IOR/L/PS/5/486, ff 59-134

This item comprises enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee [Bombay Secret Letter], No. 8 dated 16 January 1856. The enclosures are dated 3-22 December 1855.

The item comprises copies of despatches, with relevant enclosures, from Charles Augustus Murray, HM Envoy in Persia [Iran], to the Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, forwarded to the Government of Bombay and the Government of India, and from Commander James Felix Jones, Indian Navy, Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf, to the Secretary to the Government, Bombay.

• Murray’s assertion of the Sadr Azim’s excessive influence over the Shah
• The purported feud between the families of Meerza Hashem Khan and the Sadr Azim
• The Sadr Azim’s contention that there has never been a British Agent at Shiraz and that Meerza Hashem Khan was in the pay of the Persian Government and therefore ineligible for employment by the British
• Attempts by Nicolas Prosper Bourée, French Consul at Tehran, to mediate between Murray and the Persian Government
• Murray’s decision to haul down the flag of the British Mission in Tehran
• Murray’s vehement denial of Persian claims that both he and William Taylour Thomson, the former Chargé d’Affaires at the Court of Persia, had affairs with the wife of Meerza Hashem Khan (see ff 101-102, 103-106 and 116-117) and that Thomson originally took Meerza Hashem Khan under the protection and employment of the British Mission for this reason
• Murray’s refusal to rehoist the flag unless the Meerza’s wife is released and an apology is received from the Sadr Azim for the ‘gross and groundless’ ‘calumnies’ (f 98)
• Murray’s arrangements for the withdrawal the British Mission to Turkish [Ottoman] Territory, and (despite the opposition of the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs) for HM Consul, Richard Stevens, to remain in Tehran
• The Persian Government’s insistence on its continued friendship with the British Government.

The despatches include copies of Murray’s correspondence with the Sadr Azim and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and copies of notes written by the Shah.

Also covered in Murray’s despatches are:

• Rumours of the death of Dost Mahomed Khan [Emir Dūst Muḥammad Khān Bārakzāy]
• Reports of the seizure of Herat by Prince Mahomed Yoosuf [Muḥammad Yūsuf Khān, Regent of Herat] and the apparent state of ‘civil war’ in Afghanistan (f 67)
• Intelligence from the British Agent at Meshed [Mashhad] relating the story of Hassan Ali Khan [Ḥasan ‘Alī Khān] in Bokhara [Bukhara] concerning his encounters with a man he suspects is a European [‘Perhaps Ferguson’ is noted in the left hand margin of folio 64]
• Russian incursions into the territory of the Khan of Khokand [Muḥammad Khudāyār Khān, Khān of Kokand]
• The Imam of Muscat’s letter asking Murray to mediate in his dispute with the Persian Government concerning ownership of Bender Abbass [Bandar Abbas].

Jones’s despatches cover his reaction to the news of the suspension of diplomatic relations between Britain and Persia, including his: concerns about the defences of Bushire [Bushehr] and a potential conflict there with Persia; communications with Commodore Richard Ethersey, Commanding the Indian Naval Squadron in the Persian Gulf, with regard to strengthening the squadron in the Bushire Roads to protect British subjects; and measures to establish good communications with Murray. Also included is a copy of a ruckum [raqam] from HRH Prince Tamasp Meerza Prince Governor of Fars [Shāhzādah Ṭahmāsp/Ṭahmāsb Mīrzā Muʾayyid al-Dawlah], to the News Writer and Agent for Foreign Affairs, Bushire, intimating he has no quarrel with the Resident.