WEST HOLYROOD (HOLYROOD)

(Approx. 600 acres)
Category - High Grown
(1957/1960)(31)

     Holyrood (approx.1500 acres) at an elevation of about 4500', comprised 3 divisions viz. East Holyrood, West Holyrood and a small one. The SD ran West Holyrood and the PD the other two with two Conductors. There were two significant differences between East and West Holyrood viz. the work force and the standard of work and, therefore, the condition of the tea. The East workforce was extremely undisciplined and aggressive, and the work of a very low standard in all respects. West Holyrood, possibly about 600 acres, was the opposite. It was previously a separate plantation, owned I think, by the CTP, and was divided into two divisions, Upper and Lower. Each of these had its own muster ground, workers and workers quarters. They also had their own supervisory staff.

    The factory, situated on East Holyrood, was a magnificent affair with five floors (called lofts) above the ground floor. It had recently been re-clad and re-roofed in corrugated aluminium sheet. About two years after the re-cladding, it was noticed that the new sheets, particularly on the roof were crumbling in patches around the bolts. The cause was diagnosed to be electrolysis due to ferrous bolts being used on aluminium. The engineering firm which did the re-cladding was required to re-do it all, and did. That is when I learned that electrolysis occurs when aluminium and iron are in contact in the presence of water, and corrosion is the result. Also, during my stint, the Government put a huge power line through Holyrood (with a massive pylon in the middle of my vegetable garden) and the factory was electrified. All shafting, pulleys and belts were replaced by individual electric motors for each machine. Some time thereafter new, Government safety regulations were brought in which required that every moving part in all factories had to be enclosed in weld-mesh or expanded metal guards. Some of these were put in a foot from the floor, but when inspectors visited, they said that that was not enough. They required the gap to be six inches stating that the work had to be done in such a way that even a fool trying to get too close to the moving parts just could not do so! Such was the safety standard required. Holyrood was the pinnacle of PD appointments in the CTP and it was the same for The Teamakers. The TM was an arrogant man with the same attitudinal problems as those on Dewalakande but fortunately (for him?) I had next to nothing to do with him.

    The SD had a BSA 125 cc for fieldwork. I used this once to play a prank on the passengers in the train that passed through the plantation. While passing through the general area of Holyrood, the railway climbs steeply (from about 4500 ft. to 6000 ft.) zigzagging up the mountain range. It intersects West Holyrood four times, once through a tunnel, at one stage doubling back on its self in almost a circle to within a matter of about thirty feet of itself, although, to the passengers it appears that they are travelling in a straight line most of the time. Twigging this I once went to the topmost railway cutting when a train was on its way down and stood on top of the bank. Some passengers observed me. As soon as the train passed, I ran to my bike and rode down to a second point and stood there, bike out of sight, as the train went by. The passengers who had seen me before looked surprised to see this same guy so far from where they had last seen him. I repeated this lower down, where we had a level crossing, and the passengers who had seen me twice before were obviously completely perplexed!

     My staff always got my full support and I would not countenance any unjustified disobedience of their instructions or any disrespect towards them. On West I had two excellent Head KPs who supported me wholeheartedly.

     Not very long after I came to West Holyrood some workers came to me and told me that one of their family had not long before slipped into the river below the Lower division and had not surfaced. I told them to wait for me and went into the house to put on my swimming costume and get my goggles and flippers. (32)We went to the river and they showed me pool into which the man had fallen. It was a 30 ft. diameter oval dish shaped pool with a 3-4 ft. waterfall at the top end and a fairly big one just past the lower end. Although the river was relatively low, there was too much flow into the pool and, as far as my safety was concerned, too much going over the bottom end. I, therefore, got some or the onlookers to move small rocks around to divert the water away from the pool. This done I ventured forth into the murky water with my heart in my mouth because of what I may see or touch - it was not a good feeling! All I found was a gutter like groove running the full length of the pool. This was about two feet wide and two feet or more deep and full of sludge so I was not going to do too much poking around in there. In case the body was stuck under the now small waterfall at the top end I called for a bamboo, which I jammed in the groove and against the rock behind the waterfall and, holding this, groped around at the bottom without success. Throughout my time in he water I had a horrible mental picture of a face with bulging eyes staring at me through the murk just in front of my face. Eventually it all got too much for me and I gracefully ceased my endeavours. By this time there were hundreds of onlookers on the hillsides on both sides of the river. As was to be expected, twenty-four hours from the time the man fell in, his body floated to the surface in the pool. Where it had been I have no idea.

