IOR/L/PS/5/447, ff 85-105

This item comprises a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 133 of 1846, dated 14 November 1846. The enclosure is dated 14 September 1846.

The enclosure consists of a copy of a despatch, with enclosures, from Lieutenant-Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Persia [Iran], to Viscount Palmerston, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, relating to affairs in Persia. The despatch is copied to the Governor and President in Council, Bombay, and the Governor-General of India, for information.

The papers notably cover the following matters:

• Arrangements at Erzeroom [Erzurum] for finalising the Treaty between the governments of Persia and the Ottoman Empire, notably the insertion of a tenth article authorising the appointment of ministers of both governments to implement the Treaty terms after ratification
• Compensation to be paid by the Ottoman Porte [Government] in reparation for the recent attack on Meerza Tekkee Khan [Mīrzā Taqī Khān Farāhānī], the Persian Minister at Erzeroom, and his servants
• The proposed arrangement between the Political Resident at Bushire [Bushehr] and the Governor of Fars to engage a British vessel of war against any ‘chiefs’ of the Persian shores of the Gulf coast who commit ‘aggressions’ against British subjects or commerce
• Sheil’s enquiries to the Khuleefa of Merve [Khalifah of Merv] relating to the fate of Mr Wyburd [William Henry Wybard]
• The mortality caused by the cholera outbreak in Tehran
• Intelligence received by Sheil of: the arrival in Tehran of a dissident of Herat who wishes to persuade the Asef-ood-Dowleh [Āṣaf al-Dawlah], with the acquiescence of the Persian Government, to attack Herat; and the confederacy of opposition forming in Meshed [Mashhad] against Yar Mahomed Khan [Yār Muḥammad Khān], Ruler of Herat
• The Persian Government’s complaints regarding another violation of its territory by members of the Bilbass [Belbās or Bilbas] tribe of Turkish Koords [Kurds] in the south-west extremity of Azerbijan [Azerbaijan]
• The remonstrations of the Persian Government against the Turkish [Ottoman] vessel of war anchored near Mohemmera [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah] to ‘molest Persian commerce by forcing vessels bound to that port to proceed to Bussorah [Basra]’ (f 103)
• The improbability of the Persian Government’s orders for the removal from Kermanshah of Abdoollah Beg, Chief of the Sheref Bainees [‘Abdullāh Beg, leader of the Sharaf Baynī] being enacted due to the inaccessibility of that territory.