The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 48
48 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN Indian officers in the Indian Medical Service, who were Majors but would soon be Colonels, and that when the occasion arose one of them should be considered for appointment at the Headquarters of the I. M. S. He agreed and I recorded an order adding, "H. E. approves" and that was the end of the matter. I was later told by Hydari that when the file went back to General McGaw, he was very upset and he went to Mr. Hydari and said, "I want to request an interview with the Viceroy. I want to protest against the Order of the Minister. " The Deputy Secretary told him that he would put up his request to see the Viceroy and that he was sure I would not stop him from seeing the Viceroy, but that the Viceroy having given his approval was not likely to change his mind. I suppose General McGaw was chagrined, but he did not show it to me. When he left India he was appointed Medical Adviser to the Secretary of State in the India Office. He wrote a book on his experience in the IMS in India. He inscribed a copy for me and gave it to me during one of my visits to England. Mr. Hydari continued to climb the official ladder, became Joint Secretary and then Secretary and, after independence, was appointed Governor of Assam. He died of heart failure while holding that office. He was a very capable officer. Outside the department, on one occasion, I came into conflict with Sir Allan Parsons, who was officiating as Finance Minister in place of Sir George Shuster, who was away on leave. Parsons was known in his Department as "the Sultan," meaning he was very autocratic. A file went to Finance from our side with Reed's note. Parsons wrote a rather severe note on it and it came back to us. Reed came to me with almost tears in his eyes, showed me the noting and asked whether I could do something to help. I asked him to leave the file with me. I took it home and dictated a rather strong note, making out a defense for poor Reed as well as I could. I think I was able to make out a plausible case. I sent this along to Parsons with a covering letter suggesting that he should write a fresh note omitting the offending paragraph in which case my enclosed note need not go on the file, but that if he could not see his way to accepting my suggestion my note would go on record. Within an hour I received a letter from him stating that he had taken his note off the file and substituted a new one omitting the particular paragraph.