IOR/L/PS/5/228, ff 380-415

This part of the volume consists of copies of enclosures to a secret despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secret Committee, Number 45 of 1856, dated 22 September 1856. The enclosures are numbered 3-24 and are dated 26 August-17 September 1856.

The enclosures comprise correspondence, with enclosures, between the Secretary to the Government of India, the Secretary to the Government of Bombay, and the Government of Bombay Marine and Military departments. The correspondence concerns preparations for an Expeditionary force to be sent to the Persian Gulf in order to compel the Persian [Iranian] Government to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. It notably covers and includes the following:

• Requests for information on the state of the roads, disposition of the tribes, resources of the country between Shiraz and Bushire [Bushehr] and Shiraz and Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], and the supplies and means of carriage procurable at Baghdad
• The additional forces and transport animals required if the target is to advance to Shiraz or another point in the interior of Persia
• Plans to send Commissariat officers to Baghdad and places in the Persian Gulf to purchase baggage, animals, and bullocks
• The naval requirements for the expedition, including the movements and availability of the Zenobia, Sesostris, Berenice, Feroze, Assaye, Ajdaha, Victoria, Hugh Lindsay, Coromandel, Auckland, Semiramis and Punjab; the potential need to also engage large capacity vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, merchant vessels and smaller steamers of private companies; the requirements for fitting out ammunition and hospital ships; and the numbers of troops and animals that can be conveyed on particular vessels
• A table indicating the ‘Strength and composition of a proposed Force for service in the Persian Gulf with the present station, and proposed ports of embarkation of various Corps, and the earliest date by which each can be ready to embark’ dated 4 September 1856 (f 395)
• Proposals for: the addition of a cavalry regiment to the force; the substitution of one European Infantry Regiment for one of the ‘Native Infantry’ regiments; and arrangements for the Poona Horse to be sent dismounted or partially mounted
• A minute by the Governor-General summarizing all relevant communications so far and the vessels and forces ready to proceed to the Gulf if and when instructed by the Home Authorities.