Enclosures of letter to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India, No.11, dated 15 January 1875: Nos. 3 to 45 of Abstract of Contents, from the Officiating Under-Secretary to the Government of India, Fort William [‎85r] (69/100)

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2. The business referred to concerns the recent attempt to poison the late
Resident at Baroda.
3. Mr. Souter, the Commissioner of Police, will submit to you the
statements which have been taken before him in the matter, and I should feel
obliged if you would favour me with your opinion on these statements in general,
and more particularly on the question whether the direct and corroborative
matter in these statements preclude any reasonable or moral doubt of the
complicity of His Highness the Gaekwar in the said attempt.
^ have requested Mr. Souter to return to Baroda at his earliest
convenience, in order that I may submit the case to the Government of India
without delay.
From— Frank H. Soutee , Esq., C.S.I., Commissioner of Police, Bombay,
To— Col. Sir Lewis Pelly, K .C.S .L, Agent, Governor-General, and Special Com
missioner, Baroda.
O n the afternoon of the 6th December 1874 I received an official letter
Can services of Mr. Souter be spared for a few frOlU Go\einmcnt in the Political Depai't-
days. If so, please request him, make arrangements, ment forwarding COpV of VOUr telegram
and meet me Baroda. a i j , ,
to them ol the same date entered in the
margin, and directing me to join you at Baroda. I left Bombay on the 9th, and
having received your instructions I now have the honor to submit a report
showing the result of my enquiries into the attempt to poison Colonel Phayre,
the late Resident of Baroda, on the 9th November 1874.
2. I should have left by the train on the morning following the receipt of
my instructions, but knowing the nature of the service for which I was
required I thought it better to select and organize a detective staff to accom
pany me, and therefore I remained in Bombay on the 8th for this purpose and
started for Baroda by the mail train on the morning of the 9th December.
3. Before quitting Bombay I applied to Government requesting that the
services of the Police Inspector of Ahmedabad, Rao Bahadoor Gujanand Vittul
Shastree, might be placed at my disposal, and that he might be directed to join
me at Baroda forthwith. I may mention that this officer had done excellent
service under me in the Southern Mahratta Country at the time of the mutinies,
and as he had been for many years in Police charge of the city of Ahmedabad,
between which place and Baroda there is always so much intercourse and traffic,
I felt sure that, with his local knowledge and high Police qualifications, he
would prove a valuable aid to me in the enquiry I was about to institute under
your direction.
4. I took with me from Bombay my Chief Detective Officers, Inspectors,
Khan Bahadoor Meer Akbar Ali, and Khan Bahadoor Meer Abdool Ali with
a few selected Policemen of different grades, and the Rao Bahadoor joined
me the day after my arrival at Baroda with some of his trusted men and
agents from Ahmedabad.
5. After receiving your instructions I lost no time in assembling my men
and making such arrangements in consultation with them, as appeared best
calculated to obtain intelligence and to secure secret information of a nature
likely to throw light on the serious matter which had been entrusted to me
to unravel, and which it therefore became my important duty to enquire into
in the most searching and thorough manner.
6. The detectives commenced their work under most unfavorable and
disadvantageous circumstances; poisoning is a class of crime always difficult
to detect, but in the present case it was rendered doubly so—
1st. —From the unfortunate fact that a whole month had been permitted
to elapse before calling in the aid of the Police.
2ndly. —Because the country and its people were foreign to the detectives.
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