Work at Hugoland continued as normal. I was now opening the New Clonal Tea Clearings at the rate of about 10 acres a year using about 7,000 plants to the acre all beautifully planted in contour rows around the hills at Pussella Division. In the factory we were at last connected to the island’s hydroelectric grid and we then fitted individual motors to drive each piece of machinery and got rid of the long clumsy drive shaft with its innumerable belts. At home no longer did we require an engine and generator for lights, but instead we had the joy of mains power on tap all the time to work an iron or radio, or gramophone whenever one wanted it. Slowly we started building up a large collection of the new L.P. records which were very expensive about £ 60 – 70 in today’s money. But when one is in the outback you have a craving for good classical music just to refresh the soul with the benefits of a 1,000 years of Western tones from the early church through the great Italian, and German composers right down to end with the modern Russians such as Prokofiev and Americans such as Gershwin and Copland. Socially we were getting to know an ever widening circle of friends and at most weekends there was always something going on either at home, or with others. We played a lot of tennis using the Downside Court, which Mac had kindly told us to treat as our very own . The children were now that much older and so we could resume our trips to Trincomalee, and Peter had now outgrown his fear of the sea and both he and Janet swam well at the jetty below the bungalow. We now had the use of it to ourselves again, as the Burton’s now had moved out to a palatial Naval residence in Ford Frederick with the other Senior Officers of the Base. It was not to be long however, because Bandaranaike then asked the British to leave as he felt it compromised his standing as a leading member of the neutral “Third World”. A month after the Royal Navy had quit, Fort Frederick was derelict. The beautiful mirror polished floors of the residences, the whitewash, and efficency and the plump wild spotted deer, had been replaced by the homes bereft of any doors, windows, or brass taps, with the poor deer, just skin and bone struggling to survive on the limited vegetation there. All had been systematically vandalised and stolen, so that it had a look of ancient dereliction. Within a year the jungle and trees were breaking up and covering the neat roads at a speed only possible in a tropical climate. It was sad but I suppose inevitable, and the same process was a little later to overcome us. But in the meantime we enjoyed life to the full. There was always something going on, some excitement and some new experience and someone new to meet. At Trinco for example Hubert Paterson had a young Czech couple and their 12 year old son lodging with him. The father was an engineer and was working as a technical expert at the sugar mill at Kantalai nearby, as part of the new rapport with the communist bloc. They were a charming couple and she would spend the whole day with her 12 year old son on the fourth floor of Hubert’s tower that he had built to give a view over the harbour. I was surprised at all the hours of effort that she put in to the boys education, as no English lady would ever have been so very dedicated. But she explained the reason. Back in Prague, it was vital that the boy went to the upper school, and because they were Catholic, the authorities would be biased against him. So not only did he have to pass to get into the school, but he would have to pass with flying colours and be so exceptional, that even they could not refuse him. Hence the effort that she put in her work. A year later tragedy struck her nevertheless, when her young husband was killed in a plane crash in North Africa whilst viewing the next job that he was bound for! About this time in the dry weather Jill and I just went for a drive with our fishing rods to fish for lula and mahseer at the outlet sluice flow of the great Galoya Dam that been built by the Americans. In the cool of the evening after a particularly hot dry day in the nineties, at the resthouse situated off “Cobra Gulch”, the only other guest was a young very good looking curly haired blonde man whom we invited to join us for drinks and dinner. He turned out to be a journalist from the Red Block and was Polish, and of course it was not long before we were sharing our war experiences. He told us that during the war as a youth in Warsaw, whilst walking across a square, he suddenly noticed on all directions German troops were advancing and seizing anyone that they could lay hands on. In an instant he dashed for cover into the safety of a church, where at the time there happened to be a wedding service taking place. He dived into a pew pretending to take part in the ceremony, when the troops barged in, instantly grabbing the bridegroom. Everyone else was then arrested, as the groom and most of the others were all leading members of the resistance, information that he only discovered later! They were then all taken to Gestapo headquarters for interrogation. When it came to his turn with some other young men, they were first all told to strip naked. The Germans then before any questioning, proceeded to pick out all those that had been circumcised as children, as they were deemed to be Jews and they were without any more ado, despatched to the gas chambers at Treblinka. Luckily his blonde hair, good looks and the fact that he had not been circumcised saved him and he was a week later released. Such was the arbitary cruel nature of the Nazi regime, during their brutal occupation. He was a passionate enthusiast of the Communist system which he kept on repeating “You see it all works, buildings are going up and everyone is content.” He had just been visiting Castro in Cuba and again he kept on singing his praises: “What Ceylon really needs is a tough Castro here”. I often wonder how his further political education developed in later years, and how he would have welcomed the final downfall of Communism in the ‘90’s? Back at Hugoland one mid-morning I was at the factory where Mr Ponnambalam had a gang of men moving and re-organising the firewood stack that was used to fuel the furnaces of the tea driers. All of a sudden there was a shout “Keeri”. In the middle amidst the bark was a nest with a baby mongoose. Someone grabbed it and it bit him, but I then got hold of it and rolled it up in my hat safe from his vicious sharp teeth. Its body was about 8” long and I took it home and placed it carefully and gently into a rabbit cage and gave him some milk. Next morning I took him a bit of egg and he was so interested in eating, that he did not bother to bite me. He ran up my arm and chomped down any little tit-bits that were given, growling as he ate them. In less than a day he was quite tame and became a welcome new member of our home menagerie of dogs, cat, rabbits etc. Naturally the children absolutely adored “Sandy” as he got called, and were forever feeding him, and he in turn followed them all around the house and garden. Over the next few months, he grew into the most magnificent male animal of about 15” long in the body with a dense brown rough coat of thick guard fur, and a thin back curled black tail. He was very clean, invariably passing his little pellets outside, and during the daytime he had the run of the house and garden, and was only shut up into his cage at night. He hated open spaces such as the centre of a room and tried as far as possible to remain under a chair or close to a table leg or anywhere else that he could have cover, with his eyes ever alert looking out, and with his long wet nose twitching for scents and danger. When traversing the lawn as he followed me, he would always run from the inside of one foot to another to have some cover. Any insect or grub or worm was quickly eaten with relish, always with a deep continuous growl. His body was about 4’’ in diameter, but when he was nervous or in an attacking or defensive mood he would raise his guard fur to make himself appear over twice the size. The dogs quickly learnt not to bother him after they had sampled a nip from his needle pointed teeth. I once saw him attack a snake about two foot long. He was so quick darting from side to side and the snake could only attack his guard fur and quickly tired. In less than a minute he had killed it and then had a feast. Sadly after about nine months, one day a mate appeared, and the two were briefly together, and then went off into the tea never to be seen again leaving only very happy memories of our

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Comet 2 Returning to Ceylon 1963

P & O Himalaya ...Suez Canal

Suez Canal

Marimuttu Driver, Santosum Teamaker LL

Amarasekra Dispenser seeing me off