IOR/F/4/2580/153768

This item consists of copies of correspondence, minutes, resolutions, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, an extract of a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 20 July 1854. The enclosures are dated 6 September 1853-15 April 1854. It is the fourth in a series of twelve items about the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The main correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf; Meerza Mahmood Khan [Mīrzā Maḥmūd Khān, also referred to as Meerza Mahomed Khan in the item], Persian Commissioner for the Suppression of the Slave Trade; and William Taylour Thomson, HM Chargé d’Affaires at Tehran.

The item concerns a report of enslaved people having been brought into Hudukkoo [Hadakan] on the vessel the Mahmoodee [Maḥmūdī; multiple spellings appear in the item], owned by Hajee Mahamed Baukir [Ḥājī Muḥammad Bāqir]. It includes:

• Correspondence between Kemball and Meerza Mahmood Khan regarding the actions that ought to be taken to investigate this case, to take charge of the enslaved people, and deal with the guilty parties
• The question of whether the Mahmoodee, being a vessel sailing under British colours, should be subject to British law, or as it is owned and manned by Persian subjects, should be dealt with according to the terms of the recent convention between Britain and Persia [Iran]
• The evidence collected regarding this incident, including translated statements given by several of the crew, a passenger, and one of the enslaved people on the Mahmoodee (ff 714-716), as well as a letter from Hajee Mahomed Shereef [Ḥājī Muḥammad Sharīf], a merchant of Bushire [Bushehr] (ff 727-728).

The item contains a table of contents (f 698), and the title page (f 697) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1045/54’, ‘Collection No. 4 of No. 49 of 1854’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’.