IOR/L/PS/5/447, ff 502-513

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 152 of 1846, dated 30 Dec 1846. The enclosures are dated 27 October 1846.

The two enclosures consists of: a copy of a despatch from Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], to Henry Wellesley, HM Minister Plenipotentiary at Constantinople [Istanbul], relating to affairs in the Bagdad Pachalic [Baghdad Pashalik, also spelled Baghdad in this item] (the despatch is copied to the Governor and President in Council, Bombay, and the Governor-General of India, for information); and a copy of a despatch from Rawlinson to the Government of India.

The papers cover the following matters:

• The assurances received from Colonel Justin Sheil, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Tehran, of the Persian [Iranian] Government’s intention to meet the wishes of the Governor of Baghdad with regard to measures to be taken against ‘Kurdish chiefs’ Ahmed Pasha of Sulimanieh [Aḥmad Pāshā of Sulaymaniyah], Russool Pasha [Rasūl Pāshā] of Rewanduz [Ruwandiz or Rawandiz] and Abdullah Beg Sharaf Baini [‘Abdullāh Beg of the Sharaf Baynī tribe], and Rawlinson’s report that as the former two have moved to different territories action may no longer needed against them
• The refusal of the Persian Consul at Bagdad to carry out the instructions of the Governor of Kermanshah to explain and apologise to Ottoman authorities for the delay in reparation owed by Persia for the violent incident at Kurbela [Karbala]
• The cholera in Bagdad, which Rawlinson reports is said to have and carried off at least 5000 persons but now appears to have abated
• The Governor of Bagdad’s concentration on maintaining order in the Pachalic, partly due to the reappearance of the Anizeh [Anezī] tribe outside the city
• The concern expressed to Rawlinson in a letter from British merchants in Bagdad at the temporary withdrawal of the steamer Nitocris from the rivers of Mesopotamia. The letter is signed by Stephen Lynch & Co, Arrathon Brothers, Alexander Hector & Co, John Taylor and Co, and Messrs Mills and Co.