"حكاية جد: مذكرات معنية في أغلبها بالخدمة في الجيش الهندي والخدمة السياسية الهندية في الهند والخليج الفارسي في الفترة ١٩٣٢-١٩٤٧" [و‎‎٢‎٦] (١١٨/٥١)

normal I.C.S. pension which was rather higher. When the Foreign and
Political Department became the India Political Service in 1937 the oosition
changed altnough to the end the Army Political was slightly worse off as
q in 13 pe ^ slon onl y accrued from the date of his appointment
to the political Service, whereas the civilian's qualified from the date of
his original appointment to the I.C.S.
However, the retention of Army rank could on occasion lead to
misunderstanding and even umbrage being taken by senior officers in other
Services. For instance, the Air Officer Commanding in Iraq, whose command
then extended to the Persian Gulf, found it hard to understand why he, with
rank equivalent to that of a full General, had to yield precedence to the
Political Resident in the Persian Gulf who was a mere Lieutenant Colonel.
In the same way in India a Political Agent who might only have the army
rank of Captain or Major, would take precedence over all Lieutenant Colonels
in his District.
In 1939 the Political Agency in Bahrain was an old Arab building, or
at least built in the Arab style, with thick walls and large verandahs. The
Court Room and main offices were on the ground floor but the Political Agent's
personal office was upstairs as were all the living quarters. The new
Resident, Geoffrey Prior, was a bachelor and stayed with the Weightmans in
ohe Agency and had nis office there. Jane and I were put up by Jasper
Coates, the R.A.F. Liaison Officer for the Persian Gulf in his very*pleasant
new and palatial two storied house. His wife was at home and I think he
was quite glad of our company. Anyway we all got on very well together,
including our assorted company of servants. Apart from my Gurkha, Kama
Singh, we had a Persian cook, an Indian driver and Arab house-servants and
gardener. Despite the lack of a common language, the household ran surprisingly
smoothly. When we had a party, which happened quite frequently, Kama Singh
as the only non-Muslim would take it upon himself to drink up all the left
overs, and the next day to the amusement of the other servants, would spend
most of the morning with his head under the garden-tap.
Apart from assisting the Resident in any way I could and generally
acting as his A.D.C., I had various odd jobs thrust on me including the
training of the Bahrain Police Force to fire the Vickers Berthier Light
Machine Guns which had been sent from India soon after the war began. The
weapons came in boxes, unassembled and without any instructions, and I had
never set eyes on this particular kind of machine gun before. However,
after a process of trial and error, I got them together and before we actually
started training Havildar (Sergeant) Manya Khan of the 16th Punjab Regiment
arrived from India to help me. There was no suitable range available, as
hitherto the State Police had only been armed with the Lee Enfield .303 Rifle,
and had not been trained to fire at more than 200 yards. After some searching
I found a suitable site in the desert, backed by a high vertical cliff,
which would stop any stray shots not caught in the target area, and having
constructed the butts we put our sixteen hopefuls through the course, and
most of them did very well. It also helped me to improve my Arabic, which
was still elementary. Havildar Manya Khan seemed to get by with nods and
gestures, sometimes of a forcible kind.