/5/450, ff 441-463

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 77 of 1847, dated 4 September 1847. The enclosures are dated 26 July 1847 (although some internal copy documents date back to 1 April 1847).

The primary documents are two letters from Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Acting Political Agent in Turkish Arabia and Consul in Baghdad, to the Secretary to the Government of India (via Bombay), enclosing his recent letters to Lord Cowley [Henry Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley, known as Lord Cowley 1847-1857], HM Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople [Istanbul, Ottoman Empire], and related correspondence.

The subjects covered notably include:

• Powers possessed by British cruisers to act against ‘piracy’ in the Persian Gulf under particular circumstances, including a summary of British relations with the Arab Maritime chiefs and the 1820 General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf; the tacit endorsement of the Shah of Persia [Iran] and Governor of Fars of British policing of the Gulf against ‘lawlessness’ detrimentally affecting commercial traffic; and Hennell’s annoyance with Rawlinson for raising a point of international law with the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that could threaten the continuance of the policing policy
• The activities of Turkish [Ottoman] functionaries in the Persian Gulf, notably a letter from Mahomed Khoorshid [Mehmed Hurshid Pasha], Governor of Bussorah [Basra], to Sheikh Mahomed bin Khuleefa, [Shaikh Muḥammad bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah, Shaikh of Bahrain], 1 April 1847, implying the submission of the latter’s ships to the Porte [Ottoman Empire]; and denial of such a policy by Nejib Pasha [Mehmed Necib Pasha also known as Muhammad Najib Pasha], Governor of Baghdad
• The Porte’s instruction to Nejib Pasha to give up to British cruisers any enslaved people landed from Turkish vessels, and Kemball’s concerns that some of the freed ‘slaves’ may be influenced to remain in Turkey and risk further subjugation and exploitation.