IOR/L/PS/5/428, ff 1a-103

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 16 of 1844, dated 18 February 1844. The enclosures are dated 15 December 1843-12 January 1844.

The enclosures comprise copies of despatches addressed by Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran, to the Earl of Aberdeen [George Hamilton Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen], Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, (being copies of Sheil’s despatches to the Secretary to the Government, Bombay, and the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General), with related enclosures which notably include letters from: Sheil; Meerza Abul Hassan Khan [Mīrzā Abū al-Ḥasan Khān Shīrāzī, Īlchī Kabīr], Persian [Iranian] Foreign Minister; Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Farrant in Bagdad [Baghdad]; Captain Samuel Hennell, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf; and Keith Edward Abbott, British representative at Tabreez [Tabriz].

The subjects covered notably include:

• British and Russian efforts to avert a war between Persia and Ottoman Turkey following the capture of Kerbela [Karbala] in January 1843 by Turkish forces under Nejib Pacha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] resulting in the deaths of 5000 Persians, including extract of a letter from Count Nesselrode [Karl Robert Nesselrode], Russian Foreign Minister, to Count Medem [Aleksandr Ivanovich Medem], Russian Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran (ff 6-8)
• Rivalry between the Khan of Khiva and Khan of Bokhara [Bukhara] and their agents in Tehran, and the attempts by the Persian Government to obtain the release of captives at Khiva and Bokhara
• Sheil’s desire to find out news of Colonel Charles Stoddart and Captain Arthur Conolly and to confirm the veracity of conflicting accounts of their purported captivity or death at Bokhara, including copy of an account by a resident of Herat who has come to Tehran (ff 23-30), and a letter from the Shah of Persia to the Ameer [Amir] of Bokhara requiring Stoddart and Conolly to be surrendered if they are alive (ff 80-83)
• The Shah’s concern about Russian encroachment and expanding influence on the Toorkoman [Turkoman] coast (eastern shores of the Caspian Sea), notably over tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Atrek River in the region of Asterabad [Gorgan, formerly Astarabad]
• Sheil’s concern about the growing influence of Count Medem over the Persian Prime Minister Hajee Meerza Aghassee [Ḥājjī Mīrzā Āqāsī, Ṣadr-i Aʿẓam], following the ‘Instructions’ (ff 87-92) issued to the Governor of Asterabad by the Prime Minister with the cognizance of Medem, which Sheil considers may: establish Russian authority over the Toorkemans [Turkomans] of the Atrek and adjacent coast; establish the right of the Russian squadron to punish all Toorkemans committing ‘piracy’; and lead to a Russian military take-over of the area
• Agreement (ff 33-38) concluded by Count Medem with the Persian Prime Minister to facilitate the recovery of pecuniary claims of Russian subjects from subjects of Persia and for preventing fraudulent bankruptcy declarations by Persian subjects, and the possible implications for British subjects
• Report by Abbott of his intelligence gathering visit to the Caspian Sea at Astara, detailing Persian and Russian influence in the vicinity (ff 95-97)
• Sheil’s correspondence notably with Meerza Abul Hassan Khan, Persian Foreign Minister, on various matters relating to Bushire [Bushehr] and the Gulf Residency, notably whether British goods bound for another (foreign) destination which stop at Bushire for transshipment of cargo should be liable to a landing duty, and the Foreign Minister’s complaint about the person in charge of the coal depository maintained by the British at the island of Karrak [Kharg]
• The question of the right of natives of Sinde [Sindh] and Shikarpour [Shikarpur] to British protection, in light of the case of Hindoo [Hindu] merchant Khajeh ‘Tilla’ (a British subject) being forcibly brought to Tehran on the Persian Prime Minister’s orders to answer a claim made on him by a Russian subject.