IOR/F/4/2657/175367

This item consists of copies of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, and consultations cited in, or enclosed with, extracts of Political Letters from the Government of Bombay to the East India Company Court of Directors, 9 July 1855. The enclosures are dated 25 March 1854-26 March 1855. It is the first in a series of six items about the ‘slave trade’ [trade in enslaved people].

The correspondents are: the Government of Bombay; Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Resident in the Persian Gulf; and Lieutenant William Balfour, Commanding the Company vessel Acbar.

The item concerns:

• The case of Moobaruck [Mubārak], a coal trimmer on the Acbar. He had been enslaved in Bushire [Bushehr] before escaping to Bombay [Mumbai] and joining the Indian Navy. Now, on returning to Bushire while serving on the Acbar, he had tried to leave his position and return to his family
• A request from Kemball for instructions for future cases of enslaved people who escape to Bombay, take service in the Indian Navy, and return to Bushire as part of the crew of a British vessel. Various opinions are given, and the question is ultimately referred to the Government of India.

The item contains a table of contents (f 114), and the title page (f 113) contains the following references: Draft Number ‘1445- /56’, ‘Collection No. 1 in 2 Volumes of No. 66 of 1855. Vol: 1’ and ‘Examiner’s Office’. The collection number was originally given as ‘6’ but this has been crossed out and replaced with ‘1’.