'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' [‎40v] (80/118)

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For a week I had to nurse the whole family in addition to my ordinary
work. Luckily, I did not go down with the disease myself and in fact I was
lucky enough never to contract malaria during the whole of my twenty years
service in India, Persia and Central Africa.
The chief reason for my going to Quetta in November had been to discuss
with the Resident, Colonel Hay, his proposed tour of Mekran in December. I
warned him then that the weather in December-January was usually bad, that
the Quetta road was liable to be snowed up from time to time and the ’’roads ' 1
South from Panjgur to the Coast were liable to flooding. However he would
not be put off and on December 1 ?th he and his party arrived. This consisted
of Colonel and Mrs. Hay, their five children, Norman Ramsay ( Wazir Minister. -i-
Azara Kalat) and Ken Saker ( Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. Kalat) and his wife Angela, a total
of ten Europeans plus about forty camp followers. It was indeed a mighty
invasion and they stayed with us for two days and went South on the 19th. It
had originally been intended that I should go with them, but I managed to
persuade Colonel Hay that it would be as well that I should stay at Panjgur
to cope with any emergencies that might arise.
His intention was to spend Christmas in Jiwani but on the day they left
us there was heavy rain. The party managed to get as far as Turbat, a hundred
miles south of Panjgur, but were stuck there as the Jiwani road was by then
under water. After sitting there for two days they decided to go to Pasni
instead, as the road there was shorter and better, and there they stayed. They
were due back at Panjgur en route for Quetta on December 28th but by that time
the Quetta road was snowed up and there had been further floods in the South,
and this time the Pasni-Turbat road was cut, so the whole Hay menage was
marooned in Pasni. Eventually after an enormous traffic in cipher telegrams
which I could well have done without at Christmas time, arrangements were made
with the Navy to collect them from Pasni and take them all in a frigate the
three hundred miles to Karachi, whence they eventually returned to Quetta by
rail, a matter of another eight hundred miles. They arrived there early in
January 19^5 and I dare say the Hay children found the whole expedition a great
adventure but I do not think the various adults concerned enjoyed themselves
very much.
It did not actually snow in Panjgur but we had a bitterly cold wind which
blew across the desert for ten days at a time. It was a very severe winter
and in Quetta they had deep snow as we had had two years before in 1942-1943.
We had a quiet but pleasant family Christmas and I was glad that I was not
flood bound in Pasni. We had Mr. Bullock, the wireless operator, to midday
Christmas Dinner, and he Jane and I kept out the cold with hot rum and lemon.
He, poor man, must have been very lonely as he had no family with him in
Panjgur and no one but us to talk to. This he did non-stop for three hours
and neither Jane nor I could get a word in edgeways, but he was a nice little
man and we were very glad to have him.
When the weather was reasonable Jane and I would often go for a walk in
the evening, sometimes taking Christopher with us. On these occasions we
were always accompanied by an armed guard and sometimes we split up just to
see what the man would do. In fact he always then followed me, leaving Jane
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