Letter from Colonel Sir Lewis Pelly, Baroda to His Lordship Lord Northbrook, Viceroy of India [‎7r] (3/14)

( 3 )
I informed both parties that it was beyond the scope of my instructions
t(/ dictate, or even suggest, to the Guicowar the dismissal or the appointment
of his Minister.
These conversations passed at the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , but in separate rooms. At
length the Guicowar begged me to call the Minister and be present at the inter
view, and I reluctantly acquiesced. An interview followed, at which I explained
that, before hearing any discussion, I must explicitly reiterate that, while happy to
aid His Highness and his Minister to the limit of my instructions, I must posi
tively decline to take any active part in the change of Ministry, or in any way
to take on myself responsibilities which legimately devolved on His Highness
as head of the State.
The Minister then repeated his complaints. The Guicowar requested him
to specify instances of obstruction. This the Minister did not do, but sub
mitted that the obstructions, though unseen, were not the less real. His
Highness then said that, if I desired him, he would remove from Baroda the
whole of his surroundings; but this, under all the circumstances of the case,
I declined to do, and this for the following reasons among others :—
\stly, that by so doing I should have exceeded my instructions, and
• would have committed your Lordship's Government to respon
sibilities which are apart from our policy;
2ndly, because I was aware that the Guicowar really had no confidence
in the administrative ability or experience of his Minister;
and
Zrdly, and principally, because the name of His Highness had been so
directly and circumstantially implicated in the attempt to
poison the late Resident that I foresaw that, if I caused the
removal of His Highness's personal friends, and afterwards
found that your Lordship's Government considered the guilt
of His Highness to be morally proved in the poison case, it
might be open to His Highness to plead that, while outwardly
affording him the fair trial accorded in my instructions, I had
at the same time isolated him in his palace, and left him a prey
to the machinations of his enemies, who are legion.