Memoir of the Career of Thomas Edward Rogers [‎22r] (43/118)

ll
three thousand miles away next day at Basrah. There life seemed normal though
only six weeks before British troops, partly landed at Basrah, had completed
at Bagdad the putting down of Rashid Ali's German-backed revolt. That night
the heat and humidity of my hotel at Basrah outdid my worst nights in Bengal.
I spent it in the bath as marginally cooler than my torrid bed, but next days
the steel decks of the British India Company's boat for Bushire, Gulf ports and
Bombay were even hotter. I dropped next morning into the hands of Pat
(M.P.O'C) Tandy, whom I was to succeed, as the 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. launch bobbed awkwardly
at the shallow offshore anchorage of harbourless Bushire. The anchorage would
soon figure in inquiries I and others would make into the limits which the need
for lightering would impose on the throughput of war supplies. The occupation
of Persia within a month of my arrival by Anglo-Russian forces would provide a
direct link with the Russian front.
Though I began with normal consular work the small 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. staff was soon
concentrating on the occupation and its aftermath. Pat Tandy having handed over
after one last dawn sortie to shoot an antelope, Charles (A.C.) Stewart and I were
the only senior staff in Bushire on the night Paiforce came over the border at
the head of the Gulf from Iraq. Reports were reaching us that the powerful
nomadic Qashqai tribe in their lands north and east of Bushire were harbouring
members of the large and influential German community for which most Persians
I
had respect. In the 1914-48 war the Qashqai had risen in support of the Central
Powers and at one point forced the British Consulate at Shiraz to surrender: and
there was later to be abounding proof of Qashqai involvement with German agents
in the present conflict. Charles and I decided to take no chances, especially as
the reaction of the Persian authorities to the entry of British and Russian troops
could not be known for certain. We therefore burned the ciphers in the only
primitive way available, putting a match to kerosene-soaked cardboard and heavy
paper. We felt the better for it until Delhi, with the appearance of prim# hindsight,
told us rather tartly that replacements would be slow in coming.