IOR/L/PS/5/262, ff 370-379

The enclosures comprise letters from the Secretary to the Government of Bombay to the Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department, forwarding information received from Captain George Andrew Atkinson, Acting Political Agent at Muscat, and Henry Adrian Churchill, Political Agent and HM Consul at Zanzibar, on the following matters:

• The recent disturbance in the Passes near Semayel [Samail] involving murders committed by tribes allied to the opposing Ghaffree [Ghāfirī] and Henavi [Hināwī] tribes, and the impending expedition into the interior of Oman by Syud Azan [Sayyid ‘Azzān bin Qays Āl Bū Sa‘īd] to punish the Siabeen [al-Sayābī] tribe, allies of the Ghaffree tribe
• The background to affairs in the Semayel neighbourhood, including the movement led by Shaik Ali-bin Jabbur [Shaikh ‘Alī bin Jābir] of the Beni Jabbur [Banū Jābir] tribe, who (representing the Ghaffree element of the insurrection leaders) helped bring about the overthrow of Syud Salim [Sayyid Sālim bin Thuwaynī Āl Bū Sa‘īd] but has now fallen out with Syud Azan over the latter’s broken promises
• The fear of the populace of Muthra [Muttrah] against an attack by the Ghaffree tribe
• Atkinson’s opinion that the Ghaffree are less well disposed towards the British than the Henavi
• The anxiety felt by Atkinson and by British subjects regarding their security and interests, and Atkinson’s request that a British vessel be stationed near Muscat
• The reaction of Seyed Majid [Sayyid Mājid bin Sa‘īd Āl Bū Sa‘īd], Sultan of Zanzibar, to the events at Muscat related to the succession.

The Political Despatch was received in the India Office Secret Department on 22 April 1869.