He also expressed disapproval of the inability of most of his men to read and write. Although the Bombay Government was sympathetic with Mr. Souter's concerns, all it could do was to increase the size of the police force by about 100 men, which was still seriously inadequate. One of the notable challenges encountered by the Police Commissioner was recorded in 1884, when Mr. Souter and his men had to deal with the traffic of about 8,000 pilgrims passing through Bombay for the annual "Haj", or pilgrimage to Mecca, in addition to their regular work. Two years earlier, the annual pilgrim count justified the creation of a "passport system" and the appointment of a "Protector of Pilgims". It also pushed the Indian legislature to consider writing a "Pilgrims Brokers' Act". The Police Commissioner had his share of sensational crimes to be dealt with, the earliest of which was the robbery-motivated murder of four Marwardis by three Italians and one Austrian that happened in 1866; the police caught the murderers. After that, there were many other crimes involving human life and property – and some of the offenders were Europeans – but the records suggest that Mr. Souter and his men proved equal to the task of preventing and detecting crime. On 30 April 1888 Sir Frank Souter relinquished his position as Police Commissioner. Three months later, he died in his place of retirement, the Nilgiris in the Madras Presidency.