      As was the case elsewhere in the CTP many new lines were being built and I had learned somewhere that to test that the correct mixture of cement and sand was used all one needed to do was put the mixture in a bottle of water, shake it and let it stand. The mixture settled according to the specific gravity of the constituents in clearly differentiated bands and an accurate assessment of the ratio of the mix could, thus, be obtained. I used also, with the flat of my feet, kick the walls of the buildings being built to check their strength, and to make sure that the concrete floors were laid to the correct depth I would visit very soon after the pour and dig to check the depth. This may seem like over kill but I only did it often enough for the builders to be aware that I was liable to come at any time and check their work.

      On West Holyrood I set about doing my own selection of tea clones for propagation and went through the process of scouring the whole division for suitable "mother" bushes from which to start the long process of selection. Before moving on to my next posting I got to the stage of planting a few early selections in the ground for further testing. Also, it was here that I came up with a theory which I was able to put into practice. From being a cutting to the time of being ready to be planted in the field, a tea plant took, according existing practice, two to three years depending on what other practices were carried out on the young plant (there were a lot of differing practices and trials in progress at the TRI as well as by many PDs). I reached the conclusion that it was possible, better for the plant in the longer term, and highly cost efficient, to transfer cuttings to the field when their roots were still at the nodule stage, just when the nodules were ready to develop into roots. I was aware that consideration had to be given to the pros and cons of this relative to large-scale application, but first things first. In a ravine which I had reclaimed just below the bungalow, were some VPs I had planted as mother bushes of the future and in this ravine I put my theory into practice. As I had expected, the plants grew just as well as any that were fully developed in the nursery. I had also theorised that, because of less shock and disturbance at the time of planting, such plants would overtake in growth plants much bigger at that time. My transfer to Dewalakande concluded this experiment.

      Most of the West tea was high jat; even what was not the 'best' was good. Therefore, backed by a good work force it had great potential in regard to yield and, during one high cropping season one year, the younger (from pruning) fields in particular were a sight to behold. The bushes on Holyrood as a whole were good, but on West they were best, and formed a full cover which, in full flush was a continuous cover of bright yellow/green. In one month in that year we easily surpassed the previous best harvest for one day. The enthusiasm and pride of all the pluckers, kanganies and staff was wonderful. But it was not just the one day - I cannot remember the details but this was certainly not a flash in the pan, or achieved by stripping off every available flush for the sake of a record. It was the natural consequence of sustained good, selective plucking during every round. Other years, if not as good, were not far behind.

      Fertilizer sacks were an abundant item on plantations, and we used to sell them to sack dealers for say 30c each, credit the accounts with say 10c and use the difference for special things on the plantation. On West I decided to use some of it to buy monthly prizes for the best male and female pluckers on both my divisions - a shirt for the men and a sari for the women. This was very well received by the workers.

      There was one year when the PD was in a race with the PD on Tangakelle to see which one would get the highest yield for that year, and during the last days they were running neck and neck. My PD set his workers to plucking everything they possibly could off the bushes. He used to come over to West and urge my workers to do the same but, while the kanganies would agree with him and promise to do so, as soon as he had gone they retracted what they had said. It was similar in the pruning fields. The PD would come around doing this and that with a pruning knife and demonstrating to the pruners what he wanted done, and the pruning kangany would repeat the instructions to the pruners - who probably took no notice anyway, after all they were the real experts up to the point of science - and after the boss had gone say, 'Now do what the Sinna Dorai has told us.'(33) This despite insisting on the pruning cuts forming a good level etc. - good pruning in fact. The East pruning was so bad that the bushes could be described as hacked, and years of this, results in a fall off in yield.

