Vol 215: Persia and Persian Coast; Miscellaneous

This volume consists mostly of correspondence between the Political Residency in the Persian Gulf, Bushire, and the Secretary to the Government of Bombay. Writing on behalf of the Residency are Commander (James) Felix Jones, Acting Resident (and later in the volume, Resident) in the Persian Gulf, and Herbert Frederick Disbrowe, Assistant Resident in the Persian Gulf. At this time the Secretary to the Government of Bombay was Henry Lacon Anderson. The volume is divided into two sections. The first section (ff 1A-65) concerns Persia and the Persian coast. Several of Anderson's letters contain copies of received correspondence, including a letter (ff 3-7) from George Frederick Edmonstone, Secretary to the Government of India, as well as extracts of letters from the East India Company's Court of Directors. In addition, there is a copy of a petition (ff 41-44) addressed by Cornwallis Hewett, Resident at Kurrachee [Karāchi], to Lord Elphinstone, Governor and President in Council at Bombay, in which Hewett complains that he has sustained losses as a result of the Governor of Bushire detaining a number of his horses. This petition is followed by copies of letters between the Residency and Hewett (and Hewett's agent), which date from September 1855 to May 1856. Some of the letters from the Residency to Bombay include translated extracts of correspondence with native agents and local rulers, including the Agent at Shiraz and His Royal Highness the Prince of Shiraz. Other subjects covered in this section include Britain's commercial treaty with Persia (1847) and its implications for granting passports to Indian-born and Persian-born subjects, and the onset of the Anglo-Persian War. The second section (ff 66-93) has been labelled as miscellaneous correspondence. One letter from Jones to Anderson (ff 67-75) contains translated extracts of correspondence both with native agents and with a number of local rulers, including: Zayid ben Khuleefah [Shaikh Zayed bin Khalīfah Al Nahyan], Chief of Aboothabee [Abu Dhabi]; Sheikh Abdul Rahman ben Suggur, Governor of Kishm [Qeshm]; Sheikh Ali ben Khuleefa [Shaikh Ali bin Khalīfah Āl Khalīfah], Chief of Bahrein [Bahrain]; and Ameer Fyzal [Faisal bin Turki bin 'Abdullāh Al Sa'ūd], the Wahabee Ameer [Wahhābī Emir]. These enclosures relate to the Crimean War: each extract expresses the respective ruler's pleasure at having learned of the fall of Sebastopol [Sevastopol]. This section also includes a letter (ff 76-84) from Jones to Anderson on the subject of the Residency's finances, in which Jones encloses lists of the allowances for the various positions attached to the Residency on 1 May 1827, 1 May 1832, 1 October 1835 and 1 July 1856 respectively. In another letter to Anderson (ff 85-88), Jones includes copies of correspondence, dating from 1844, between Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, Political Agent in Turkish Arabia, and the Secretary to the Government of India, on the subject of replacing Indian sepoys with horsemen for the purpose of collecting and carrying dispatches.

This volume is divided into two sections. The first section (ff 1A-65) generally proceeds from February 1856 through to November 1856; however, there are numerous examples of letters appearing out of sequence, including those dating from 1857. Similarly the second section of the volume (ff 66-93) proceeds from February 1856 to May 1857, with certain letters appearing out of sequence.

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