A FAMOUS CASE

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1933, Page 15

A FAMOUS CASE

POISONING A EESIDENT

INDIAN PRINCE DEPOSED

. From time to time the services of leading members of.the English.Bar have been retained to conduct cases in Indian Courts, and naturally big fees have been paid on these occasions, says the Melbourne "Age" The first cose on record in which a member of the English Bar was retained to appear as advocate in an Indian Court occurred fifty-eight years ago. Sarjent Ballantine, one of the leading members of the English Bar at that time, went to India to defend a ruling prince, his Highness Mulhar Kao, the Gaekwar of Baroda", who was accused of having attempted to poison Colonel Phayre, the British .Resident of Baroda. A ■ special tribunal was constituted to hear the case. It consisted of six Commissioners, including Sir Richard Couch, the Chief Justice of India, and two ruling princes. According to Sarjent Ballantine's somewhat partisan account of the trial, given in his book "Some Reminiscences of , a Barrister's Life," Colonel Phayre was entirely unsuited for the post of British Resident. "He was fussy, meddlesome, and thoroughly injudicious," wrote Sarjent Qallantine'. "Thero were two adverse parties ifi the State, and instead of holding him; self aloof from both he threw himacit violently into that opposed to the Gaekwar, and was greedy to listen to every accusation and complaint that with equal eagerness' was gossiped into his ears. His annoyances and constant slights to the Gaekwar were such that a dispatch was sent by the latter to the Government, in temperate and judicious terms, praying for his removal." This dispatch was sent seven days before the alleged attempt to poisou Coloue Phayre, and up to the date of this alleged attempt the Gaekwar had not received a reply from the Government of India. Moreover, Colonel Phayre had previously been asked to resign the post of British Resident by the Governor of Bombay, but had declined to do so. A few weeks after the alleged attempt to poison him he was actually dismissed by the Governor-Gen-eral in terms the reverse of compu-i mentary," wrote Sarjent Ballantine. WARNED OF ATTEMPT. The Governor-General, in dismissing him, wrote:—"That he had thoroughly misunderstood the spirit of the instructions both of the Government of India and the Government of Bombay, and that the duty of Resident could no longer be entrusted to him with any reasonable prospest of a satisfactory result." Colonel Phayre had been warned irotn some undisclosed source that an attempt would be made to poison him. On reaching liis home on the .morning of November 9 be took a tumbler of sherbet on his washsUnd. He took two or three sips of it, and "derived unpleasant symptoms. He sat down to write for about twenty minutes, but feeling worse, and being satisfied that his condition was due to the sherbet, he threw the remainder of the contents of the glass out of the window "that he might not be tempted to drink it." There was a-little brown sediment left at the bottom of the glass, which, together with scrapings from the ground where the contents o£ the glass had been ■thrown; was subsequently analysed by two doctors, who detected traces of common arsenic and finely-powdered siliceous matter which, under the microscope, appeared to be powdered glass or quartz. Before the analyses were made Colonel Phayre had received a confidential communication from a man named BowliPoonaka, a pronounced enemy of the Gaekwar, stating that the poison consisted of (1) common arsenic; (2) finely-powdered diamond dust; (3) copper. It was the genera],, but scientifically incorrect, belief in Baroda that diamond dust is a. deadly poison. Colonel Phayre shared this belief. Ope of the doctors who made the analyses expressed the opinion when asked that the siliceous matter that had been in the tumbler might have been powdered diamond. DIVIDED OPINION. Evidence in support of the prosecution was given by a servant of Colonel Phayre, a diamond merchant, and the Gaekwar's private secretary, each of whom had previously made a confession after having been arrested by the police. Thero was considerable delay in announcing tho finding of the Court. The three English Commissioners came to the conclusion that the Gaekwar was guilty, but the three native Commissioners were of opinion that the prosecution had failed. No further action was taken, but a few days later a proclamation was issued by the Government c' India deposing the Gaekwar 011 tho ground of abuses committed previous to, and miconnected*with, the case of alleged poisoning. Sarjent Ballantine wae paid a fee of £10,000 for his services, but. he lost the greater part of the money in speculation on the Stock Exchange when he returned to London. The loss preyedon his mind and disturbed his mental balance, and in consequence his practice at the Bar fell away.