     My PD was a nice enough man but he was mortally afraid of his workers, particularly the East workers. He even called them by the term of endearment "Thambi" (Little Brother), a course of action that on a plantation at that time fostered not respect but disrespect. It was not possible to effectively manage five workers this way let alone about three thousand which would have been Holyrood's worker force excluding dependents. The poor chap had no control and, if nothing else, this put me in danger when I had to stand in for him in his absence. Mr. Masefield is quoted as saying, 'We retire PDs at age 55 because the damage they would do in the ten years to 65 would take thirty years to put right' (or words to that effect!).

      One evening, well after dark, my PD (nearly 55 years old) phoned me and said, 'One of my Thalaivars is here and will not leave.' I (about 23 years old) said, 'Where is he Sir?' 'Here, in my sitting room!', 'Tell him to clear off, Sir!', 'Yes, I will tell him to f--- off!', twenty minutes later my phone rings, 'I told him but he is still here.' I cannot remember what happened next.

      One day I had to do his labour day. When I arrived at his office I was astonished to see sixty to a hundred workers, mostly men, hanging around outside (I use to get about ten at most). On being asked, the HC told me that most of them were just there till knock off time, to avoid work. I think I told the HC to tell them from me that those who had no valid reason to stay were to push off, as I would not see anyone until they did. Eventually, whatever I said they must have done, because I did not walk out of the office and go home. On my divisions, past and present, those coming to see me had to bring a chit from a KP or the Conductor so that I knew that the KP or the Conductor knew who was off work to see me. There was no question of a worker having to get permission to see me - my staff always knew that everyone had the right to see me about anything.

      I had found some shocking pruning along one row in a West Upper division field and told the culprit to home and that he would not be paid for the day. Someone else was detailed to correct the bad work. The pruners stopped work and, through the Kangany, asked that the man be pardoned. When I refused they said that they would walk out if I did not pardon the man and I told them that the answer was no, and that was all. They all left the field and so did I. There was no row.

      As it was then noon I set off for home and was about to enter my back garden when my PD's car came belting down the road from Upper division and the conversation went like this: excited 'Your pruners have walked out!' 'Yes, I know, Sir.' 'But the whole division might walk out!' 'That does not worry me!' 'Well it bloody well worries me!' - and off he went. No one else walked out and the pruners were back at work the next day.

     Once, when I returned after being away for a few days I was told that my workers on West Lower division had gone on strike for one day. They got a good telling off from me, not for striking, but for doing so when I was away. They were duly repentant.

     Up to now the S.W. monsoon arrived, almost to the day, on the 1st. of May each year and persisted non-stop for three months - three months of gloomy, cloudy, misty weather with continuous rain or drizzle. From this time, however, the monsoon arrived later and later each year, until it arrived as late as August. Understandably, in the conditions brought by this monsoon, workers became somewhat tetchy.

    On one payday, because the PD was to be away, arrangements were made for me to pay the East workers. Their pay was organised in a big shed about 30 ft. x 30 ft with a table and a chair in the middle and one at the side for the checkroll clerk, and the staff assisting with the pay standing by. One could feel the anticipation! There was no doubt that there was going to be a test of wills. The hundreds there would have heard from my workers what I was like and I knew what these workers were like but I was not spoiling for a fight. I knew that what I had to do was to get the pay paid efficiently and as quickly as possible and that what they had to do was what I wanted in order to achieve that goal. There was no purpose served in trying to figure out what could or would happen - that had to be dealt with as it happened, if it happened. So far, I had barely taken any notice of all those in front of me (a tactic).

    The cash was handed over by the contractor; I left the bags unopened on the table and looked up at the crowd. I told the Conductor what I wanted of them in regard how to come up when called, making room for others, complaints etc. and told him to tell them that. I did not speak to them (tactic). I then opened the bags, laid out the cash on the table as I wanted it and looked up to signal that I was ready. I must say that, as far as I can remember, they were remarkably quiet. It was then that I got the feeling that something was wrong; and that what was wrong was behind me to my left - so I looked there, and what did I see? - and what had all those out there been seeing all this while? Sitting cockily on a large storage box, with his feet up on the box, was a young buck, very proud of himself! Saying nothing, and in no hurry, I just stared at him: first the smug expression on his face started to melt, then his feet moved forward a bit, then his feet went over the edge and down, and then he slowly slid forward, got off the box, and walked slowly out of the shed.

