'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' [‎41r] (81/118)

and Christopher to fend xor themselves. The reason for the guard was that
at intervals during tne fairly distant past two of my predecessors had been
assassinated by Ghazis (Muslim religious fanatics) from across the Persian
border, intent on qualifying for immediate admission to paradise as a regard
for killing an infidel. Ever since those murders there had been a standing
order that the Political Officer should always have an armed escort wherever
he went. It could be irritating but the reasoning was sound as there were
still odd characters around and the border was only fifteen miles away from
Panjgur, and it was easy to slip across in either direction.
We had one political refugee from Persian Mekran living nearby, whom
we christened ,f the wicked uncle n . He had been a landowner in Persia, but had
made himself highly unpopular with his tenants, by his pastime of peppering
them with gunshot when they were up in their date palms harvesting the crop.
When I arrived he had been living on our side of the border for some time but
a close eye was kept on him and he was warned that if he misbehaved in any way
he would immediately be escorted back to his old home and handed over for
punishment to his erstwhile victims or their relatives. He was, I think,
quite mad but sufficiently sane to take the hint, and during my time, at least,
he behaved himself.
The camel lines were a little way out of Panjgur at Haji Khan and one
day the Salutri (Veterinary Assistant) came to my office and asked for
permission to put down one of the camels, aged thirty, as the poor old creature
was past work and generally unfit. I decided to go and have a look at him
myself, and also inspect all the other camels there, and took Jane and
Christopher with me. It was a flat sandy place with a few small trees and
bushes, and when we arrived the camels were all lined up with their attendant
Levies, "Grandpa” being on the left of the line. It was obvious tha£ the
Salutri was quite right, and I gave permission for the old camel to be shot,
and asked Jane to take Christopher out of sight first, but before she could do
this a horde of shouting and excited figures erupted from the surrounding scrub,
headed by an old man waving a large curved dagger, and headed straight for me.
Jane was terrified and convinced that I was about to be assassinated, but all
they wanted was to be given the beast to eat after the old man had Hallal’d it
while it was still warm, in accordance with Islamic laws and custom. So Jane
and Christopher went back to the car, the camel was then slaughtered, and
within minutes had been hacked to pieces and joyfully removed by the local
populace. It must have been exceedingly tough meat but they counted it a
great and unexpected delicacy.
Early in 1945 a detachment of the Desert Locust Control Service arrived
in Panjgur, as the breeding grounds of the Desert Locust were only about fifty
miles away and they wanted to catch and destroy the locusts while they were
still in the hopper stage to prevent their swarming. This entailed a great
deal of labour, including the digging of deep trenches to entrap the noppers
which were then incinerated. A good deal of local labour had to be employed
and provided much needed cash for many of the tribesmen. I had earlier on
once encountered a,swarm of locusts, while.travelling by car in Northern
Baluchistan, and it was a terrifying experience. Ail the car windows were