IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 397-412

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 48 of 1856, dated 25 June 1856. The enclosures are dated 30 May-13 Jun 1856.

The enclosures comprise correspondence between Lieutenant-Colonel John Jacob, Acting Commissioner in Sind [Sindh] and the Government of Bombay, and the Government of Bombay’s reports to the Secretary to the Government of India. The papers cover the following matters:

• Jacob’s refusal given in response to the Ruler of Herat’s request for British assistance against Persian [Iranian] aggression, including: his explanation that he merely directed the Acting Political Superintendent on the Frontier of Upper Sind (Captain William Lockyer Merewether) to give a verbal refusal to the messenger, which did not bind the Government to anything; his enquiry whether the reprimand for such a communication affects his authority to manage relations with ‘foreign’ states on the Sind frontier; and the Government of Bombay’s response that correspondence is prohibited only on ‘subjects of importance, questions of state’ and cautioning him that the tone of his letter is ‘hardly consistent with the respect due to the high authority from which the instructions … emanated’ (f 400)
• The ‘great discrepancy’ between the translations of four Persian letters, conveying intelligence on Herat, and the description of their contents by Jacob and Merewether; the Government of Bombay’s enquiry as to whether Merewether’s summaries contain additional information received orally from the person who delivered the letters; the Government of Bombay’s instruction that in future Jacob should transmit the originals along with the translations; and the Government of Bombay’s confirmation to the Government of India that the translations were accurate
• Intelligence received from sources in Kelat [Kalat], forwarded by Merewether to Jacob, that: Herat has been captured by the Persian Army and the Ruler and his wuzzeer [wazir or vizier, minister] imprisoned; the troops of Ameer Dost Mahomed [Dūst Muḥammad Khān Bārakzāy] have captured ex-Sirdars [sirdārs, leaders] of Candahar [Kandahar]; and that the report of a Persian force marching from Herat en route to Candahar was apparently false.