    Looking forward again I noticed that there was no passageway for those who were called to come up for their pay, so I told them to move back and create a passageway and the two or three watchmen who were there started hurrying the workers up by holding their long handled hand axes horizontally with both hands and pushing a little. As this was far too slow, I shouted. 'Chop their toes off!' and the watchmen made a show of doing that with the desired effect. I then turned towards the pay team and said, 'Lets start.' and it all went smoothly.

    Early one morning the East Conductor arrived at my bungalow on his motorcycle to tell me that there was trouble on East; that some members of the spraying gang belonging to the DWC union were refusing to allow the others, members of the CWC(34) , to take out their spraying equipment. I told him to go back and that I would follow in a few minutes. For some reason I went by my car instead of by bike. The fracas was at the back of the factory near the tool sheds about 100 ft. from the factory rear door.

    I went to the Factory office to get the full story from the Conductor. I knew that the PD was away on a VA visit quite far away. The story was that there was a long-standing, unresolved dispute between the two unions over how many of each union should make up the spraying gang (If my workers anywhere came up with this sort of idea they would have been told in, no uncertain terms, that labour was not allocated on the basis of union membership.). On the day before there had been another meeting with the PD and, the matter remaining unresolved, the PD had told them to wait till he came back in a couple of days. That morning when, on his way out, he had been apprised of what was happening, and had apparently said, rather grandly, 'Tell them to do as I said yesterday. Drive on driver.' And left it to the poor Conductor to sort out. I know that, had he not been leaving, he would never have made such a hopeless reply. Anyway, I sent for the Talaivar of the DWC and explained to him that the situation was quite simple; his men were breaking the law by denying workers the lawful right to work and that I could not allow that. I told him that the PD would be back in two days time and that, meanwhile, they should abide by what the PD had said. There were a couple of DWC committee members present too and they were on the verge of agreeing to what I said when a young hothead crashed the party and asked them what they were about. When they told him what they intended doing he refused to allow them to do it and they changed their minds. As far as I was concerned, I had to uphold the right of those who wanted to work to do so. I got up and went towards the spraying equipment shed. It had double doors extending across the entire front wall. One of these was open but there was a double line of DWC men blocking it. I told the willing workers to follow me and walked straight at the phalanx which parted and let me as well as the willing workers in. However, when inside, the trouble broke out. The DWC fellows were accusing the others of pinching their equipment and trying to force the equipment out of their hands, and I was saying that the equipment was the property of the company. We ended up outside, with serious trouble developing. By this time a crowd had gathered, was getting heated and getting bigger by the minute. In the middle of the melee were the Conductor and I when one youngish man got between me and the Conductor, got the latter by the front of his shirt, and was about to punch his face. In turn, I grabbed the man by the seat of his pants and the back of his collar and heaved him over the heads of a few and he disappeared from view! After this I saw a very angry man in the crowd armed with a yard log of firewood shouting at me, 'If you touch another person I will kill you!' The Conductor said to me quietly, 'You had better get out of here, Sir, they will kill you'. It was time to go, so I put my hands and arms together straight out in front of me, said, 'Get out of my way!' and walked, the crowd parting before me. I think I did not breath until I was inside the factory door some one hundred yards away. Meanwhile, all the workers of East Holyrood were coming down from work in support of one group or the other, or out of curiosity.

    To be on the safe side I went to the police station in town in my car and told the duty sergeant that if anyone brought a charge against me of assault, to let me know as I would make a charge myself. He looked at me and said meaningfully, 'No one will make a charge against you.'

