IOR/L/PS/5/449, ff 484-506

This item comprises a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 24 of 1847, dated 12 March 1847. The enclosure is dated 14 January 1847.

The item comprises copies of despatches forwarded, for the information of the Governor-General of India, by Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Envoy and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Persia [Iran], to Viscount Palmerston, HM Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, with relevant enclosures.

The papers cover a number of matters, notably including:

1) Sheil’s advice to Major Samuel Hennell, Political Resident in Bushire [Bushehr], not to admit the claim of an Indian-Persian merchant to be considered a British subject, since his motive is likely to be the evasion of legal customs duties and because acquiescence would cause conflict with the Persian [Iranian] authorities.

2) An arrangement concluded by Hennell with the Governor of Fars for the employment of British ships of war for the redress of grievances committed against British subjects in the Persian ports of the Persian Gulf, and the extension of similar protection to Persian subjects.

3) Following instructions from Palmerston, Sheil’s attempt to offer the Ameer of Bokhara [Amir of Bukhara] a ransom of 15,000 tomans for the surrender of Colonel Stoddart, Captain Connolly and Lieutenant W H Wyburd [William Henry Wybard] at either Meshed [Mashhad] or Merve [Merv], including a copy of Sheil’s letter to the Ameer (ff 488-489) to be delivered via the ‘Khaleefa or Chief Priest’ at Merve and which is written to appear derived from the friends of the three men, not on behalf of the British Government

4) An attempt made by Prince Dolgorukie [Prince Dimitri Ivanovich Dolgorukov], Russian Minister in Tehran, to induce the Persian Government to issue a firman admitting Russian men of war vessels to the ‘back water of Enzellee [Bandar-e Anzali]’ (on the Caspian Sea), including copies of a letter from Dolgoroukie and the reply of Hajee Meerza Aghassee [Ḥājī Mīrzā Āqāsī, Prime Minister to the Shāh of Persia] which Sheil obtained from a ‘private source’ (ff 490-491).

5) Sheil’s report of three incidents involving the use of torture – which had officially been abolished by a firman – and the protests made by both Sheil and Dolgoroukie and the actions taken in each case. The incidents relate to: a ‘barbarous act’ committed by Thamasp Meerza [Ṭahmāsp/Ṭahmāsb Mīrzā], a son of the late Shah and governor of a small district near Tabreez [Tabriz] named Binab, leading to his recall to Tehran; the apparent torture to death of a ‘Mahomedan’ [Muslim] servant of ‘a French adventurer named M. Ferrier’ suspected of robbing the latter’s house; and Sheil’s pecuniary punishment of two Mission staff for the methods they used to elicit confessions from persons suspected of robbing their houses.

6) Intelligence from Meshed that Mahomed Akber Khan [Muḥammad Akbar Khān], son of Dost Mahomed Khan [Dūst Muḥammad Khān Bārakzāy, Amīr of Afghanistan], has laid siege to Candahar [Kandahar] and applied for aid from Yar Mahomed Khan [Yār Muḥammad Khān, ruler of Herat] (apparently because of the refusal of Kohendil Khan [Kuhandil Khān Muḥammadzā’ī, of Candahar] to join him in an attack on the English garrison at Shikarpore [Shikarpur]), and that their agents have arrived in Tehran apparently to seek Persian support against a supposed British invasion of Afghanistan.

7) Following instructions from Palmerston, Sheil’s approach to the Government of Herat to ascertain its views on a closer relationship with England, including: a copy of a non-committal letter from Yar Mahomed Khan to Sheil (ff 500-501); a copy of Sheil’s letter to Yar Mahomed offering to send a member of the British Mission to Herat (ff 501-502); and Sheil’s report that the agent of Yar Mahomed claims the latter would not be averse to having an Englishman there, but that the anti-English feeling in Afghanistan currently makes this impossible.

8) Sheil’s correspondence with Hajee Meerza Aghassee (ff 494-498) relating to his unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Persian ministers to agree to the suppression of the trade in enslaved persons in the Persian ports of the Persian Gulf, including the Shah’s refusal to commit to ‘a breach of the precepts of the Koran’ (f 494), and Aghassee’s claim that he himself supports abolition.

9) Reports that five battalions (3000 men) have arrived in Tehran to form part of the force for the intended expedition to Khorassan [Khorasan], including: the planned objectives of the expedition in Asterabad [Gorgan], Boojnoord [Bojnord] and Kelat [Kalat]; and uncertainty regarding its command and the attendance of the Shah.

10) A letter to Sheil from Meerza Kazim [Mīrzā Kāẓim], Agent of Hajee Meerza Aghassee at Meshed, regarding his investigations in Khorassan, Orgenjee [Urgench?], Bokhara, Herat, and Candahar, into the fate of the Englishman Mr Wyburd, ‘who gave himself the appellation and was known under the name of Hajee Ahmed’. Meerza Kazim encloses a letter from a merchant friend of his in Bokhara relating that ‘Hajee Ahmed’ arrived in Bokhara posing as an ‘Ottoman Turk’, stayed at the Court of the Ameer of Bokhara until the latter gave him to Naib Abdoos Semed Khan [Nā’ib ‘Abd al-Ṣamad Khān], and that at that man’s house he later hanged himself.