'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' [‎42v] (84/118)

I had hoped to get a month’s leave in India before going home to England
in July, but owing to Springford's late arrival this did not prove possible,
and I did not finally leave for Quetta until the begi-mTlng ~of~ JulyT ^ : I-
Middle
Just after my return to Panjgur early in May 19^5 had come V. E. Day and
this we celebrated there as best we could with our rather limited resources.
We had a ceremonial Parade of all the Levy Coi*ps present in the station and
later I gave a ’’burra Khana” (literally ”big dinner”) to as many of the Staff
and Levy Officers as I could accommodate, but it was impossible to include
everyone, and this led to problems, particularly with the Locust Control people,
whose senior officer thought they should all be invited. I explained to him "
gently that there simply was not room for everybody and that therefore each
organization including his had been asked to choose its own representatives up
to a limited number, and these in turn should include individuals from each
section of the body concerned. He accepted the situation with some reluctance,
but in the end the party was a great success. In Quetta, of course, celebrations
were on a much grander scale and Jane took some part in organizing a party and
a dance for British troops, and she and Christopher attended the Victory Parade
and Fireworks display, both of which he much enjoyed.
Apart from the V.E. Day Parade we had two other special Salaami Parades
whilst I was in Mekran. The first was in honour of the A. G. G. Colonel Hay
on the 18th December 19^4 and the second for His Highness the Khan of Kalat
when he visited Mekran in April 19^5. His representative in Mekran was the
Wazir Minister. -i-Mekran, whose headquarters were at Isai Kalat, four miles South of
Panjgur. The Wazir Minister. was an entertaining character but I did not trust him very
far and on one occasion when we were both visiting Norman Ramsay, the Wazir Minister. -i-
Azam, at the latter’s house in Kalat, he insisted in carrying on a spirited
conversation with me in Baluchi, well aware that Ramsay could not understand
what we were saying. Ramsay, not unnaturally, was not best pleased, but on the
other hand it amazed me that during his time as Prime Minister of Kalat State
he had not bothered to learti the local language,
i^arly in 19^5 John, Jane’s long lost brother, whom she had not seen since
their parents parted in 1924, arrived in India from England and got into touch
with his mother. In mid«»May Jane had a telegram from Mrs. Hamilton, saying
that John, now a Gunner Captain in Ambala, was getting fourteen days leave and
suggesting that we should all spend it together. As, however, I could not o-et
away from Mekran, Jane arranged to leave the children and their ayah in Quetta
with a friend and went off to join her mother and brother in Mussoorie, near
Dehra Dun, the place where she and I had stayed in June 1940, before Christopher
was born. As John and Jane had not met since they were six and four years oid
respectively, it promised to be an interesting meeting and I think they found
In the middle of June 1945 I left Panjgur for the last time. I had
enjoyed my year in what was still veritably an outpost of Empire but I was
very weary and more than ready for long leave. On my last tour South I had
.(.u ^ ea;r S e ^l ema u, a local notable, and after we had discussed the state
oi the crops, such as they were, and the number of his sons, and exchanged all
manner of local gossip and I was about to bid him farewell, he turned to me