   I then drove back to Holyrood, heading for the main road route to the PD's office when a KP, who was running towards my car, stopped me and said, 'Whatever you do don't go via the factory road, they will kill you!' I thanked him and told him that I was not going via the factory. At the office, I phoned the DWC office and spoke to the District Representative. I told him what his members had done and told him that I wanted him in the plantation office within half an hour. He said that he had only come in to work a little while before having got wet in some rain and that his trousers were hanging up to dry, to which my response was that I was not concerned about his trousers, and that, with or without his trousers, I wanted him in the office within half an hour. He arrived within half an hour and, having briefed him, I told him that, provided everyone was back at work within a period of time I specified (I cannot remember what it was), I would pay them for the full day. He went away, and soon after, everyone was going back to work. I then phoned the PD and told him as briefly as possible what had occurred and that everything was under control. He panicked, and insisted on returning even though he had not finished his VA's visit, and despite my repeating that it was not necessary. That was a Friday, and he returned that night. On Saturday he phoned me to tell me that he had arranged a meeting with the unions on the Sunday morning and asked if I could come. The trouble was over on Friday morning, so I could see no reason for this unbecoming haste and said that I had planned to go to the club for tennis on the Sunday morning. However, I relented and told him that I would be there.

   On Sunday we sat around his desk in his office and I kept out of things as he was the boss. I only came in to make a salient point here and there which was usually not pandering to the union point of view and found that he was nudging me under the table, signalling me not to upset them! I cannot remember the result of the meeting.

   At some time before or after this fracas the Conductor of East had been severely assaulted by some of his workers. Thinking that he was dead they started to shove him into a culvert under the road, but he was not dead, only feigning unconsciousness and, at an opportune moment, he lashed out, freed himself and somehow got away.

   Although staying at home instead of going out to the field was frowned upon for obvious reasons we all did it now and again at the risk of getting punished. During a test match overseas somewhere I decided to take the risk and stay in one afternoon to listen to the commentary on radio. When the phone rang I answered it and it was my PD. Having finished the purpose of his call he must have asked me what I was doing and I told him. He said, 'Oh, good! Would you keep me posted?'

   It appeared at one time that someone had taken a dislike to me and placed some harmful charms just under the surface of the footpath I used from my bungalow to the Lower division muster ground. Someone discovered them and I had one man come to the bungalow insisting that he apply lard on the soles of my field shoes to negate the evil forces. He, amongst others, was very concerned - more, I think, about the act than its potential. I was not particularly concerned and nothing further happened.

   It was in 1957 that we in the CTP started to prune tea on the slope - that is pruning each bush so that a line drawn along the tips of the top pruning cuts on a bush, provided that the bush was properly and evenly pruned, ran parallel to the general slope of the ground below. The old method was called table pruning for the simple reason that each bush was pruned on the horizontal, like a table. Pruning on the slope had a lot of advantages which I do not intend to go into here but, being a new way of pruning it was necessary that we, the PD and I, demonstrate to the pruners what was required. For the purposes of the demonstration and to aid the pruners for the first few days at least, we supplied long, slender firm sticks that could be laid on the bush, or in the bush, and from one bush to the next, to indicate a continuous and even slope. They were quick on the uptake despite decades of doing it the old way, and the next task was to train the specialised "tipping" pluckers - tippers as they were called - when the new, post-pruning shoots had grown high enough to be "tipped" - the process by which the post pruning plucking level was established. This training was easily accomplished as the tippers were capable, willing and able workers. To assist them, I spent a lot of time with the tipping gang in the first few days at least.

