DEPARTURE FROM SIKHIM
that single-handed I had to deal, in Sikhim alone, with the various departments which in other districts are placed, each in charge of a special officer and staff, Police, Revenue, Forests, Education, Excise, Agriculture, Public Works, Judicial, Administrative, in addition to the whole of the Tibetan and Bhutan correspondence and negotiations, it is not surprising I applied for an assistant officer, but the Government of India considered my request superfluous, and I had to manage as best I could with my office staff under Mr. Hodges the superintendent and the services of a State engineer. Mr. Hodges served under me for eighteen years, and the office was always in a state of efficiency and good order, while I was exceptionally fortunate in my two engineers, Mr. Dover, who accompanied Mr. Douglas Freshfield on his journey to the snows, and later Mr. Hickley, than whom one could not find a more energetic and painstaking officer.
The time was critical for Sikhim in several ways: the industries I had introduced, apple growing, cloth weaving, carpet manufacture, still required careful fostering, while the mining industry was barely in its infancy. The Maharaja and Maharani had at last been aroused and were keen to improve their country, but perhaps the most serious matter was the approaching return of the Maharaj Kumar, who had spent a couple of years in England and part of the time at Pembroke CoUege, Oxford. Relations had never been quite satisfactory between him and the Maharaja, partly, I think, owing to his jealousy of the influence exercised over his father by his stepmother, the present Maharani, and at this juncture more than ever a strong hand was needed in addition to full sympathy with the lad and an intimate knowledge of former events, and I fear my successor has a difficult task before him.
In Bhutan new relations, which, at the risk of being considered conceited, I must I am afraid put down as greatly personal to myself, had been opened up after many years of complete isolation, and the Maharaja was full of
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