'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎46r] (91/156)

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Rajkot. The Sabar Kantha Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. was abolished, and all the Salute States
formerly in the charge of the Resident of Baroda (with the exception of
Baroda which the Resident retained) were transferred to a new Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. ,
that of the P.A. Gujerat States with headquarters at Bulsar, in Surat
District. There were eleven Salute States, 16 semi-jurisdictional
States and 54 non-jurisdictional ones the majority of these were
attached to Baroda. At the same time, all Salute States^_formerly in
relations with the Rajkot Resident were placed with the BrS. of western
and Eastern Kathiawar, with the exception of Cutch, which the
Resident retained and Idar, which was transferred to Rajputana."
Certain of the States of Kathiawar were uniquely situated in that they had to a greater
or lesser extent a maritime sea board. Cutch, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Porbandar, Nawanagar,
Mangrol, Morvi and Baroda were the lucky ones in this category and all these States
owned sea ports of varying sizes which handled a certain amount of coastal trade by
dhow A term adopted by British officials to refer to local sailing vessels in the western Indian Ocean. , some of which made trips to East Africa and the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . Early in the cen
tury these maritime states had been granted gradual, but substantial, concessions in
regard to customs duties and other easements, which enabled them to compete with the
port of Bombay, where the import duties had been increased as a measure of protection
to native industry and for the purpose of yielding an increased federal income. To
counter this competition, the Government of India had established a customs cordon at
a railway junction at the land entrance to Kathiawar, which became known as the 'Viramgam
Line’. In 1917 the Line had been abolished after the Maritime States had undertaken
to increase their customs duties to the level of those of Bombay, but abuses crept in
and the cordon was eventually re-established in 1927. It still existed in my time,
but it was never wholly successful. A good deal of minor smuggling continued to occur
despite the precautionary customs barrier.
I had not been in Rajkot many months when the changes to which Terence Craigh-Coen had
referred, came into being. The consequence was a great increase in the work of the
new Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and in particular for the unfortunate Secretary to the Resident, since
the latter now had two headquarters at a considerable distance from each other and a
great many more states under his jurisdiction. The actual re-organisation of the newly
established political charge was highly complicated, and the work time-consuming and
arduous. About the same time there was a change in the person of the Resident, and
Sir Cyril Hancock, K.C.I.E., O.B.E., M.C., arrived from Calcutta to take over the dual
charge. He was a real live wire - comparatively young, but keen and highly experienced.
In his early career he had served for long periods in political posts /Kathiawar and
Gujeratf at a time when the States in this part of India came under the Government of
Bombay. To me he was a kind and considerate chief, but he was a glutton for work, and
a hard task-master. We became firm friends, and have remained so to this day. He is
now (1983) a neighbour aged 86 but his faculties and memory have remained unimpaired.