   During the second part of my time on Holyrood the permanent PD went to Scrubs to act for the General Manager and an acting PD arrived. In terms of labour management this man was the opposite of the permanent one but, being temporary, was, I think, reserved in the application of his usual standards in respect of discipline and work. This PD was also rather strict with his SDs, but he had a huge sense of humour - particularly outside work. He also had a very heavy hand when pouring drinks and it was almost fatal to accept his invitations to "a drink" after a field round. During his stay we had a visit from Mr. Masefield and, as was customary during visits of members of the London Board, the SD (or SDs) was invited to drinks and dinner. At this time Mr. Masefield was over eighty and showed characteristics common at that age; characteristics which were a fine counter-point to the respect which we had for him. The subtle facial expressions of the PD, and I think his wife, with reference to the 'old man' were mischievous but added humour to the evening. In preparation for the visit of the Chairman we went through the usual ritual of titivation, and in due course, the PD and the Chairman went round the plantation mainly by car. After the visit, the PD told me that Mr Masefield had commenced his Report on Holyrood with the words "I proceeded to go round the fields with Mr. x and his Assistant Mr x." This was incorrect because I did not accompany them, and I do not think that SDs ever did. I think this was Mr. Masefield's last visit to Ceylon. He must have retired soon after. When he did, he was replaced by Mr. Francis Henstock who had been a CTP SD and PD, the General Manager, and then a Director in London. Hence, for a very long time the company was in the hands of men with hands on experience.

   The appeal that the creation of new cart roads held for me was satisfied by a long one being created across and down the slope of field No. 9, facing Talawakelle estate.

  The garage for the West bungalow was down a flight of some twenty or thirty steps from the edge of the garden drive to the road below - most inconvenient. At the rear of the bungalow was a small rear wing of two rooms that were used for the storage and maintenance of field spraying equipment. This meant the movement of people, in and out of the rear compound of the house, at all times of the day - most unsatisfactory. With permission, I move the spraying equipment and other things to space created in the sheds at the muster ground, cut a vehicle entrance through a bank between the driveway and the rear compound, converted the end room into an office, removed one wall of the remaining room and turned the room into a garage. Outside the rear window of the office, I erected a small roof as some protection from the elements for those speaking to me there. Hitherto, the SD had no office and his labour days etc. were conducted in the hurly-burly of the muster shed on each division.

  Some time after the permanent PD had returned I heard about various things the workers on the Upper division had obtained from the PD about which I knew nothing. This was odd because I had specifically requested him not to see any of my workers without a note from me and had assured him that I would never prevent any worker of mine from seeing him. I discovered that it was the Upper division Thalaivar who had decided that he could get more from the PD than from his SD and, hence, gone behind my back to the PD. I decided on psychological warfare on the workers of this division.

  It was always my habit to chat to my workers, have a little joke, perhaps a little tease or enquire about a problem in the family - nothing major, just a little chinwag - particularly to the 'old ladies' amongst the pluckers when the pluckers were lined up in the evening, picking over their leaf, whilst waiting to have their leaf weighed. I stopped this. I did not talk unless it was in connection with work, and then, via a kangany. One day I heard a plucker whisper to another as I was moving away, 'He is not talking to us any more!' and realised that my strategy was working. When the Thalaivar or workers came to see me on labour days I would tell them, 'You are the ones who went to the PD direct; you wanted my office closed, so don't come here, go to the PD.' and refused to have anything to do with them. I did not act angrily or yell at them - although I did throw the book at him once when he got bolshie, and it hit one of the window bars instead of his face. This was the book in which workers' requests etc. were conveyed to management and in which management replied - I cannot recall what it was called - a book that I saw, or used, hardly ever in my seventeen years of planting.

  This went on for a couple of months or more, even after I had been advised that I was moving to Ingoya. But then the Thalaivar came to my office one day, a few days before my departure on the coming Monday, and said that the Upper division workers wanted to come and say goodbye on the Sunday and that, if I insisted on not seeing them, they would go on strike on that day(35) and come anyway. I could not but acquiesce.

  I cannot remember how it was arranged in relation to work but at a time pre-arranged with me by my staff I went out to the rear compound of my bungalow and there were hundreds of workers and staff there, all dressed up, and a chair set out for me. As I stood in front of the chair people came forward, the women, mainly, falling at my feet in respect or devotion and wanting to kiss my feet. Not desiring this adulation, I tried to shuffle backwards, requesting them to desist. I was deeply moved by all this - moved to tears. Someone made a speech, which hardly penetrated my brain, and then it was my turn but, knowing that I would be incapable of speech even at a simple, unemotional, event, I had written down a short speech which I gave to a KP to read out for me.

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