Turkish Arabia Affairs

This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay [Mumbai] Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 26 of 1844, dated 25 March 1844. The enclosures are dated 23 January-11 February 1844. The enclosures comprise despatches of Major Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq], to John Pollard Willoughby, Secretary to the Government, Bombay, and for the attention of the Secretary to the Government of India with the Governor-General, with associated enclosures, including a letter from Rawlinson to Sir Stratford Canning, HM Ambassador at Constantinople [Istanbul]. The principal matters covered are:. Arrangements for postal communications between the Bagdad [Baghdad] Agency and the Government of India to be transmitted via Egypt and Damascus, utilising the private dâk [post] between Beyrout [Beirut] and Bagdad used by British merchants, due to the slow and irregular communications between India and the Persian Gulf; The dispute between Turkey and Persia regarding Mohamerah [Khorramshahr], notably a lengthy memorandum by Rawlinson, dated 6 January 1844, giving an account of the early and modern history of the territory and the tribes within it (ff 444-480); Apparent atrocities committed by the Pasha of Moosel [Mosul] against the Nestorian Christians of the Kurdish mountains, and resumption of the Nestorian Commission (temporarily delayed due to the death of the Pasha of Moosel) sent to investigate the incident; Persian-Turkish tensions, including slow progress of treaty negotiations at Erzeroom [Erzurum]; Unrest amongst Persian-Kurdish tribes on the frontier with Turkey and inability of Nejib Pasha [Muḥammad Najīb Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] to prevent local Turkish retaliation against Kurdish 'depredations'; The application by Nejib Pasha for use of the HC [Honourable Company's] steamer of war Nitocris to help suppress the 'refractory' Arab tribe inhabiting the marshes on the banks of the Euphrates River, and Rawlinson's reluctance to interfere and referral of the matter to Sir Stratford Canning; The pretensions to independence (from the Ottoman Porte) expressed by the Pasha of Suliemaniah [Sulaymaniyah] and Rawlinson's view that Britain should not support it

The enclosure numbers 3-4 are written on the verso of the last folio of each enclosure, which also contain an abstract of the contents of the enclosure.

Unrestricted