IOR/F/4/2586/154788

The item consists of copies and extracts of correspondence and resolutions cited in, or enclosed with, a Political Letter from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 29 August 1854. A copy of this letter can be found at IOR/F/4/2586/154786, alongside details of further enclosures. The item is the third in a series of nine items on events in the Persian Gulf 1853-54.

The item concerns complaints by Persian [Iranian] merchants residing in Bombay [Mumbai], including Aga Mahomed Ali ben Hajee Bakur [Āqā Muḥammad ‘Alī bin Ḥājjī Bāqir], and by Prince Moaymdud dowla Tahmasup Mirza [Mu‘tamid al-Dawlah Ṭahmāsb Mīrzā], Governor of Fars. Their complaints are communicated to the Government of Bombay through Mirza Mahomed Houssein Khan [Mīrzā Muḥammad Ḥusayn Khān], Persian Consul at Bombay, and Meerza Saduck [Mīrzā Ṣādiq], Acting Persian Consul at Bombay, between March and April 1854. The complaints allege that:

• Persian cargo on ships bearing the British flag has been forcibly seized at Kishm [Qeshm] by Sheikh Abdul Rahman ben Suggur [Shaikh ‘Abd al-Raḥmān bin Ṣaqr], Sheikh of the island
• Sheikh Abdul has also imprisoned Persian merchants on Kishm and Hoormuz [Hormoz]
• Persian merchants have been prevented from trading at Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ʻAbbas] by the Imaum [Imām] of Muscat's Agent there, Syed Mahomed ben Salim [Sayyid Muḥammad bin Sālim].

The Government of Bombay forward copies of the above to Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf. His replies are also included in the item, reporting:

• His belief that the complaints are inaccurate and that the merchants have ulterior motives in appealing for British intervention
• His communications (copies included) with Sheikh Abdul Rahman ben Suggur and with Meerza Hassan Ally Khan, Dureya Beggee of Bushire [Mīrzā Ḥasan ‘Alī Khān, Daryā Begī, or Governor, of Bushehr] on the subject
• His communications (copies included) with Commodore George Robinson, Commanding the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf, and by extension, Lieutenant Robert Austice Stradling, Commanding Company schooner Constance, regarding enquiries made at Kishm
• His reasoning that the blockade of Bunder Abbas by Syed Mahomed ben Salim is justified and moderate, given the ongoing hostilities between the Imaum of Muscat and the Persian Government.

The Government of Bombay's subsequent replies to Meerza Saduck and Aga Mahomed Ali ben Hajee Bakur are also included.

The item contains multiple spellings for multiple personal and place names.

The title page of the item contains the following references: 'Bombay Political Department', Draft Number '20 1855', 'Collection No. 5 of No. 58 of 1854', 'Vol: 2' and 'Examiner's Office'. Originally, the Collection number was given as '2' but this has been crossed out and replaced with '5'.