'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎30r] (59/156)

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CHAPTER 6: LEAVE IN ENGLAND 1938 - 1939
In April 1938, I was granted home leave. At the time, Mary and I had moved temporarily
from Bushire to Bahrain, and we decided that we would return overland to England. I
should perhaps explain that the Government of India operated a curious system for paying
for the passages to and from the United Kingdom for their expatriate civil, political
and military officers. Each of these, on first appointment, had credited to his
individual account the equivalent of the cost of four first class return passages which
was designed to last him for his entire service in India (Jn those days there was no
inflation; the value of the pound had not altered in years, and the rupee was always
the equivalent of one and sixpence!). The wife and children of an entitled officer
also had their own leave accounts. When one’s turn came round for home leave every
four or five years, the officer and his family were permitted to travel by any ship or
class of accommodation they liked so long as the cost of their return journeys did not
exceed that of the first class return ticket. A prudent officer would travel 2nd
class in at least one direction and so give himself one or more free extra passages
at the end of his career. The more adventurous indulged themselves by travelling
home across the Pacific via the USA or Canada; some even went to Vladivostock to
travel by rail across Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. For Mary and me there
was an alternative and more exciting route. We bought tickets which would take us
by sea to Basra and thence by rail and autocar via Bagdad to join the Taurus Express
on the Iraqi-Turkish frontier which would land us in Stamboul. From there we had the
choice of three different routes by the Orient Express to London. Believe it or not,
the cost of each ticket, including the sea journey and all hotels on the direct route,
2nd class sleeper accommodation, and all meals on the train was approximately £70
sterling.
It was blowing a gale when we were ferried out by motorized dh^w to the BI slow mail
off Bahrein. We were soaked to the skin by the spray by the time we boarded the ship.
Twenty-four hours later we were in Basra, whence we travelled by rail to Bagdad.
There we stayed two days in the famous Maud Hotel on the banks of the Tigris. This
was followed by a night journey by train to Kirkuk, the terminus of the line and the
centre of the oil fields exploited by the Anglo-Iraq Petroleum Company. Here we found
a fleet of rather elderly Rolls Royce saloon cars waiting for us, in which we,
superior grade passengers, were to travel the 250 or so miles northwards to the
Turkish border where the railway reasserted itself. At the end of the first day’s
overland journey, we reached Mosul, but not all the Rolls Royces had completed the
journey. One or two had broken down irretrievably on the execrable surfaces of the
so-called highway. If a car proved un-repairable on the spot, ie, by reason of a
broken spring, engine seizure, etc, its passengers transferred themselves and their