IOR/F/4/2575/152548

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence, minutes and resolutions, cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, dated 28 April 1854, and found at IOR/F/4/2575/152543. It is the sixth in a series of thirteen items about the Persian Gulf.

The item relates to discussions about whether Arab or Persian [Iranian] vessels trading in Indian ports should be required to produce certification documents to avoid paying double customs duties. The advantages and disadvantages of enforcing such measures are debated. The discussion also includes references to the General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf (1820), a Government Gazette notification from 9 January 1839, and Act VI of 1848 passed by the Government of India.

Correspondents include: Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf; Richard Spooner, Acting Collector of Customs, Bombay; Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq]; John George Taylor, British Agent at Bussorah [Basra]; and the Government of Bombay.

Taylor's correspondence includes a report on the types of documents currently used at Bussorah and Kowait [Kuwait] with respect to external trade.

The item also contains example documents at folio 293 recto and folio 306.

Except from an extract of the Government Gazette from 9 January 1839 (folio 294 verso), the rest of the item dates from 1853-54.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', 'P.C. [Previous Communication] 8964', Draft Number '908 [18]54', 'Collection No. 1 of No. 32 of 1854', 'Vol: 6', and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the Collection number was given as '6' but this has been crossed out and replaced with '1'.