Page 224 - Gulf Precis (VII)_Neat

So
body of mounted escort in lieu of a portion of the military guard reducing it to
the strength of—
Havildar O
Naick i Costing Rs.' 195.
Privates ... 12 j
leaving Rs. 350 for the proposed mounted escort to be recruited locally.
Commander Jones supported his recommendation for the same reasons as
those which were assigned" by Colonel
•S»« Turkitk Arabia Prtcii 1801-1905, Ckapitr VI.
Rawlinson,* the late Political Agent in
Turkish Arabia in his letter No. 8, dated 23rd March 1844. The advantages
of a mounted escort consisted especially in the manner with which despatches
and messages could be carried, and the facility with which information could be
collected and conveyed. As moreover the escort was to be recruited locally,
there would be no necessity for frequent reliefs.
278. The Bombay Government sanctioned the arrangement proposed (letter
No. 4170, dated 30th August 1856).
279. The scheme however fell in abeyance in consequence of the war in
Persia. In 1863 Colonel Pelly, Acting Resident, submitted proposals for reviving
the measure with the following modifications:—(1) that the new' escort be from
India, (2) that it be maintained on the silladar system and that it replace the
whole of thi then existing detachment of native infantry, the acting Resident
being of opinion that cavalry could keep guard equally as well as infantry.
a8o. The Commander-in-Chief, to whom the matter was referred, stated

teers from one of the irregular cavalry regiments, then undergoing reduction in
the Bombay Presidency, and to offer the highest rates of pay allowed to silladar
cavalry ; as the service for which they were required was a foreign one. His
Excellency recommended that the escort should be composed as follows:—
Rs.
1 Duffadar at 58
2 Naicks at Rs. 33 each 66
18 Sowars at Rs. 30 each 54o
Total ... 644
or an excess of Rs. 27-13-0 per mensem over the then cost of the infantry
detachment at Bushire.
281. The proposed arrangements were approved by the Bombay Govern­
ment and sanctioned by the Government of India (No. 423, dated 15th July
1883).
282. It took nearly two years to carry out the new arrangements completely.
In June 1865 the Resident informed the
Volume I, No. 74 of 1865.
Bombay Government (letter No. 30, dated
16th June 1865), that the last detachment from Her Majesty’s 21st Regiment,
Native Infantry, serving at Bushire as Resident’s escort returned to head­
quarters per H. M. S. Coromandel in September 1864, and that the proposed
mounted escort for the Residency being now completely organised, there was
no further necessity for a detachment from that regiment being sent for service
to Bushire.
283. From the correspondence of 1878 (printed in Proceedings, Political A.,
August 1880, Nos. 106—123), it.appears that there was a detachment of 16 men of
Native Infantry (Marine Battalion) at Bushire. When this detachment was sent
there we have no records to show. In 1878 the Bombay Government wished
to send a second company in addition to the one then distributed over Bushire,
Baghdad, Bassidore and Gwadur, so that several guards might be more frequently
relieved and looked after than it was actually the case. The Resident was asked