مذكرة عن السيرة المهنية للسير توماس إدوارد روجرز [و‎‎١‎٦] (١١٨/٣١)

15
princely court would droop in disappointment. No encouraging precedent was
likely to be quoted for any crumbs of devolved seignorial rights falling from
some nawab's intolerably overloaded table. The talk would be stern.
Unprincipled Political confidants of princes had been known to wink at their
charges' indulgence in female infanticide and, disgusting to relate, even widow
burning. As for the Political Officer's alternative dolce far niente , the
External Affairs side, well, if the strenuous care of India's downtrodden masses
could be neglected for the gold braid of Delhi's puppet envoys at lesser courts
'without the Law', there was nothing more to be said. In short I won no golden
opinions by my impious inquiries and indeed I half agreed with my mentors. I
was young enough in the ICS to find all fresh and inviting and I had as yet no
grounds to wonder whether there were narrowing limits to the normal round of
district work, however worthwhile it seemed to be.
When word finally came through that the Political would have me I felt I
could meet their needs, on the external side if not in States. I had a taste
for languages and for travel of the less cosseted kind implicit in the word's
original meaning and spelling of 'travail'. As a child I was always wandering
away from home - never lost but always a bit reluctant to return. This urge to
stray persisted in adolescence until my father channelled it to jaunts abroad. In
1937 I was lucky enough to find three ICS recruits + shortly due to leave for
India willing to spurn with me the usual leisurely passage to Bombay by P and 0
so that we could drive out overland by car. Two of the three bravely agreed to
spurn their outraged fiancees also for the five weeks excess in time that the road
journey would take beyond a ship's three weeks. The Secretary of State for India
himself waved us goodbye as we left the India Office's front door in King Charles
Street. Was he waving to fan this spark of youthful initiative in newcomers to a
long line of perhaps excessively 'humble and obedient servants', at least in their
+A.R. Adair (Bihar)
R.W.D. Fowler (Burmah)
A.B. Scott (Bengal)