"أيام ثيم ولَّت" [و‎‎٣‎٥] (٢٤٨/٦٩)

36
Department was appraised. (My predecessor had been returned to
store because, in addition to other shortcomings, he had come
into dinner smoking his pipe and had placed the object, still
fuming, beside his place! I understood he had been brought up in
Australia ) .
Apart from being under the microscope, one had to do the work (if
that is the right word) of an A.D.C. The complexities of the
Indian Warrant of Precedence had to be mastered. That vast tome
listed all the Government appointments in India in order of
importance, and woe-betide the unfortunate who placed the wife of
an Assistant Superintendent of Police above the wife of an
Inspector of Canals'at the dinner table!
An extract from the Warrant of Precedence of the Government of
India published in 1940 (in the midst of our 1 i f e-and-death
struggle with Nazi Germany!) shows how specifically the hierarchy
was ranked!
".. 48 Actuary to the Government of India; Chief Inspector of
explosives; Chief Judges of Small Cause Courts, Madras,
Bombay, and Calcutta. Controller of Printing and
Stationery; Directorof major laboratories.
49 Administrators-General; Central Intelligence Officers; --
Controllers of Patents and Designs; Directors of Land
Records; Directors of Veterinary Services, etc. etc."
Years later, travelling home, I found myself sitting on the
verandah of Shepherds Hotel in Cairo with a man returning from
Tanganyika. I mentioned that I was thinking of settling in Kenya
after the war, and he pressed me to choose Tanganyika instead.
"But," said I, (thinking of height above sea-level as I was
returning from the Persian Gulf), "How high up are you in
Tanganyika?" "Well," said he, bridling some what, "I'm the Deputy
Chief Sanitary Supervisor to the Government!" These things
m at t er .
Lorna (Lady Ogilvy) was steeped to the core in Precedence. The
story is told of her visiting the sick-bed of the wife of one of
her husband's subordinates. As the young woman drew herself up
in bed and pulled up the sheets, Lorna trilled "Lie down, my
dear, lie down. No Precedence in the bedroom!"
George Nathaniel Curzon (again) by this time Viceroy of India,
was asked to approve the menu for a state luncheon. He crossed
out the soup cour se and noted in the margin "Gentlemen do nnt paF
soup at luncheon!" “ 2 — —
Fortunately there was more to be done than functioning at parties
and receptions. Parliament, after years of gestation, had just
produced the Government of India Act 1935, acclaimed as one of
the best pieces of legislation ever to reach the statute book.
There is no doubt that, if it could have been brought into force,
it would probably have preserved India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
as one immensely