IOR/L/PS/5/476, ff 461-469

This part of the volume consists of a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 3 of 1853, dated 26 March 1853. The enclosure is numbered 21 and is dated 15 February 1853.

The enclosure consists of a letter from HM Consul at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, to the Secretary to the Government of Bombay in the Political Department, forwarding under a flying seal a copy of a despatch to the address of the Secretary to the Government of India in the Foreign Department, enclosing copies of two despatches addressed to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Lord John Russell, concerning affairs of Persia [Iran] and the Bagdad Pachalic [Pashalik].

In the first despatch to Lord Russell, dated 14 February 1853, Rawlinson states that the mother of Prince Abbas Mirza [ʿAbbās Mīrzā Mulk Ārā Qājār] has learned that the Shah expresses much regret at having allowed her and her son to leave Persia, and that great efforts will now be made to compel them to return. Rawlinson reports that, fearing for her son’s life, she has implored Rawlinson to bring the case under the special consideration of Lord Russell, and to solicit that if the Porte [the Government of the Ottoman Empire] should rescind permission for Abbas Mirza to reside in Turkish [Ottoman] territory, then he should be allowed to proceed either to England or to India.

The second despatch to Russell, dated 15 February 1853, encloses copies of despatches addressed by Rawlinson to HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Tehran, Colonel Justin Sheil, and HM Chargé d’Affaires at Constantinople [Istanbul], Colonel Hugh Rose, relating to the march of the Prince of Kermanshah on Zohab [Sarpol-e Zahab]. Rawlinson states in his letter to Rose that there is nothing to indicate hostile intentions towards Turkey [the Ottoman Empire] on the part of the Persians, but that they appear to be planning ‘some engineering operations’. Rawlinson also discusses a difficult situation which has resulted from the Kurdish tribe the Ja’af [Jaff], which is subject to Turkey but which usually encamps in the pastures of Zohab, going much further into Persian territory than has been the custom, and many ‘refractory’ Persian chiefs taking refuge in the Ja’af camp.