39
people to turn them adrift at Peshawar to find their way back to their distant homes with all
their long toil and great expense gone for nothing. The journey takes months. They have,
as they say, spent the savings of a lifetime on it. If they are sent back with their cherished
hoped and declared object, the Haj, unperformed, they willbennable.mostof them to attempt
it a second time, their highest religious aspiration on earth will thus be crushed, and for the
rest of their lives their countrymen will point the finger of scorn at them as men who having
put their hand to the plough turned back and who are therefore not fit for the kingdom of
God. They are in a great state of excitement on the point, and I hope that Government
Λνίΐΐ see their way to supporting them in Peshawar or elsewhere in India till the pilgrimage
is declared open. As they are Russian, Chinese and Afghan subjects, the expediency of
treating them thus generously is from a political point of view apparent, and if they get the
boon they crave, they may safely be trusted to carry back to their respective countries
the most glowing accounts of the kindness and liberality of the English Government."
10. Government, on receipt of the petition, at once entered into telegraphic
communication with the Government of India on the subject, and by the 7th
of March it was settled that 60 out of the 150 Central Asians, who had funds to
maintain themselves till the next Haj, should be allowed to remain at Peshawar
as private travellers. The Punjab Government was asked by the Government
of India to make arrangements for sending the remainder, who were destitute,
beyond the frontier.
11. On the morning of the 6th March, 1 man, 1 woman and 3 children,
belonging to the State of Hutlarn, were sent off with an escort. On the night
of the 8th the 116 Bengalis were despatched in charge of the escort sent for
them, and 2 pilgrims from Jeypore in charge of the Jeypore escort. The Central
Asians, Punjabis and Hindustanis left Nasik Road Station in a special train
on the morning of the 9th, in charge of Mr. "Warburton, Assistant Inspector-
General, Railway Police, Punjab, and a strong party brought by him consisting
of 1 Native Assistant Surgeon, 1 European Inspector of Police, 1 Native
Inspector of Police, 2 Deputy Inspectors of Police, 5 Sergeants of Police and 54
Constables. Two Central Asians were detained, as a woman who had given
birth to a child in the preceding week could not be moved, and her relations
remained with her. The special train went through to Peshawar, but those
pilgrims whose homes were at other places in the Punjab were dropped at inter-
vening stations with a small guard for each batch, if necessary. Food was
supplied to all the pilgrims en route gratuitously, and tickets purchased for all
who left the special train after it arrived in the Punjab to travel to their homes
by branch lines. Mr. Warburton telegraphed on the 10th March that Hàji Kamil,
a pilgrim, of Khokand, had died suddenly that morning between Barkhera and
Bhopal. According to the medical certificate, the cause of death was anaemia,
scurvy and heart disease, and there were no symptoms of plague. The remainder,
so far as is known, reached Peshawar or their homes safely. Thirty Madras
pilgrims were sent off in charge of the Malabar escort provided on the morning
of the 10th Marcb, and the remaining 64 pilgrims, 38 of whom were Sindhis and
26 Beluchis, were sent on the llth from Nasik to Bombay, where they were
marched with the least possible delay on board the S.S. " Pachumba, " which
left for Karachi on the morning of the 12th. Upon arrival at Karachi, tbey
were at once sent by rail up-country to the stations nearest 'their homes, those
bound for Beluchistan being booked to Quetta, and the extra Assistant Com-
missioner, Sibi, being asked to take them over from the Karachi Police at Sibi. It
may be mentioned that, before being despatched, all the pilgrims, their clothes
and effects were, at the request of the Government of India, disinfected with
solutions of bi-chloride of mercury and carbolic acid. The pilgrim who had been
suffering with small-pox died on the llth March.
12. The camp being thus clear, arrangements had already] been made for
removing to it without delay the few pilgrims who still remained in Bombay.
Since the despatch of the first lot, 11 more pilgrims had been discovered in
different mosques, where they had been hiding, and these with the 21 left over
on the former occasion were sent off by train to Nasik Road Station on the
morning of the llth March, after being medically inspected in Bombay, and
arrived at Nasik in the afternoon. The military escort was dispensed with,
and they were guarded simply by police. Precautions were taken to prevent
the five Bokharis, who had been detained, mixing with the fresh arrivals. These
consisted of 11 Central Asians, 3 Afghans, 12 Punjabi Pathàns, and 2 Bengalis,
as shown in the following table :