'A Grandfather's Tale: Memoirs being mainly concerned with service in the Indian Army and the Indian Political Service in India and the Persian Gulf from 1932-1947' [‎54r] (107/118)

damage, not only in the terrible bloodshed which ensued but to the whole oolitical
structure of the sub-Continent. Had there been a period of Dominion Status
for ten years, before complete independence, I believe the whole country might
have stayed as one, instead of eventually splitting up into three unequal
parts, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The British had, over two hundred years,
gradually welded India into one great country and then, by our precipitate
departure, caused the whole structure to fall apart again in a matter of months.
In the process the Indian Princes, with whom we had treaties honourably kept
for many years past, were abandoned to the dubious mercies of the Congress
Party, and had their powers and purses first whittled down and then finally
entirely taken away. Sir Conrad Corfield, the Political Adviser to His
Excellency the Crown Representative, fought for their rights as hard as he could
but without success, and I entirely agreed with all he tried to do. Unlike his
political masters he strove to keep the faith with our friends and allies.
From Bahrain, as I have already said, Jane and I flew home to England
by flying boat at the end of August 19^7 ? staying one night in Augusta, Sicily,
en route, while Jane's mother and the children came home by sea, arriving some
weeks later. Jane and I were lent a flat in Chelsea Cloisters by one of her
aunts, and had a very pleasant fortnight in London on our own, going to the
theatre, seeing the sights and meeting various people whom we had not seen for
years.
When the children arrived, we based ourselves on my mother's house in
Westcliff-on-Sea, and spent a fairly domestic leave there, though we did pay
a number of visits to friends and relatives in Devonshire, Worcestershire and
East Anglia. We finally sailed for Africa on the 31st December, 19^7, leaving
Tilbury in a snowstorm, on the Union-Castle Line S.S. Llanstephan Castle,
11,3^6 tons, and landed at Cape Town on the 23rd January 19^8, having visited
Las Palmas, Ascension Island and St. Helena on the way.
We left the same evening by train for Lusaka, arriving there four days
later, when we were put up at the Government Rest House, and a week later I
was flown up in a small three seater aircraft to Abercorn, at the extreme
North East^corner of Northern Rhodesia, abutting on Tanganyika Territory in
the North East and the Congo to the North. It was about 3i^0 ft. above sea
level although the District extended to the Southern end of Lake Tanganyika,
twenty miles away and nearly 4,000 ft. lower down. The highest mountain in
Northern Rhodesia, of just over 7i000 ft. was also in the District. The
nearest railway was five hundred miles away in the Copper Belt.
Abercorn had at one time been a Provincial Headquarters and was still
regarded as a "Senior" District. For the first year with new languages to
learn and in a new country, I served as District Officer to Charles Stevens,
and then when he retired, I took over as District Commissioner and remained so
for the rest of my term, eventually returning on leave to England towards the
end of 1950. My next posting was to have been as District Commissioner in one
of the large mining towns on the Copper Belt, but after much heart-searching
we decided for family reasons not to return to Africa. I had enjoyed my short
time in the Colonial Service and, for the benefit of my children and grand
children will write a more detailed account of it later, as an African
Postscript to my Indian Saga*