"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٤‎٥‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٦١٤)

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of persons at Basrah. Muhammad-al-Haij was captured at Suq-ash-
^huyukh; and an active search for Jasim-bin-Khalaf was set on foot by
Nasir Pasha, Shaikh and Mutasarif of the Muntafik country. Some
of the pirates sought refuge in 'Avabistan, in the chapter on the history
of which province an account of the proceedings taken to obtain their
surrender will be found. About the beginning of 1873 between 30 and
40 prisoners were brought to trial before a Turkish Court at Basrah, with
the result that 16 were convicted, of whom 9 were condemned to death
and 4 to imprisonment for life. Seven of the capital sentences, after
confirmation from Constantinople, were carried out at Basrah on the
■26th June 1878, the criminals—among them Muhammad-al-Haij—being
publicly hanged at different places in the town. Eight more of the
offenders were reported to have met, in the meantime, with violent deaths
of various kinds; 6 were in prison; and only 7 remained to be accounted
for. 'Alwan had been captured at an early stage of the proceedings in
the Bahrain islands, to which he at first escaped; his arrest was effected
by the Shaikh of Bahrain at the request of^the British Political Resident
at Bushehr; and he was sent to Basrah in His Britannic Majesty's
gunboat C( Hugh Rose and handed over to the Turkish authorities.
Jasim-al-Khalaf, the ringleader and supposed murderer of the fireman,
was found by the Turks in Hasa and brought to Basrah in August 1873.
The result of the trials of Jasim and ^Alwan is not on record; but,
whatever it was, enough had been done to ensure respect for the British
mercantile flag. The " Cashmere" case is remembered in Turkish
'Iraq to the present day as an impressive example of British retribution.
Part of the specie plundered had been traced by the Turkish
authorities with very little delay; and eventually the specie recoveries
reached a total value of Rs. 31,347, those made in Turkey amounting to
Rs. 17,917 and those in Persia to Rs. 13,430, which left a balance of
Rs. 10,703 unrecovered under this head. The shippers and consignees of
the specie were all native merchants.
Messrs. Grey, Paul and Company, the Agents at Bushehr of the
British India Steam Navigation Company, from the first urged that the
Turkish Government should be held responsible for making good the entire
losses occasioned by the piracy. This view was endorsed by the Govern
ment of India, who held that the peculiar circumstances of the attack,
taking place as it did in a large Turkish port and under the guns of a
Turkish man-of-war, warranted exceptional treatment of the case. But
Her Majesty's Government, advised by the Law Officers of the Crown,
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