IOR/L/PS/6/734, ff 124-156

This item is a collection to Bombay Political Despatch No. 52 of 31 July 1867, from the Secretary of State for India to the Government of Bombay Political Department (the Political Despatch itself is not included in this item). The collection consists of papers forwarded with the Government of Bombay’s Political Despatch No. 34 of 23 May 1867 to the Secretary of State for India, on the subject of Persian Gulf affairs, including:

• A recommendation by the Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] that mail steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company temporarily avoid calling at the port of Koweit [Kuwait]. This follows a request by the Sheikh [Shaikh] of Koweit, under political pressure from Namik Pasha [Nāmiq Pāshā (Viceroy of Baghdad)] and Ottoman corvettes in the Gulf, and on account of recent limits on freedoms in Koweit by the Ottoman Porte which has long considered that place a Turkish dependency
• British fears of a struggle for supremacy between Persia [Iran] and Muscat [also spelled Muskat in this item] over the port of Bunder Abbas [Bandar-e ‘Abbas], following a military mission sent by the Prince-Governor of Fars to confront representatives of the Sultan of Muscat; and the encouragement by the British of an amicable settlement of affairs at Bunder Abbas, in order to avoid danger to British agents and disruption to the telegraph and trade
• The intentions of Edward McKellar to establish a mercantile firm at Bushire [Bushehr], called McKellar Gray & Co, and his company acting on behalf of the British India Steam Navigation Company in connection with a proposal to run steam vessels along the Gulf and the Red Sea; and recommendations by Lieutenant-Colonel Lewis Pelly, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, on the prospects of opening up trade both in that area and between the East Coast of Africa and the Arabian Coast (ff 147-149)
• The death of Agha Mahomed Bauker Khan [Āghā Muḥammad Bāqir Khān], British Agent at Muscat in January 1867, ‘after a lingering illness’ and ‘debility produced, … from the habitual use of opium, and diarrhoea’ (f 151); Pelly’s request to examine his disordered records and accounts; and the appointment of Lieutenant George Andrew Atkinson as Acting Political Agent at Muscat during the absence in England on sick leave of Lieutenant-Colonel Herbert Disbrowe, the current Political Agent.

The collection was compiled for information purposes for the Secretary of State for India to compose the answering Political Despatch.

The enclosed papers consist of copies of correspondence and resolutions of the Government of Bombay. The main correspondents are the following: the Government of Bombay; the Government of India; and Pelly.