'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' [‎26v] (52/118)

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While still in Persia I had passed my final "Political" examinations
in Indian History and in the Political Department Manual, and so, having
already done my civil training in Agra, and passed the Indian Civil oervice
departmental examinations while there, and then the foreign and Political
Department Secretariat Course in Simla, I now hoped that apart from any
languages I might learn in the future, l had finished with exaroinauions•
At least I was qualified to be confirmed in the Indian Political Service The branch of the British Government of India with responsibility for managing political relations between British-ruled India and its surrounding states, and by extension the Gulf, during the period 1937-47.
once I had completed my three years on probation. Those three years,
however, had to be exclusive of any leave taken during the period, and
of any time spent on Military as opposed to Political duty, and, because
of this it was not to be until May 19^, that my contemporaries and I were
finally confirmed in the Service.
As Creagh Coen has said the "Manual of Instructions to Officers of
the Political Department of the Government of India" was a remarkaole work,
mostly concerned with rules about correspondence, ceremonial, minority
administration, extradition and so on, "but the Introduction is an eloquent
though controversial plea for a light hand on the reins. Its most lamous
or notorious paragraph reads: He (i.e. the Political Officer) should leave
well alone; the best work of a political officer is very often that which
he has left undone".
In this last connection there was a well known, but doubtless
apocryphal tale of two brothers the McGs. in the Political Deparment who
eventually retired after long service full of honours, having subsisted
throughout their service on two words of Hindustani each. When the first
was approached he always said "Kul ao" which means "Come to-morrow" while
his brother would say "Abi nahin" which means "Not now". So much for the
best work of a Political Officerl
The Sheikh's Adviser and in effect, Prime Minister was Charles
(Carol) Belgrave, who had come to the Island after service in Somaliland
soon after the 1914-18 War. He was a charming man but had served so long
with Arabs that he had acquired their mentality and was very difficult to
pin down. His wife was a lady of great character, much concerned v/ith social
etiquette and anxious to assert her husband's position vis-s-vis the Politicals.
Soon after our arrival she remarked to Jane in connection, I think, with a
dinner party she was giving, "It is so difficult for me because your husband
has no official position on the Island". Jane tactfully did not remind her
that as a bride she, Jaane, was in theory the senior lady.
Besides the Belgraves there were in Manama, the Port and only town
of any size in Bahrain, Mr. Smith the Director of Customs, Dr. Snow the
State Medical Officer and the staffs of Imperial Airways, Petroleum Concessions
Ltd., Gray Mackenzie (Shipping) and one or two bankers, but the whole
European community including wives was probably not more than about thirty.
In contrast to this BAPCO (Bahrain Petroleum Company) some fifteen miles away
in the desert, where the oilfield was, employed some twelve hundred assorted :
Americans, Australians, Canadians, English, Scots and Irish. The Naval base