'Memoirs and Recollections of An Officer of the Indian Political Service' [‎60r] (119/156)

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CHAPTER 12: NEW DELHI. THE LAST FEW MONTHS
When next day I presented myself at the Political Department in Sir Herbert Baker's
vast and impressive Secretariat building, the others there were genuinely surprised
to see me. I was told that my predecessor had left several days earlier to take up a
fresh appointment, and that since then they had managed without him with no difficulty
at all. Perhaps they were pulling my leg!
As I have already said, the nerve centre of our Service was divided into two departments
at headquarters. The Political Department looked after the Indian States, whereas-the
External Affairs Department discharged the overseas and frontier responsibilities of
the Government of India. There was a heterogeneous collection of these. First and
foremost, the External Affairs Department was responsible for the administration of the
North-West Frontier Region of British India bordering Afghanistan. Province and Baluchistan. There were then the Sultanates and the
Sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. which were under British protection. Here there were
Political Agencies in Kuwait, Bahrain and Muscat. On the Persian coast were the
headquarters of the Political Resident A senior ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul General) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Residency. , and Consul General at Bushire with his sub-
ordinant Consulates at Khorramshahr and Kerman. I.P.S. officers staffed the British
Legations at Kabul and Khatmundu where the Ministers were answerable to the F.O. as
well as to New Delhi. Up to 1935, Aden too had been administered from India. Other
posts subordinate to the External Affairs Department included the Consulates in French
and Portuguese India and, further afield at Urumchi in Chinese Sinkiang, and one or two
in Central Persia. Finally there was the North-East Frontier of India, where the
political officers were drawn from the I.C.S. cadres of the neighbouring provinces.
During the course of my service as a Political Officer, I had served only briefly on
the External Affairs side: in Aden and later in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The rest of my time
I had spent in Indian States. Despite the extensive and wide variety of responsibilities
of the combined Political and External Affairs Departments, the headquarters staff con
sisted of only a handful of officers although their numbers had been increased somewhat
under war-time conditions. On the Political side there were the Political Advisor to
the Viceroy (Sir Conrad Corfield, KCIE, CSI) who was also head of the Indian Political
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Service; the Political Secretary (Sir Cecil Griffin), tfepee Joint Secretaries^/Terence
Craigh-Coen and myself) and an Under-Secretary in charge of personal matters ahd post
ings. All the remainder, the Superintendents, the clerks and the secretaries were
Indian or Anglo-Indian. On the External Affairs side there was the Secretary for
External Affairs (Sir Hugh Weightman), three Joint Secretaries, seven Deputy Secretaries
and two Under Secretaries. In addition, during the last few months prior to the
transfer of power, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was appointed by the Viceroy to the specially
created post of the Hon'ble Member for External Affairs. But, as such, his appointment
was purely on the external side; he had no responsibility for the Political Department
and was in no way involved with the Indian States. As a matter of interest, it should