IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 203-211

This item comprises a copy of an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 35 of 1856, dated 10 May 1856. The enclosure is dated 20 March 1856.

The enclosure comprises a copy of a 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 to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, forwarded for the information of the Government of Bombay and Government of India. The despatch concerns the following matters:

• The plan of the Governor of Baghdad, Reshid Pasha [Muḥammad Rashīd Pāshā Gözlüklü] to purchase two iron steam vessels to be employed on the rivers of Mesopotamia, including: the Pasha’s levy on the inhabitants of Baghdad and its dependencies in order to finance the purchase, preference for French and Belgian suppliers and personnel over English ones, and employment of a Belgian agent to visit Europe; and Kemball’s opinion that the steamers would improve communications with Bussorah [Basra] and promote the authority of Ottoman local government only if they can be maintained and resourced
• The purported plan of Prince Abbas Meerza [‘Abbās Mīrzā Mulk Ārā Qājār] to visit Nejjef [Najaf] and Kerbellah [Karbala], and the improvement of his relations with Kemball following news of a peace soon to be concluded between Britain and Russia
• Intelligence received by Kemball from Bussorah that alleged Persian aggression on Turkish territory around Mohamrah [Khorramshahr, formerly Mohammerah] has been exaggerated; and Reshid Pasha’s plan to send troops to Bussorah ostensibly in retaliation but in reality, it is reported, to control the recusant ‘chiefs’ of Montifik [al-Muntafiq] who threaten his authority on the lower banks of the Euphrates River.