The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 62
62 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN Starting from Delhi we made a stop at Jodhpur, but while landing at Jodhpur, the pilot made a slight miscalculation. The result was that the bottom of the aircraft was damaged, though we felt only a bump, a noticeable one but nothing to frighten any of us. The landing otherwise was safe, but the aircraft was in no condition to carry on. So we had to stop for the night in Jodhpur instead of proceeding to Karachi according to schedule. Next morning, one of the lumbering Helena-type aircraft, which we were to board from Karachi, came up from Karachi to pick us up from Jodhpur. Things were so primitive in those days that there was no arrangement in Jodhpur for refuelling, except that ladders were put to the top of the aircraft and porters had to carry two-gallon tins, two of them each time up those ladders, and pour the gasoline into the aircraft. The aircraft seemed to be insatiable; it took hours to refuel it. We could not leave until sometime in the afternoon, and by the time we arrived in Karachi it was evening, and we were taken to the Killarney Hotel; it has since been re-christened the Palace Hotel. We dined there and got a couple of hours' sleep, and were taken again to the airport. We left at 2 a. m. to make up for the lost time. But the cruising speed of this aircraft was only about 75 miles an hour so progress was slow. We stopped at Jiwani, Gwadar, Sharjah and Bahrain. After we left Bahrain and were hoping that the next stop would be Basra, the pilot, Traverse Humphreys, came through and said, "We cannot make Basra because I am being pushed back rather than going ahead because we have got very strong headwinds. We are just above Kuwait and I propose to land here. " We made the landing and we stopped the night inside the walled village which is what Kuwait was then. The Jam of Jawanagar's nephew, who was travelling with us and was going to Switzerland for treatment as he had incipient TB, and I, being the two Indian passengers, were put up for the night in the home of the family who had the agency for petrol for Kuwait. They were very good to us. Their name was Chanim. We were very tired, having had a long and fatiguing day and were anxious to get as much sleep as we could. The poor nephew of the Jam Sahib was altogether spent. I suggested he should lie down but he was anxious not to do anything which our hosts might think was not quite gracious. They expected that we should receive the neighbours who