'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎28r] (55/118)

I felt a little like Rip Van Winkel when I arrived, returning to
the Battalion after nearly three and a half years away, but I soon got into
the swing of things again and took over command of "A" Company almost
immediately, as Bill Gahan was off on a month's leave to Kulu to fish and
was then going straight back to Dharmsala where the Battalion was due to
return at the end of March 19^+0.
With effect from the date of my rejoining the battalion, on the
24th January 1940, I became an Acting Captain. This was rather a joke as
my permanent promotion to that rank was due anyway on the 28th January, i.e.
four days later, and my additional pay for those four days was the subject of
prolonged correspondence with the Chief Military Accountant's Office.
Eventually, they insisted that it be repaid on the grounds that I had only
been an Acting Captain for four days, whereas the Regulation was that to
be paid for acting rank one had to be "acting" for a minimum of 21 days.
There had been much more serious trouble with the C.M.A. during a pre-war
Frontier operation. On that occasion there were casualties, including two
deaths and applications were therefore made for widow's pensions for the
dead riflemen's wives. The C.M.A. argued that since there had not been an
official war on at the time, the men could not have been killed so no
widows' pensions were payable. In the end, but only after the case had
been taken to the very highest authority, the ruling was reversed and the
poor women got their pensions. Accounts "babus" (clerks) whether civil or
military, were sticklers for the letter of the law, but on one occasion an
irate Deputy Commissioner got the better of them. After interminable
argument as to whether his station was 100 or 101 miles from Headquarters, he
had the milestone outside his office dug up and transported the 101 miles
by bullock cart to H.Q. The correspondence then ceased and his travelling
claim was paid.
Life in Razmak was pretty monotonous. Road Protection on one day,
with the chance of possible action with "hostiles" in the offing, but
ordinary parades and training on the others; and no going outside the perimeter
fence fo/any outside amusement. I was glad I had arrived at the end of the
Battalion's two year stint there and not at the beginning.
On the 3rd March 1940 I received telegraphed orders to go to the
Nepalese Contingent. This meant leaving Razmak as soon as possible and
going straight to Raxual on the Nepalese Border to meet them and when
returning to Dehra Dun where the Brigade was to undergo training. was
supposed to arrive at Raxual by the 11th March but as tnere was no oa
Open Day to Bannu that week my chances of getting there were slim, as it
was a five or six day rail journey from Bannu. Efforts were ma e ^o
me down by Armoured Car to Bannu but in the end none was available an
eventually I had to go straight to Dehra Dun. As I wrote at the time,
"Bang goes my leave and all our arrangements for house 2 . servan ^ h ^
furniture in Dharmsala". However, there were compensations. ‘
was a good station and dealing with Gurkhas in a very raw s a
prove interesting*