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he carried the Nizam with him. The draft pre-
pared by his brother, Mr. Hasan Imam, was a
lengthy chain of lawyer's arguments and did not
sound overpolite. I was obliged to suggest to
His Exalted Highness that the greater part of
it might, with advantage, be sent in the form of
a legal note enclosed in a friendly letter to the
Viceroy, But Sir AH objected to this on the
ground that the demand would lose its force.
The Nizam hesitated for a while, but the ' prestige'
of Sir Ali carried the day—with what conse-
quences we know. The publication of that letter
in newspapers was senseless bravado.
The Reclamation Scheme was passed by the
Nizam when I was away ill at Coonoor in 1922,
and Sir Faridoon also was away. On my return
to Hyderabad I heard with amazement that vast
areas containing valuable timber were being
'exploited' by our good officials by the simple
expedient of pronouncing them ' inferior * in the
interests of their friends. Sir Ali never got to
know what was actually happening, and as he
left Hyderabad towards the end of 1922 suddenly
and in a pique, he never had the chance of remedy-
ing the evil.
At the suggestion of Sir Faridoon, who did not
like to appear on the scene in his own proper
person, the task of making His Exalted Highness
understand the real situation fell on me. I told
him briefly that our forests were being destroyed,
and my remarks were borne out by the statements
of the Inspector-General of Forests, Nawab Hamid