IOR/L/PS/5/490, ff 99-118

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 7 dated 16 January 1857. The enclosures are dated 25 December 1856-14 January 1857.

The primary correspondents are Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram, Commanding the Persian Expeditionary Force; Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident, Aden; and the Government of Bombay. Also included are several Resolutions and Minutes of the Board, the Governor and President in Council, and individual members in Council.

The papers chiefly relate to the appointment of Outram’s personal staff for the duration of the campaign in Persia [Iran], notably:

• The appointment of Reverend George Percy Badger as Assistant Chaplain and Arabic Interpreter
• Outram’s requests for Lieutenant W H F Sykes, 3rd Regiment Bombay Light Cavalry (stationed in England) and, pending Sykes’s arrival, Captain Charles Hervey, 2nd Regiment European Light Infantry, to be appointed Aide de Camp and Private Secretary
• The proposed salaries for the Private Secretary and Reverend Badger and their assistants
• The proposed withdrawal from Aden of Lieutenant Robert Lambert Playfair, Assistant Political Resident, for service with Outram in the Persian Gulf, including: the objections of Brigadier Coghlan who asserts that Playfair’s work and duties in Aden are indispensable and that there is no suitably qualified substitute for his Assistant; Playfair’s letter arguing against Coghlan and pleading his case to join Outram (ff 109-110); discussions between the members in Council concerning Playfair and Coghlan’s positions, and their ultimate sanctioning of Coghlan’s views
• Uncertainty expressed by the Military Auditor General regarding the proper emolument (salary) for the rank of Lieutenant-General in the Field.