Depression, Woolley advises govt to retain valuable Indians

Published on: Sunday, March 20, 2022

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Woolley is an Oxford graduate who is best known for recording the Adat (customs) of the natives of Borneo, without which we would know little. His 1930 Land Ordinance is still in use. He died in 1947 and was buried in the KK Anglican cemetery.

TIME passed on. There was a world economic depression of the 30s. It affected our land too. The economy mainly depended upon rubber and to a lesser extent, timber and copra. The rubber which wasformerly sold at $400 came down just to a mere $4/- with no demand for the same. The labourers would not go for rubber tapping. All the rubber estates were more or less closed.

The larger ones being held by the Europeans, Chinese were lying idle. The local shops began to close one by one. Every other day we used to see a shop being sealed. The government had to find ways and means to tide over the situation.

Then started retrenchment, everywhere and in every department. Most of the highly paid officers had to be sent away. In my department too, rumours started floating. One of our draftsmen who had a friend in the Secretariat whose head office was in Sandakan, being the then capital gave some clue to his uncle regarding this.

Towards the beginning of the second half of 1935 there was a letter to him that 12 walking sticks were being kept ready for the department to be dispatched for distribution. We took this to be a joke but alas when it came to the close of September that year, it was a shock, shock of our life.

Retrenchment was a blow to me and my other friends. There was 3 months notice according to our agreement. We appealed to the Honorable Chief Secretary. Our application was rejected. The reply was “Had it suited your convenience you would not have hesitated to tender the notice of a similar kind to the government”

We were shut out. However, the government allowed us to leave after two months, instead of three months giving the benefit of one month’s leave.

In the meantime, I approached through my Surveyor-General, the neighbouring state of Sarawak for a similar appointment I was holding here. My S.G. strongly recommended me but alas I got a reply regretting there was no vacancy. Soon I had to pack up.

One day prior to my leaving my officer called me to his office and asked if I would again accept a job here if offered when a vacancy fell. He said he was very much impressed with my work, which I had carried out in all sincerity and it was very painful for him to send me, rather lose me.

Of course, I thanked him and told him that I had lost my six years of government service in India before I accepted my job here and I could not hope to get a similar one now in the government and the axe had fallen on me when I was eagerly looking forward for a promotion to the next higher grade in the immediate future.

In the situation existing then I would certainly accept one when offered and when my previous service could be considered. So we left the shores of the sweet land where we went with high hopes of prosperity.

Destiny had indeed worked otherwise; in this connection I may have to mention one thing to be gratefully remembered. The then Commissioner of Lands, Mr. G.C. Woolley who had close connection with our department in land dealings had also of his own accord tried with the Government, where as a senior civil servant having large influence, persuaded to retain the Indian officers who had indeed made a deep impression with their hard and sincere work and made themselves useful to the Government. He really felt very sorry to lose us.

During the beginning of 1933 we left the shores of the land of our livelihood for our homeland. Not a happy one, though, to our own motherland. After staying with my parents for some months immediately after my return to India, I spent some time in Madras seeking a job though not sincerely trying. After a couple of months, I left for home and got a temporary job in the same department of

Tanjore on a salary of Rs.25.00 with much reluctance. It was just August 1934 I had a letter from my father enclosing a letter received from my former Chief Draftsman at Jesselton, Mr. T.V. Durai. It was to effect that vacancy had fallen due to the death of a draftsman which carried a salary of $75/-though that incumbent was on the maximum of $100, which I had to work for another five years to reach and the yearly increment was only $5. Of course I was happy I was remembered and I was getting my job back, but sorry it was going to be a lower salary and I had to wait another five years before I reached the maximum of the grade i.e. $100, I was drawing at the time of last retrenchment.

I thought about it for sometime and consulted my friend, Mr. N. Nataraja Pillai who was previously working with me in India and also in Borneo where he had come on lien, and who also came back with me due to retrenchment and joined his former service in India. He without mincing words told me to immediately accept the offer.

There was no time to waste now. I returned home where my parents were then (Tanjore to Cannanore) after just handing a leave letter to my officer. There were hurried consultations. In the meantime came the regular offer from the Borneo Government through Messrs Best & Co. their agents in India. I conveyed my acceptance and soon made arrangements for my passage. I signed the agreement in the meantime, made a request to the Government to consider my previous service there and to be taken in the permanent establishment.