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47
me a very
It also
the Can al
the DC was far too busy - but the compiling of it gave
valuable insight into the life of a Punjab village,
meant that I could spend spells near the village iri
th^rh 1 ’ ° k bun 9 alow at Marala at the foot of the Himalayas where
* ^ 7 ver ^bouches and is dammed by a barrage providing
irrigation for a vast area of land. In charqe was an
Anglo-Indian Canal Officer who happened to have an extremely
luscious teen-age daughter who suffered intense boredom from
ving in a place where she saw nobody but her parents. She used
to accompany me when I took my gun out for an evening walk
wearing the hottest of hot pants to show off her very seductive
thighs. It was guite a strain to keep the oath which my mother
and sister had extorted from me on leaving England - not to
become involved with a girl 'of the country'. I am glad to say
that I saw her during the war at an Officers dance in Peshawar
and obviously much in demand. From the fact that she was careful
not to recognise me I deduced that she exercised some reticence
as to her origins and I was glad to respect her wishes!
* ★ ★ ★
★ ★ ★ ★
★ ★ ★ ★
★ ★ ★ ★
During the monsoon I
in the Himalayas to
for a breath of fresh
was sent up to the hill-station of Dalhousie
undergo Treasury training and, incidentally,
s ummering in Kashmir).
air (my sister was
Each District had a Treasury into
of the Government and from which
had to be made. It also stored
was a government monopoly, and sold
I remember the smell with disgust to this day.
which was gathered the revenues
was disbursed such payments as
vast bales of raw opium, which
only to registered addicts.
I found the whole business unutterably boring, and I am afraid I
was not much good at it. However it was pleasant to have a few
weeks of cool weather in the summer out of the stifling heat of
theplains.
In the autumn
of the
of Sind
cal led
Si a 1kot
came orders of transfer to Multan in the South-West
Punjab. This was a large and ancient city on the borders
North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. Province, and the language,
was markedly different from the Panjabi of
and the
L a h n d i .
Another difference was that I found myself under the tuition of a
bachelor Deputy Commissioner, Kenneth Henderson, in whose house I
lived, together with three other trainees. It was a hapov
community.
There was no polo, unfortunately, as there was only an infantry
regiment stationed in Multan, but the shooting, particularly duck
and snipe, was excellent, and although the summer
fairly murderous, the winter and spring - which
I spent there - were delightful.
was
climat e
all the
was
time