'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎27r] (53/156)

unnecessary quarantine restrictions would be imposed on the Resident when he returned
from touring on the Arabian side of the Gulf. He and his staff would be quarantined in
tents on a neighbouring and barren island until the danger of infection was judged to
have passed. Touring in the hinterland was discouraged for us, except to go to Shiraz,
where the Government of India maintained a "pavilion” complete with swimming pool in
the midst of an Omar Khayyam-like garden for the use of the Resident and those of his
staff who could be spared from the rigours of the coast.
In September 1935 I applied to the Political Department for special permission to
get married before my three-year probationary period was up, and this was kindly
granted. Mary was still in Rawalpindi, so I flew back to India via the weekly Air
France service. Previously, Imperial Airways had maintained a service to India and
beyond, flying down the Persian side of the Gulf with a stop at Bushire, but this had
been moved to the Arabian side of the Gulf as a result of continual harassment by the
Persian authorities. The Air France plane was a small three engined 'Potez' machine
which carried no more than ten passengers. The passengers boarding the aircraft at
intermediate stops had to be weighed together with their luggage in case their
combined weights, when added to what was already on the manifest, exceeded the per
mitted load on board. As my fellow-passengers were all portly French colonial officials
returning to their posts in Indo-China, I was worried that I would find it difficult to
partake in the take-off. However, all was well. In those days, aircraft such as the
»fjotez' seldom flew at any great height. Most of the time we were not more than two or
three hundred feet above the sea. There was a night stop at Bandar Abbas, where the
French pilot and his crew were accustomed to go fishing in the bay. So they and we
passengers spent until midnight in a small dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. trying our hand at the local sport.
The next day, after an early start and the re-fuelling of the aircraft from four-
gallon drums of petrol in the close proximity of the passengers who smoked their
cigars oblivious of any danger, we set off again and finally landed at Karachi.
I took the train direct to Campbellpur, where my wife and I were married on the 12th
October, 1937 at the tiny R.C. Church there, by Father Bull, S.J., the Parish Priest
of Nowshera. My late D.C., Edward Eustace, who gave Mary away, kindly arranged a
reception at his house which was attended by many of our old friends. The 8th Cavalry,
who were then stationed at Kohat, was represented by an old friend of mine, Major
Gardiner (commonly known as the ’Mad Mali') who was a well known trainer of horses to
perform feats of jumping and haute ecole, seldom seen outside India.
My wife and I returned to Bushire by sea on the B.I. fast mail in the company of a
contingent of RAF Officers and men proceeding to Habbaniyah in Iraq, which was then
an important RAF base. Although I had done my best to prepare Mary for the somewhat