'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' [‎37r] (73/118)

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room in Afghanistan and the other in British Territory. We tried to
encourage the locals to grow vegetables, including tomatoes, both to improve
their health and keep them out of mischief, but although they sometimes
suffered from scurvy they would never eat tomatoes, though they were ready
enough to send them to Quetta for sale in the market. It was a question
of Dastur nahin hai i.e.’It is not our custom”, and that was the end of the
argument as far as they were concerned, scurvy or no scurvy.
Interesting people came to stay at 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. from time to time and
one day when we went to lunch with the Hays,Freya Stark was there. She
was a thin dark lady, of uncertain a-ge, dressed in long flowing garments, and
wearing long strings of beads. It was hard to realise that she was such an
intrepid explorer and traveller in Arabia and the Middle East generally, but
having met her it made me appreciate her books all the more when I read them
later on.
During 19^3 - 19^ an aerodrome was under construction near Pishin
about twenty miles outside Quetta. It was really to be just an advanced
landing ground for our fighters should the German attack through Afghanistan
ever materialise. The labour force was recruited locally and was almost
entirely Muslim but the man in charge of operations was a Sikh, and early
one morning I was informed that he had been killed by a gang of tribesmen
in search of loot, and in particular the pay chest. This they had taken
and made away into the Border hills nearby before anyone could stop them.
I went straight out by car to investigate the crime on the spot, as this
was within tribal territory and therefore not within the jurisdiction of
the regular Police, but although it was perfectly clear what had happened
the culprits were never caught. The fact that the dead man was a Sikh did
not make things easier as no local Muslim was keen to give information
against his co-religionists where a non-believer was concerned, and Sikhs
in particular were not popular in that part of the world. From time to time
during my magisterial career I had to try cases of murder but this was the
only occasion on which I had to investigate one, unfortunately with no
satisfactory result.
In November the hunting season started in Quetta and I wrote M 0n
Sunday I hunted for the first time and my old nag went very well indeed and
we were in at the kill. We had a fast run, dusty and right into the rising
sun, so one couldn't see a thing but the old horse jumped at the right
places and we arrived intact and together. It was all great fun, except
the getting up in the dark on a cold morn”. In fact hunting round about
Quetta could be quite hair-raising at times as one could suddenly come on
a "karez" i.e. a water channel cut sheer down for 13 ft* o;r 50 1 but dead
level on the surface, so almost invisible until one was right on top of it.
I was lucky enough never to fall into one, and could thank having an
experienced hunter like Wild Ranger for this. We hunted both fox and
jackal and there was never any shortage of the latter. My particular
companion out hunting was Peter Knight, a young I.C.S. Political, who was
Settlement Officer in Quetta. He had a car and often gave me a lift out