IOR/L/PS/5/372, ff 5-11

This item comprises a copy of [extracts of] an enclosure to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee: Bombay Secret Letter No. 4 dated 21 May 1838. Annotated ‘Received via Malta 17 July 1838’. The letters in the enclosure are dated 1 and 19 May 1838.

The papers concern the ‘highly critical’ (f 5) state of relations between Britain and Persia [Iran] regarding the latter’s invasion of Afghanistan and siege of the city of Herat. They consist of letters from the Secretary to the Government of India to John McNeill, HM Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Persia, and to the Secretary to the Government of Bombay, and resolutions made at an Extraordinary Council held at Malabar Point, [Mumbai], on 19 May 1838, with various ensuing instructions. The following matters are covered:

• Arrangements for the conveyance of replies from the Governor-General of India to letters received from Kumran Shah [Shāhzādah Kāmrān Durrānī], Ruler of Herat, to be delivered via McNeill
• The decision to send war ships, Native Infantry troops, guns, commissariat supplies and stores to the Persian Gulf
• Orders that the Political Resident in the Persian Gulf concentrate the whole squadron, which will be under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James Shirriff [spelled Shirreff in this item], either at Bushire [Bushehr] or the Island of Karrack [Kharg].