“ I never believed you” he kept saying, “ I just thought that you had the DT’s from too much to drink and that you were imagining small creatures all around you and up the walls!”
One bright sunny March morning I overslept. Normally I awoke at about 5.30 to get dressed and go down to Muster, but on this occasion I was in a deep sleep dreaming a strange dream. I was standing by the edge of a muddy small lake, and there as I stood a snake shot suddenly out of the water directly at me. I was holding my gun and I fired straight at it, but missed and it kept on coming. I suddenly seized a stick and hit it and with more blows killed it. I told Jill about it when I awoke as it was so clear and so very vivid. I then got dressed quickly and went off to meet Taylor in the bright sunshine. Later that day after going around the field works I was back at the factory sitting in my office when just after noon, the estate phone rang. It was Jill very agitated to say that they had just seen a large cobra go down a termite hole on the lawn only a few feet away from the children’s sandpit and my presence was requested to deal with it. I drove back to the house got out my .410 gun and with the two garden coolies surveyed the scene. The only way to get him out would be to flood the hole which can be very deep. So we poked the hose down and turned on the tap. The water flowed down the hole and we all waited and waited. The men were getting restless and wanted to have their lunch break. One of them got a mammoty and started to dig down making a hole which as they dug got wider until it was about three foot across and now full of water, but still there was no sign of the snake. We all looked at the pool thinking of what to do next, when suddenly out of the muddy water the snake shot out at me. I fired point blank and missed. Someone had a stick I grabbed it and in an instant had killed the deadly reptile which was about 4 1/2 ft long. It had all happened so fast that one barely had time to think. But then as I sat down to lunch Jill reminded me of my dream that I had told her about just 6 hours before! A strange and yet eerie coincidence?
In October Father returned from Turkey after having paid a visit to Hugh for a month. He was at his wits end over him and his finances. He had enjoyed his visit seeing Hugh but was thoroughly sickened at the manner that the whites especially the South Africans treated the blacks. Father who so greatly respected the ancient cultures of the Sinhalese and Tamils and had a great number of well educated friends amongst both communities, and who treated even the lowest coolie or villager with dignity, could not bear to see the vulgar insults flung at the blacks. Hugh had by this time given up his earlier ambition of tobacco farming and had taken to his gun and had started to shoot crocodiles for their skins. He told me that Hugh seemed perpetually broke, yet when he looked through the receipts after a long hunt he saw that there was a surplus of at least £3,000 (£60,000) now. So he said to him:“ Hugh I see that you have made a good profit after your last trip, what has happened to the £3,000 surplus?”
“Oh I spent that on women”
“Don’t be ridiculous Hugh no one spends that amount on women”
“ Father I can. You dont realise that after months and months in the bush amongst Africans and miles and miles from the nearest civilisation you get absolutely starved. You come back into town, book in at a good hotel wash. clean up and then you need female company, with appropriate presents, nightclubs, flash restaurants etc. It all costs money, but one must live!”
Father came for a couple of months to see the Estate and how his pride and joy was getting on. He had kept in close touch and I would write each week with the crop figures and give him a running account of all the developments as they happened so that he always felt he was a spectator in an ongoing action. So I was really excited to actually be able to drive him around, and as luck would have it we had excellent early rains a month before and so the tea was looking a picture of health with the fields gold with the strong new flush of growth. We toured every field in turn, and I proudly showed him all our new planting and the new developments in the factory. He just looked and looked not saying a word until we got home when he said: “Place looks nice but I noticed a lot of weeds in No 9”. No praise or commendation, until I heard from Charlie Paterson a few days later: “My word your Dad was thrilled with Hugoland and was so proud of you for having done such a good neat job, and he was especially pleased with the factory your wonderful prices”.
But from Father to me direct, nothing! ”
All he did say later was “Mike you are settling in well and one of these days you should be able to get Luckyland as an extra billet and then you will have all the work you will ever want as a Consultant and Director of any number of Companies. It is all there waiting for you to pick up”.
But I was already getting very sanguine about the island and quietly replied: “I hope you are right, but my feeling for the stability of the industry and the country is poor and we have not I think that much longer here. The best thing that you have given me is a good brain, a good education and a good training out here. That is what is going to last, providing one is adaptable”. He was upset for a few moments and we left it like that with his final remark: “They can never get rid of the goose that lays the Golden Egg”. But they did.
About six motnhs later in March of 1959 I first heard about a poltergist that was causing trouble on Strathspey Estate in Maskeliya, a huge 2,000 acre property on the other side of the island. Apparently an English couple had a daughter aged 13 years and vases and other objects had been flying around the house. The wife had become obsessed and hysterical with fear, and had told her husband that they must leave the Island and return to England immediately. In vain did he plead with her to request G.S.&Co for another major billet elsewhere. But no she was insistent that they leave for good and he reluctantly handed in his notice. As a result of this apparition or whatever, John Holland on Luckyland was transferred to fill the vacancy, and with his blessing I took the opportunity to write to James Gilmore the new Managing Director of George Steuart’s, and apply for his job at Luckyland combined with Hugoland. But my heart sank when a few days later I got the most cold brush off reply in a letter couched in terms such as: “ You are lucky at your age to have such a good job; this is one of our most senior jobs; very cheeky of you to apply etc etc.”
I was thoroughly disheartened when a couple of days later I happened to meet Freddie Keun who was the visiting agent for Luckyland and he said that I should apply for the post.
“ But I have, and it is no good I have been turned down and I will show you the letter I got back from Gilmore” Freddie read it slowly and then turned to me and said:
“I dont know what you are fussing about. Nowhere has he said no! All he has done is to put you in your place whilst he thinks about it. Leave it to me and I will tackle Pat Fincher and Dorothy Gordon and I guarantee that you will get the post!” And it turned out exactly as he said it would, which was a wonderful bonus to look forward to for when we came back from our first six months leave which was due in June. Jill flew on a month ahead to see her Mother alone at Oakley, Basingstoke. There Sybil had now established a first class stud for show ponies and was regularly winning all the top prizes in her class. The twins were just three years old and were doing well except that Janet had quite a bad squint and Jill was worried about Peter’s thinness and his bad posture and wanted to get the best specialist advice whilst we were in England.
In June finally I went down to the airport full of excitement of my first proper leave without having to be visiting hospitals etc. I arrived and was about to board a Bristol Brittania turboprop airliner, a large plane for those days and nicknamed “ The Whispering Giant”. As I approached to board the aircraft I noticed the that rear tailplane was covered in soot but with the normal commotion it quickly passed my mind. We took off on a rainy day flying at 23,000 ft in a quietness that was in stark contrast to the noisy vibrating petrol engines of the past. As we flew with still a high cirrus cloud above there was a deafening bang, the whole plane vibrated and a long flame licked out of one of the Pegasus engines momentarily. The cabin crew seemed unperturbed, but then the episode was repeated again and again.
