"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٧‎٣] (١٧٨٢/١٦٢٨)

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1473
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succeeded Mr. J. Taylor in 1858, on the transfer of the latter as Consul
to Diyarbakr. Mr. Taylor's salary, originally Es. 200 per mensem, had
been increased in 1856, with retrospective effect from 1854, to Rs. 400 ;
and the pay of his successors was at the increased rate.
Mr. Rogers died in 1862, and, on the recommendation of Colonel
Kemball, Mr. W. Johnston, a junior partner in the firm of Messrs. Lynch
& Co., was appointed in his place. In April 1868, Mr. Johnston pro
ceeded on sick leave from which he returned only to die at Basrah at the
end of 1869.
Mr. P. J. C. Robertson, an assistant in the same firm, who had been
nominated by Colonel Kemball to act for Mr. Johnston, was confirmed
in tie appointment on the latter's death and held it on the same condition
until 1873, when, as already mentioned, his designation was changed
from that of "British Agent " at Basrah to that of " Assistant Political
Agert."
Ihis alteration^ effected by a notification of the Government of India
on tie 17th July 1873, was suggested by the British Political Agent in
Turkish 'Iraq as a reward to Mr. Robertson for his excellent work in the
" Cashmere " case. Its primary object was to improve Mr. Robertson^s
position in the estimation of travellers, especially of travellers from India,
iu -^hose minds the title of " British Agent" was likely to be associated
witl posts held by non-Europeans; but, though it carried with it no
immediate increase of pay, the change had also the effect of making
Mr Robertson a member of the Indian political service.
In February 1868 Namiq Pasha, the Turkish Governor of Baghdad,
complained of the general behaviour of Mr. Michael Minas, who had
been, appointed British Vice-Consul at Baghdad in 1859, as rude and
disrespectful, and requested that some other person might be chosen as a
medium of communication between the British Consul-General and him
self. Sir A. Kemball declined to remove Mr. Minas on a general and
unproved charge and asked Namiq Pasha to specify instances of mis
conduct on his part; but the Governor merely ignored this reply and
refused to transact business with Mr. Minas. Mr. Minas had been a
paid employe of the Political Agency for 24 years; the complaint was
the first ever preferred against him by a Turkish authority; and the
grounds of it were a mere matter of conjecture. They appeared to be
connected with a case of the robbery of a British Indian, in which
Mr. Minas had been obliged to remonstrate with Namiq Pasha on the
laxness of the Turkish executive, and had possibly been betrayed into
103
Assistant
Political
Agency at
Basrah,
1S73.
Position of
the Native
Agent of the
Baghdad
Political
Agency,
1868.