Enclosures of Letter to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No.213, dated 27 November 1874: Nos. 3 to 31 of Abstract of Contents, from Foreign Department, Fort William [‎8v] (16/102)

Government will be cordially and actively given to the Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). whenever this
can properly be done. If there be no properly qualified officers under the
Bombay Government willing to assist in the reform of the Baroda Adminis
tration, the Governor-General in Council will be prepared to depute officers
serving under the Government of India. His Excellency in Council relies with
confidence upon the cordial co-operation of His Excellency the Governor of
Bombay in Council in his efforts to place the Baroda Administration on a
sound and satisfactory footing.
Enclosure No. 9.
No. 38P., dated Poona, 30th October 1874.
From—Secretary to the Government of Bombay From c. 1668-1858, the East India Company’s administration in the city of Bombay [Mumbai] and western India. From 1858-1947, a subdivision of the British Raj. It was responsible for British relations with the Gulf and Red Sea regions. ,
To—Secretary to the Government of India, Foreign Department.
I am directed by His Excellency the Governor in Council to state that
from your letter No. 12C.P. of the 20th October 1874 he has learned, with
equal surprise and regret, that the course he has pursued in respect to providing
the Gaekwar with the assistance of officers of this Government has caused
dissatisfaction to His Excellency the Viceroy in Council, and is regarded by
him as " not calculated to encourage the Baroda Durbar A public or private audience held by a high-ranking British colonial representative (e.g. Viceroy, Governor-General, or member of the British royal family). in introducing or
preserving in those necessary reforms on which so many interests depend."
2. His Excellency in Council in no degree yields to the Government of
India in a sincere desire to see those reforms judiciously carried out, and the
retention by the Gaekwar of his hereditary position thereby secured. He is
fully sensible also of the responsibility resting on this Government, as the
authority entrusted with the immediate conduct of the affair for exerting
itself to the utmost in promoting the success of the policy that has been
adopted. And he believes it to be in his power to demonstrate beyond question
that the task has been undertaken by this Government in a thoroughly loyal
spirit, and that it has both in its own acts and in the instructions issued to the
Kesident exhibited a decided disposition to assist the Gaekwar as far as the
instructions it had received and a proper regard for the welfare and character
of its own servants would permit.
3. His Excellency in Council, however, perceives that in one most import
ant point this Government did not apprehend the full meaning of the
instructions of the Government of India, in paragraph 7 of your letter No. 1586,
of 25th July last, of which an explanation is now given in your letter under
acknowledgment. It was not understood that by " the request that endeavours
be made to meet the wishes of the Gaekwar and to furnish him with the
officers he may require," the intention was that these officers should be ordered
to take service under the Gaekwar irrespective of their own consent. It was
supposed that the endeavours enjoined referred to the arrangements for the
business of this Government by which the services of the required officers
could be spared. When therefore the Gaekwar applied for certain officers
the Government, disregarding its own convenience, at once accorded the neces
sary permission, and guarranteed the officers a lien for one year on their own
appointments. With this information before them, the Government of India
state in your 2nd paragraph that no effective steps appear to have been taken to
carry out their instructions. The Government of India must therefore have
expected that this Government would order these officers to serve the Gaekwar
and from your 3rd paragraph it is still more clearly to be gathered that the
Government of India think the only question ought to have been whether the
officers could be spared, and if so, they should have been sent on special duty
under the orders of His Excellency the Governor of Bombay in Council.
4. His Excellency in Council begs to submit that he is still unable to
read the instructions of the Government of India as open to the above interpre-
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