Escape from Singapore — 3b. Life in K.L. Preparing for War

Letters to England from my Dutch Step-mother to my Grandparents

Continued from 3a

See Background for context. [My annotation is in square brackets]

Saturday 19-7-1941

Dearest Mum and Dad.

Last Saturday we received your letters dated April 30th and May 8th, in which you wrote “If you have received my letter which I posted last week, you will be longing for more news about Ena and the family”. Well, as we had not received that letter, we were in such a puzzle. In one of the letters you mentioned a little bit about scarlet fever, so Piri thought that the three of them had scarlet fever, but we just only guessed it. But the next Monday we received the letter dated April 24th which explained everything. We were very glad to know it, because we also understand now the telegram you sent us. We are so glad that they are all better. Scarlet fever is not so good. Specially not for grown up people. And I think Ena might feel quite tired after it for a long time. Felix must have had an awful time. A man so seldom knows what to do when his wife is not at home. Anyhow, that is how Dutch men are. But they might be very awkward.

We are all well here. Brian had a little friend of his playing here the other day who is ½ a year older, but Brian is at least 2 ½ inches taller. Is not that marvellous? We receive very jolly letters from Rosemary, so I think she is really happy up in school. When it is her holiday we think about it, taking ours of this year as well and to go to Frasers Hill. It would [not?] be much of a change for Rosemary, but it is ever so much better for the rest of us to spend our 14 days holiday up in the Hill instead of Port Dickson, where the climate is as hot as here in K.L. But I think she will enjoy it. There is a nice big playground, she sees other children, can play with Brian, and has no school. I do hope we can get a bungalow. It is always so full during the holidays. One big disadvantage!

Piri and I are still rather busy, Piri with his M.A.S. and I with my bandages. We already finished quite a lot, but still, according to my calculation, must be busy with it for another 5 months. The ladies are rather keen on it. You know, have got the feeling they are doing real war work. I did not go out very much before I started this business and usually did not know anything about the people in K.L. at all. But I think now I can be a newspaper. Every day I hear all sorts of things about all sorts of people. Honestly, I know everybodies domestic affairs now, as well as their character and all the politics of all the countries. A most useful thing to add a lot to your knowledge!

Last Wednesday I had 4 soldiers around here to play badminton [there was a court in our garden]. Piri had to go for an hour or so, but saw them when they arrived and about one hour before they went. At six o’clock I gave them a big tea with sandwiches, cake etc. I do think that they enjoyed it very much, so we asked them to come again when Piri can play badminton as well. The trouble is that you have to go and fetch them as well as to take them home. Transport here is rather bad. Just at the moment we can manage it, but next month if they are going to cut the [petrol] ration it will be difficult. It would be such a pity, but you see they are living about 6 or 7 miles from here, and if they have to walk in the hot afternoon sun, is not so pleasant.

Mum and Dad this is all my news. I do hope that you are well and that Ena and the children will be completely recovered. With all our love to you and kisses from the children.

Your loving Suze, Rosemary and Brian

[and signed:] Piri

Monday 11-8-1941

Dearest Mum and Dad.

Oh Mum, I am ashamed of myself. Can you please excuse me once more, because I did not write you last week. We are so busy and time is going so quickly. It is Monday now and before I know it, it is Monday again. Those bandages, First Aid posts, entertaining soldiers and so on takes such an awful lot of time. I am giving lectures now as well and the preparing of that takes much time. I write them out and Piri makes good English out of it. The point is, I should not do all these things if there were enough ladies to do it. But so very few people are trained nurses, and somebody has to do it, is not that so? And the trouble is, having started one thing, they come to you with all sorts of other jobs.

