IOR/L/PS/5/230, ff 29-33

This part of the volume consists of a copy of an enclosure to a secret despatch from the Government of India Foreign Department to the Secret Committee, Number 4 of 1857, dated 8 January 1857. The enclosure is numbered 3 and is dated 5 January 1857.

The enclosure consists of The Calcutta Gazette. Extraordinary, published Monday 5 January 1857, comprising ‘Notification No. 14. Fort William, Foreign Department’. It contains a notice by the Secretary to the Government of India, announcing the ‘unresisted occupation’ of Karrack [Kharg or Khark Island] on the 4 December and the surrender of Bushire [Bushehr] on the 10 December ‘after an ineffectual opposition’. It also praises the military and naval forces, including the following officers: Major-General Foster Stalker, Commanding the Expeditionary Field Force; Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Leeke, Commanding the Naval Force, Persian Gulf Expedition; and Commander Felix Jones, Political Agent with the Forces, and Resident in the Persian Gulf. This is followed by copies of Despatches and related documents, dated 1-13 December 1856 received by the Government of Bombay, including:

• Detailed reports by Stalker, Leeke and Jones on the capture and occupation of Bushire
• A copy of a letter to Jones from the Governor of Bushire questioning the presence of the British fleet, with Jones’s response
• Copies of notices issued by Jones to Persian governors and authorities in Bushire and the vicinity prior to the occupations of Karrack and Bushire
• Copy of a ‘Proclamation’ dated 11 December 1856 that the town of Bushire has surrendered unconditionally on 10 December 1856, and listing the terms of occupation and martial law.