'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' [‎27r] (53/118)

a detachment on Moharraq, ra thrsmali a isla^d a at tacked"to S BLr^ ff ^ ^
Whe r At ^ time there was septate civir^’
airfield but flying boats landed on the sea between the two islands Hoharraa
was used mainly as a staging post and there was another airfield
on the -Tru.cial Coast, also staffed by the B.A.F where T hed^ a ^ nar;|ah ’
way home on leave in 1937 . * X tla< ^ ^ an ^ e< ^ on m y
kith», STpbSSbS'hS 1 ^ :;rM; ?“? n "" 17 4 - lt
contact With tne Government of India and also with the Foreign Office i^ondon
and I, as his dogsbody, was kept fully occupied. All kinds of additional
problems arose as a result of the war, though it was then still, of course the
stage of the -'phoney war". There was, too, a good deal of socih activity’
of BAPCO?® 6 1 Eur ° pean co ™ un ity in Manama and with the senior stiff
!* e g ni 1939 news came that the Military Officers of my
entry m the Political Service, the senior not yet confirmed in the Service,
in ‘rtiir nr the Army - 1 had been about this for some time
Cnio th ^ Lhere was a war 0n I should be back with my Regiment,
oionei^rior, however, wanted to keep me in the Gulf and came back from a
. ri t visit to to^say that it had been arranged that I should stay on
in Bahrain as Staff Officer in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ". What exactly this would
have entailed I never discovered for, much to his annoyance and nrobably to
?!! p e ^^ ent ^ Career as a Political, I insisted on rejoining the
S ° f t ? 6 1stGarkhas * Th ey were then stationed in Razmak, about
o,OOOi o above sea level, in the midst of tribal territory.
Karachi i ^ 6ft 3a ^ rain by sea on the 31st December 1939, landed at
Karacni lour days later, and arrived in Lucknow by rail on the 4th January,
Bar f; ons * He was in the I.C.3. and they were old friends
ot uane s mother. We nad previously known them in Bareilly just after our
with S them fo Wh fh h M R WaS -?n ePUty Comraissioner there. In fact Jane had stayed
h -, h f r ohe 3are: Llly Week" while I had stayed at the Club, for what
nad been a very memorable few days.
r ,, Bes iies actual travelling time I had two weeks "joining time" since
nf n^ r - tUrn i nS from ou tside India, and we had two happy weeks, meeting a lot
R h . r:L ® na s and relaxing after what had been a very hectic last month in
^fn ln : • ? J ^ uar y 16th 1 set off by train for Bannu, the Headquarters of
ao , 1Soric t oi that name and the nearest rail head for Razmak. It took
hours and when I arrived I found that I had just missed the last convoy,
i. ere was so much unrest in those days in Waziristan that the road was only
£n° r - traffiC t0 Razmak about once a week and on those days the whole
" a , miles, had to be picquetted by troops from the various costs alone*
tne route. °
o .^ Bannu v/as quite a large Cantonment and the Headquarters of a
rigade. At the time of my arrival it was stiff with troops as there were