Letter from the East India Company Envoy to Persia, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, in camp at Oojan, to the Secret Committee of the East India Company

Content

Letter from the East India Company Envoy to Persia [Iran], Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, in camp at Oojan [Ujan], to the Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. of the East India Company, of 25 June 1827, which was received from the Foreign Office on 29 August 1827. Macdonald Kinneir reports his recent communications with the Shah of Persia [Fatḥ-‘Alī Shāh Qājār], in which the Shah expressed his feelings of frustration, dismay and abandonment at the fact that Persian requests for assistance in the war against Russia [Russo-Persian War, 1826-1828] have not been answered by the British Government. He also reports that the former Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , Ephriam Gerrish Stannus, who is returning to Britain, has been charged with a message for the British Government from the Shah, so as to avoid the dispatch of a Persian envoy to Britain. Macdonald Kinneir indicates that the failure by the British Government to reply has caused the Shah and the Prince Royal [Crown Prince of Persia, ʿAbbās Mīrzā A title of honour originally applied to princes, later to military leaders, and later still to secretaries, chieftains, and other ‘gentlemen’. Qājār] to question the sincerity of Britain’s ‘friendship’ with Persia, and points to the seriousness of the situation regarding the war with Russia, indicating that ‘a crisis seems to be near at hand’.

This document also originally enclosed a copy and a translation of a note from the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs to Macdonald Kinneir (now catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/71/18-19).

Extent and format

1 item (6 folios)

Written in

English in Latin script

Type

Letter

Access & Reference

Original held at

British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity.

Access conditions

Unrestricted

Archive reference

IOR/L/PS/9/71/17

History of this record

Date(s)

25 Jun 1827-29 Aug 1827 (CE, Gregorian)

Subjects

Russo-Persian War (1826-1828)Bilateral relations

People & organisations

East India Company Envoy to PersiaEast India Company, Court of Directors, Secret CommitteePolitical Resident, Persian GulfShah of Persia, Qajar dynasty

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Letter from the East India Company Envoy to Persia, Lieutenant-Colonel John Macdonald Kinneir, in camp at Oojan, to the Secret Committee of the East India Company, British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/9/71/17, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100038378586.0x000387> [accessed 6 October 2024]

Link to this record

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