IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 3-10

This item comprises a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 25 of 1856, dated 14 April 1856. The enclosure is dated 18 February 1856.

The enclosure consists of a copy of despatch from Captain Arnold Burrowes Kemball, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], to Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe, HM Ambassador at the Porte [Government of the Ottoman Empire], Constantinople [Istanbul], and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, London, forwarded for the information of the Government of Bombay and Government of India. The despatch notably concerns the following matters:

• The measures of the Persian [Iranian] Government to induce Prince Abbas Meerza [‘Abbās Mīrzā Mulk Ārā Qājār], brother of the Shah of Persia, to return to Persia; the Prince’s association with a relation of the Sudder Azzam [Ṣadr A‘ẓam, minister to the Shāh] and avoidance of communication with his mother and with Kemball; the refusal by Kemball of authorize an escort for the Prince to Samarrah [Samarra]; and the request of the Prince’s mother that British and Ottoman authorities prevent his return to Persia without her consent
• Claims that the Shah has sent a deputation to Tabreez [Tabriz] to foster a reconciliation with the recently departed British Mission
• Rumours of a Persian occupation of an island near Mohamrah [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah] and plans to build a fort there, and Kemball’s persuasion of the Governor of Baghdad not to send troops to forcibly eject them.