"حكاية جد: مذكرات معنية في أغلبها بالخدمة في الجيش الهندي والخدمة السياسية الهندية في الهند والخليج الفارسي في الفترة ١٩٣٢-١٩٤٧" [ظ‎‎٢‎٤] (١١٨/٤٨)

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Bushire v/a.s not rnuch above sea level, the flat lands extending
to about twenty miles inalnd where the mountains began. There was a
golf course of sorts, but the surface was mostly of baked mud with old
oyster shells embedded in it from the time when it had been under the
sea, and the ,, greens M were in fact of fine sand on a flat mud j-oundacion.
Accuracy was extremely difficult but one could, on occasions nit
astonishingly long drives as one's ball v/ent oouncing on and on
indefinitely over the iron-hard surface.
There must, I think, have been some tennis courts but while we
were there we should have been hard put to it to raise a four. Apart
from the Residency staff, including the young man in the Hashti, there
were no Europeans in Bushire, and no other members of the games playing
class. In Bushire city there were some Arab and Indian merchants as well
as the Persians, but they were far too busy trading to do much else. It
was quite unlike an Indian station, or even Bahrain, where all nationalities
met socially and those inclined played games together regardless of race
or religion.
The Resident had a radio and this was our only means of keeping
in daily contact with what was going on in the outside world. On one
occasion it went wrong and there was great despondency but Jane fiddled
about with it and eventually, I think, gave it a kick in despair, and it
suddenly came to life again. She acquired great merit with Sir Trenchard
by this achievement. There was practically no rainfall in Bushire and
none at all in the summer, and by July the temperature was 115° to 120°
in the daytime and not much under 100° at night, though in the Residency,
which was an old building with thick walls, high ceilings and wide
verandahs, one could, with the help of fans, keep reasonably cool. Towards
the end of July we all moved up to summer headquarters in Shiraz, leaving
only Hugh Ruston behind to hold the fort.
Shiraz was 180 miles from Bushire and at about 6,000 ft above sea
level, but to get to it one had to go over a high pass the Pir-i-'X^n (the
old woman) some 11,000ft. The road had originally been constructed by
British engineers during the 191^-18 War, and at one point one could look
down and count seventeen hairpin bends. Shiraz was in a fertile plain
and grapes of various kinds were Widely cultivated. At that time everyone
was very friendly, both in the city and the countryside, and when we went
out for our early morning ride the peasants would feed not only us but
our horses with bunches of grapes.
The Residency bungalow, known as the Bagh-i-Sheikh was not very
large and since Mrs. Rushton and her children were staying there as well
as the Resident himself, Jane and I were parked out in the guesthouse of
the BritishCi 1 oreign Office) Consul, permanently stationed in Shiraz, who
lived in the house next door. This guesthouse was a small mudbrick two-
roomed building, consisting of one bedroom and one sittingroom. Since
we only slept there and had all our meals with Sir Trenchard, it was
ample for our needs, except that not having been occupied for sometime
it was swarming with sandfly. Jane was immune but they attacked me