"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٥‎٨‎٢] (١٧٨٢/١٧٣٧)

1582
the trial was the conviction of the prisoner, who was sentenced to death •
but his punishment was afterwards commuted to imprisonment for 20
years with hard labour, the maximum penalty that could be inflicted
under the Ottoman Order in Council, and he was removed to India to
undergo his sentence there.
The remaining men of the guard were sent back to India and dis
charged from the army; 'Abdullah and Akram, the two Afghans
supposed to have been implicated in the murder of the Jamadar, were
deported to India and thence to Afghanistan; and pensions, payable till
death or remarriage, were granted to the Arab widows of the two
murdered Qawwases.
It should be mentioned that the Turkish authorities showed a strono'
disposition to retain in their custody the men of the guard handed over
to them who were suspected of complicity in the murder of the Jamadar,
and claimed that the whole of the suspects in that case should, on
account of the Turkish subject Abbas being one of them, be dealt with
by the Turkish police and courts. The demand was successfullv
resisted, however, by His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador at Constanti-
nople; the prisoners in question were r<'transferred to British custod} ; and
on the 23rd April the outgoing detachment left Baghdad for India in
charge of Captain Fisher.
At one stage of the affair the Resident called on the Commander
of the a Comet" to furnish a lascar guard for the custody of sepoy
prisoners in the Residency. The Commander complied with the
requisition ; but a strong protest against it was lodged by the Director
of the Royal Indian Marine on the ground that " the action of the
(f Resident was illegal, inasmuch as the crew of the Comet was neither
"enrolled under the Indian Marine Act nor subject to the Indian
"Articles of War, and that had it been necessary to use force, the
"'Officer Commanding the Comet might have been involved in serious
"consequences. ' These objections were overruled by the Government
of India, however, who remarked ;
The Government of India are advised that the action of the Resident was not illegal,
and that the matter was one for him to deal with purely from the standpoint of
expediency. As he considered that he could not trust the prisoners to a guard of
their brother soldiers, it was incumbent upon him to take any step he considered
necessary, in reason and good faith, for their safe custody. He was competent,
iherefore, to require for that purpose the aid of any officer or man serving under
the Government of India, and the fact that the lascars were not subject to the
Marine Act or Articles of War does not alter the position. The GoVemment of
India, therefore, consider it unnecessary to issue any instructions to restrict the
Kesident from employing lascars as a guard in future. The Resident must be the sole