'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' [‎15v] (30/118)

- 22
On March 22nd I went to a Tennis At Horne given by the
Maharani .to meet the Maharajah of Jaipur. I liked him, and years
later in Quetta I was to see more of him when he was at the Staff
College and I was Assistant 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. .
On March 24th I went with the Weirs down to Baroda City to
view the Moharrum Procession. It is of course a big Moslem Festival
but in Baroda all the communities joined in and made a general ’’tamasha"
of it all and there was none of the inter-communal tension usual on such
occasions in Northern India. It was most impressive and included amongst
other things the State Elephants, the Dewan (Prime Minister) being on one
of them and Prince Khanderat, one of H. H’s grandsons on another. The
Prince was deputising for his grandfather who was away in England. Both
of them, of course, were Hindus but the local Muhammedans saw nothing
odd in this.
On March 28th I accompanied the Weirs in the evening to the
Arena Sports, which formed part of the Maharajah's ?4th Birthday
celebrations. They included wrestlers, buffalo and ram fights and
elephant baiting. I can still hear the awful crash of two elephants
meeting head on, though apparently with no lasting ill effects.
, . The birthday celebrations ended with a State Garden Party
Ufter dinner 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. ) and the Maharani left for Europe that
same night of.April 2nd to join H.H. It may have been on this or some
eariier occasion at the Palace, that for the first and only time in my
-el saw Jie Maharajahs (or anyone else's) Dancing Girls. They still
performed beautifully the almost ritual dances, but they were all friends
ox his youth and seventy plus, so there was no danger of my being led
astray•
Lari *v, 6 Rajpipla, owner of the Derby winner Windsor
S Cas a nSianf , ^ ^ ^ Smaller States in the Gu ^ at Agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. .
Suronean f araasln S Person but he had rather a penchant for
ore woS/meet w Un0 !! i kachground and one never knew quite whom
one would meet m ms household.
Australian^hanT -11 ^ Bishop of Bombay came up on tour with his
eve^y mo^h to iSd’ E11;LOtt - J he latter * knew as he had visited us
S t“i i f ° r thS Eul, 0 P eaa community and any other
So l^tair and ? STl' ,f + the f 1 —« away, and Monica low
‘’•oin ^ 1 to Church fw-ie ■ Jt ° en ^ er ' :aan the Bishop, quite apart from
ISfsent the LS “ ^ ^ again in the evening, to
this he did his du?y nlly ±n Respite
only localSurSS 37 I l 00k thS B1Sh ° P and Slli °tt to Pavaghad, the
sheer from "rslrro^ding pSn^a^d t0 3 ’ 00 ° ft ‘
S p n, and it was hot work climbing it in the