Memoirs of Meredith Worth [‎5v] (10/12)

10
which supplied food grains to the army to provide the engineers and drivers
to run the scheme and to select all the tractors, dozers and workshops which
would be required. Within a month all the machines had reached Quetta and were
under the control of Mr Parsons, thejengineer from'Messrs Owen Roberts,
Demonstrations were promptly arranged and they aroused such enthusiasm that
work programmes were filled up for the next months. Unfortunately we were
only able to see the start of this work before independence.
Looking back on my years in India I think that I had more work and
greater responsibilities when I was S.D.O. Barrackpore in Bengal than I ever
had in any post under the Government of India, I never saw the need for the
b irth of a separate Political Service. I remember arguments for and against
a^Crown Department and a Crown Service unti}. finally officers in the Foreign
and Political Department were told that they were members of an Indian Political
Service. Personally I always considered myself to be a member of the Indian
Civil Service serving under the Government of India, bejjp were over-^staffed^
made to wear expensive and uncomfortable uniforms which were really an
anachronism and were regarded as a nuisance, and sometimes as figures of fun,
by some of the Rulers. It was clear that they would never combine to form a
Federal State or States and that we would have to repudiate our solemn
treaties with them. Therefore!' sill that we could reasonably do was to advise
the Rulers not to take all the Stfste revenues for themselves and to get rid
of any obvious abuses in their Governments.
I had nany Hindus and S*khs on my staff in Baluchistan. They moved
round the Province on tour in perfect safety, staying with Baluchi and Pathan
landowners without any racial or religious antagonism. But after Independence
Day I was told that refugees from East Punjab came to Quetta and set about
murdering all Hindus and Sikhs who had been unable to get away. I am sure
that those of us who worked in North India are ashamed and bitter at the
atrocities which took place, and at our inability to arrange a peaceful
transfer of populations between the two new nations. Tite cold-blooded decision
to accelerate the transfer of power, which was certain to lead to bloodshed
and hatred, and the deceit in using the excuse of Paramountcy to reward the
loyalty of the Riders by scrapping their Treaties %ith the Crown and so
destroying the States for ever have overshadowed any feelings of satisfaction
I may have had in helping in a very small way in creating new self-governing
countries.
After spending the leave due to me in Australia I took temporary
employment, thanks to the kindness of Mr Casey, with the Commonwealth
Department of Works & Housing as Chief Clerk dealing with all correspondence
concerning construction work on the Long Ra n g e .eapons site at t/oomera. I wao
soon made Secretary of the Main Works Committee and then the Department’s
representative on the Commonwealth Defence & Research and Long Range Weapons
Committees. I was also asked to be Secretary of the Commonwealth Immigration
Works Committee and the Commonwealth Fire Committee.