CHAPTER V
MORE EARLY REMINISCENCES
My appointment to Sikhim. Departure of the Maharaja to Kurseong. Inspection of the country with Phodong Lama and Shoe Dewan. Opening up by means of roads and bridges. Sources of revenue. Mineral wealth. Visit to Yatung, so-called Trade Mart.
At the conclusion of hostilities the Government of India made a proposal that I should remain in Sikhim, with the title of Political Officer, and administer the affairs of the State in conjunction with a Council composed of the chief Dewans, Lamas and Kazis, and of which I was to be President. This proposal I accepted with some diffidence, as it was an absolute change from my own profession (engineering) and practically meant cutting myself adrift from my service and entering an altogether new line with results impossible to foresee. But as years passed I grew to love the work, the country and the people, and I have never regretted my decision to throw my lot in with theirs, though from a worldly standpoint I could easily have done better elsewhere.
Not long after I had taken up my new duties, Government decided that it would be to the advantage of the State to remove the Maharaja from Sikhim for a time, and Kurseong, in the Darjeeling district, was proposed as his residence. It was my unenviable task to have to convey these orders to Their Highnesses, and their reception of the news was most characteristic. The Maharaja remained
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