IOR/F/4/2504/142191

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 3 December 1852, and found at IOR/F/4/2504/142185. Further enclosures to the letter can be found at IOR/F/4/2504/142190, IOR/F/4/2504/142192, and IOR/F/4/2504/142193. The item is the seventh in a series of sixteen items about the Persian Gulf.

The item relates to correspondence between Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf, and Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Minister at Tehran, regarding recent cases of goods imported into Persia [Iran]. The cases raise questions about the extent to which British subjects involved in the import or export of goods can claim the favourable duty rates as per the current treaty between Britain and Persia. Current laws in Britain and Persia are discussed, as well as the question of paying duty for goods transported into the 'interior' of Persia and whether the favourable rates extend to subjects under British protection.

Sheil's correspondence also raises the issue of British subjects providing goods to Persian subjects on credit, which they are then unable to pay.

The correspondence is forwarded to the Government of Bombay, who in turn forward it to the Government of India.

Sheil is also referred to as HM Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Persia.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', 'Draft No. 350 of 1853', 'Collection No. 1 of No. 121 of 1852', 'Vol: 7', and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the Collection number was given as '2' but this has been crossed out.