IOR/L/PS/5/490, ff 429-475

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, [Bombay Secret Letter] No. 54 dated 2 February 1857. The enclosures are dated 5-29 January 1857.

The primary correspondents are: Major-General Foster Stalker, Commanding the Persian Expeditionary Force; the Secretary to the Government, Bombay; Dr J G Fraser, Civil Surgeon at Ahmednuggur [Ahmednagar]; and the Secretary to the Government of India. Also included are Resolutions of the Board, and Minutes of the Governor of Bombay and members in Council. The enclosures to the despatches include letters and reports of: Lieutenant Herbert Disbrowe, Assistant Political Agent and Assistant Resident, Persian Gulf; Charles Augustus Murray, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Persia [Iran] (then stationed at Baghdad); Major H J Barr, Bombay Army; and Captain Griffith Jenkins, Indian Navy, Commanding the HCS [Honourable Company Steam] frigate Assaye.

The papers relate to the progress of operations against Persia and related matters, and notably cover:

• Information regarding Persian coastal ports north of Bushire [Bushehr], particularly: their strategic value; the inhabitants, tribes and sheikhs [shaikhs]; topography; navigability, anchorage and facilities for disembarking troops; and resources for supplying the British forces in the event of future military movements in that direction. Included is Lieutenant Disbrowe’s report (ff 433-439) of the tour made by the Berenice and the Falkland to visit the ruling shaikhs of Gonavah [Bandar Ganaveh, also spelled Gonava and Ginava in this item], Dillom [Bandar Deylam], Bunder Reeg [Bandar Rig] and Roodhilla [Dehrud-e Olya]. The report describes his meetings with the shaikhs to apprise them of the current conflict between Britain and Persia and to secure their agreement (by secret compact) to provide assistance and intelligence to the British in return for a temporary allowance, and contains information on the resources of Dillom, Hindiyan [Hendijan] and Bihbian [Behbahan, also spelled Bihbihan in this item] and the roads between those places
• The placing, by Murray, of Major Taylor of the Bombay Army, at the disposal of Major-General Stalker, to provide language assistance, local knowledge, and to relieve the pressure on Captain James Felix Jones, Political Agent with the Forces and Civil Commissioner in the town of Bushire
• The Persian forts and works at Mohumrah [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah] in the course of erection and other works at the confluence of the Karoon [Karun] and Shatal Arab [Shatt al-Arab, also spelled Shut-el-Arab in this item] rivers, and Stalker’s assertion to Bombay that he was unable to destroy them due to the recall of ships to the Presidency (to form transports for the reinforcements)
• Proposals for an electro-telegraphic communication between the Bushire Residency, Stalker’s camp, and the shipping in the Bushire Roads, including the proposal by Major Barr (ff 453-455) and the Bombay Government’s approval of the scheme should Lieutenant R L Brunton, Acting Deputy Superintendent, Electric Telegraph Department, confirm that sufficient telegraphic cable is procurable in Bombay
• The transfer by Captain Jenkins, of three (‘men of rank’) prisoners of war, and their followers, captured at Bushire, to Ahmednuggur, via Poona [Pune] into the care of Dr Fraser, and the terms and arrangements for their confinement.