'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' [‎38v] (76/118)

- 68 -
had amongst other things a large refrigerator, run on kerosene oil and
and electric light from our own small generator. When, occasionally, the
' frig went "on the blink” I got a working party of levies to come in and
turn it upside down and shake it. This loosened up the crystals and all
was well for another few months, after which the process had to be repeated.
When I arrived at Panjgur the Gardiners were still there, but
unfortunately just about to leave. He was the Adjutant of the Levy Corps
and Second Political Assistant, but had been acting in command since my
predecessor had departed some months before. I had known Gardiner as a
bachelor in Agra and also met them in Quetta when they were up on leave a
few weeks earlier. I liked them both but he had already done two and a half
years in Mekran and was overdue for transfer, and they left on 1st September
just a month after my arrival. Normally we would have gone on a long tour
together first, so that he could shew me round the whole area but the rains
had prevented that, since all the roads South were impassable until the end
of August.
Gardiner’s departure meant that I had his job to do as well as my own,
including the detailed military training of the Levies. There were 650 men
in the Mekran Levy Corps, 192 camels and 4 horses. We also had a few lorries
and two Chevrelet stationvagons. I did most of my touring in the latter but
often had to cannibalize one wagon to keep the other on the road. One always
took enough emergency supplies and water for two weeks, a box of one dozen
inner tubes and two complete wheels from the wagon not in use. I had a most
excellent driver, Habibullah, who had been in Mekran for seventeen years.
He was also a first-class mechanic. This was just as well as the nearest
garage for repairs was in Quetta three hundred miles away. All the same I
always heaved a sigh of relief when we got within thirty or forty miles of
our destination, as I then knew that if necessary we could complete the
journey by camel.
The Mekrani camels were smaller than the camels of the Rajputuna
Desert and accustomed to travelling over rough rocky country as opnosed to
soft sand. (It was rather like the difference between an Arab horse and a
Waler), But they could carry two men, fully armed, and cover forty miles a
day quite easily. For this reason our Beau Geste type forts along the
Persian Border were sited roughly forty miles apart, so that camel patrols
could rendezvous half-way and get back to their respective posts within the
day. Each fort was normally garrisoned by a platoon of about forty men
commanded by a rissaldar or jemadar and was relieved roughly every other
month, so that of the total xorce half was usually in Panjgur and half on
detachment. There was a certain amount of smuggling and occasional raiding
across the Border xrom the Persian side, hence the necessity for constant
patrolling by our Levies.
I had no idea when Gardiner's successor was likely to arrive but I
understood he would almost certainly be a bachelor and mess with us, though
there was in fact a small separate house for the Adjutant. The immense