IOR/L/PS/5/490, ff 251-260

This item comprises one enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 16 dated 27 January 1857. The enclosure is also dated 27 January 1857.

The enclosure comprises a despatch, dated 22 December 1856, from Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], for the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, consisting of copies of his two recent despatches to Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, HM Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul], dated 10 and 18 December 1856.

The papers cover and include the following:

• Kemball’s recent visit to Bussorah [Basra] and his opinion that the defences recently constructed by Persia [Iran] at Mohamerah [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah] need not concern the British as there are currently no signs of a Persian intention to disrupt communications in the region
• Confirmation that Kemball has secured grain and cattle for fresh meat in expectation of the British expedition in the Persian Gulf
• Notification that, in expectation of an attack in the region by the British, Sheikh Jaber, the principal chief of the Chaab [Banū Ka‘b] tribe [Shaikh Jābir bin Mirdāw al-Ka‘bī, Shaikh of Mohammerah], has approached HM Vice Consul at Bussorah, as well as Kemball, professing support of the British Government and offering his services, whilst at the same time having allegedly also approached the Ottoman Governor in case of a Turkish takeover of Mohammerah
• Kemball’s distrust of Sheikh Jaber and the tribes in the area, who he claims would ‘readily join what they believe to be the strongest party’ (f 257)
• A table entitled ‘Arab Tribes under Persian Authority’, detailing: names of tribes; names of shaikhs; total numbers of men; total numbers of horses, camels, sheep and cows; and any significant additional information (ff 258-259).