IOR/L/PS/5/428, ff 488-531

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 27 of 1844, dated 30 March 1844. The enclosures are dated 31 January-30 March 1844.

The enclosures chiefly comprise correspondence, with relevant enclosures, between Captain Samuel Hennell, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire [Bushehr]; John Pollard Willoughby, Chief Secretary to the Government, Bombay; and Frederick Currie, Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General.

The subjects covered are:

• The complaint brought by the Persian [Iranian] Yawur, or Commandant, of the Bushire Garrison against Hajee [Haji] Yacoob, the Honourable Company’s Coal Agent at Karrack [Kharg Island], of being an ‘evil disposed and intriguing character’ (f 497) who has misappropriated money collected from the island’s inhabitants and caused many of them to flee, and a request by the Ameer [Amir] of Shiraz to Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Persia [Iran], for the dismissal of the agent
• The investigation by Hennell and the Assistant Resident, Lieutenant Arnold Burrowes Kemball, which finds the charges against the Coal Agent unproved and groundless (including enquiry statements on ff 507-511), and the decision, nevertheless, that the agent should be redeployed as his ‘obnoxious…attachment to British interests’ (f 518) has irritated the native authorities at Karrack, and that since the coaling station is of insufficient strategic importance it should be removed in order to conciliate Persian anger over British occupation of the island and to alleviate concerns of the Persian Prime Minister that the station sets a pretext for Russia to establish a similar operation on one of the islands near Asterabad [Astarabad]. Includes copies of Hennell’s correspondence with Sheil and a minute of the Governors concurring in the removal of the coal depot from Karrack
• Persian plans, by the Shah’s architect, for the construction of fortifications at Bushire, notably Hennell’s concerns that they may impinge on the landing space opposite the Residency Gate that the British have traditionally used since 1810 when the Residency moved to its location
• The arrival in Bushire of Shaik Abdoolla Bin Ahmed [Shaikh ‘Abdullāh bin Aḥmad Āl Khalīfah], the ex-Chief of Bahrein [Bahrain] and British policy regarding his aim of obtaining Persian support to recapture the island.