Note 211 — Chapter IV

General Pollock exerted himself to obtain an adjustment of the claims of Captain Conolly’s servants; and he succeeded. The letter which was written in reply to Pollock’s application shows in what light Lord Ellenborough regarded Conolly’s mission: “With reference,” wrote the Chief Secretary, “to your letter of the 23rd ultimo, on the subject of the remuneration applied for, on behalf of the servants attached to the mission of Lieutenant A. Conolly to Kokund, I am directed to inform you that the Governor-General has no knowledge of Lieutenant A. Conolly’s mission to Kokund having been authorised. On the contrary, his Lordship was informed, by the late President of the Board of Control, that Lieutenant A. Conolly was expressly instructed by him not to go to Kokund; and, in all probability, he owes all his misfortunes to his direct transgression of that instruction. The servants entertained by him, however, are not responsible for the indiscretion of their master. They were in the service of an officer apparently employed on a public mission by his government, and the Governor-General is prepared to consider their position favourably. His Lordship, therefore, authorises the disbursement of the sums stated in the papers attached to your letter, under reply to be due to these several persons; but the sums so paid on account of wages accruing to these several persons, after they left Khiva (after deducting therefrom the amount of wages which would have become due during a direct march to Caubul) will be made a charge against Lieutenant A. Conolly, who will be required to refund the amount, as well as all sums which may have been drawn on account of such an unauthorised extension of his mission.”—[Mr. Maddock to General Pollock: Simlah, Nov. 3, 1842. MS. Records.]