Well enough about that. We received 3 letters from you, May 23, 21, 15. We are so glad that Ena and the children are home again. It must be a relief for you, to have them so near again and to hear all the fresh news. Oh Mum, I thought it was most amusing the way in which you wrote about Piri’s green vegetables. The poor darling now even eats cooked lettuce. You know, I don’t like giving them to him, but he insists on having them to give the children a good example. Actually they are both very well [good] now in eating them. Up in school they have to eat them, so Rosemary is quite used to it and when Brian is used to the taste he really likes it. Spinach and cabbage he enjoys now. The trouble is I don’t think you can give the children uncooked things here. The new sprouts [in the garden?], we never have. The snails take care for that. Carrots usually look like very old man’s fingers. We tried them once or twice raw, but they are like pieces of wood. Unfortunately the vegetables here are not so nice. I am very fond of vegetables. We are now trying in the garden some Malayan kinds of potatoes. They are very scarce here. Sometimes you can’t get them for a whole week. We also planted some spinach and have 3 plants now[?!]. It is so difficult to grow things here because of all the snails. We really have hundreds [Piri adds: (thousands!)] of them. Big ones and they can ruin you garden. Then all the birds and caterpillars. It is so disheartening. You plant something and as soon as it comes up it disappears again.

We wonder how Ena is. Children usually recover much quicker. Anyhow scarlet fever is rather dangerous for grown up people. We are all well here, and no epidemics up in school. I think that examining before the beginning of each term is a very good idea. Rosemary won’t come home yet for her holiday. Times are very uncertain here now and the school has decided not to send the children down, because Cameron Highlands is much safer than K.L., and it seems absurd to bring children to a more dangerous place. It is very difficult to send them all back again you see, if the balloon goes up. Railways and everything will be full then of course, and they might try and hit the railways first of all. We are rather glad about that. I mean that Rosemary does not come back. I think the further they are away from anything dreadful, the better it is. They are well looked after there, so that is the best thing we can wish for. I think you know who Mrs Landon is. Well she offered to take Brian with her. She lives on an estate you see and that is of course quite safe. I will send him there with the ayah, who is perfectly willing to go with him. So he will be out of the dangerous spot as well. At the same time it will make Piri and myself completely free for the M.A.S. work. I feel we should do as much as possible to help. There are actually only a handful of Europeans here who can do the M.A.S. work. And to leave those Asiatics by themselves and run away I think is not our duty. It was very difficult to decide what to do because of the children. But now that we know that they both will be alright I think I will decide to belong definitely to the First Aid post. Up to now I have only helped them and told them if something happens I should withdraw. As I am the only trained person in that post you can imagine how I disliked it.

We are just making jokes at the moment about the raw vegetables and wonder whether one day you are perhaps going to eat grass!! One man from London broadcasted about such a thing just the other night. I think he suggested young sprouts of grass are a delicacy. Cooked in which way I have no idea. Oh Mum, you could chew it then as the cow chews his cud. My goodness, all this nonsense only because of the war.

Mum and dad, I think I must finish. Will you please give all our best wishes to Ena and the children. We do hope they are all well again. Lots of love and kisses from your loving

Suze, Rosemary and Brian

[And from Piri:]

Suze is wondering how she would have dared to tease Mum like this twelve months ago! A year goes so quickly and yet it is wonderful how much change it can bring. Let us hope the next couple of years will bring no worse changes to us as a family than the last has done — then perhaps we shall all be together again, D.V. [presumably he is referring to when the next formal leave from the R.R.I. was due — Unfortunately D wasn’t V!]

All my love

Piri

Monday 1-9-1941

Dearest Mum and Dad.

I really feel ashamed in not writing to you last week Mum. I am sorry I have to write this in nearly all my letters nowadays. Specially now that Rosemary is at home. I spend all my spare time in the swimming pool. We are extremely busy and as we are both made only for love it does not suit us very well. Poor darling Piri had such a busy 3 weeks. The other man of the M.A.S. developed a big boil or something like that on his seat or back and stayed away for about 3 weeks. Just during that time the Governor decided to inspect the A.R.P. here and Piri had to arrange everything [for the M.A.S.] himself. I can assure you that was a job. When we had to parade, he had to give all the orders [such] as “Stand at ease” and “Attention”. By the way I told him, “[This is the] first time that you could order me to do something!”. He had to go to the Governor, shake hands, talk to him, and inspect the M.A.S. (400 men and women [out of 2000 in all on parade]). Oh, I was so proud of him. He really was wonderful. I should not dare to do a thing like that. Later on he was rather busy, because the people took advantage of the opportunity that Piri was there by himself. They usually get far more out of him than of our other M.A.S. friend. I think he really runs that business excellently. But he is too busy with it.

And now something about the children. As I have written, Rosemary came home on the 24th of August. She looked very well indeed, has not grown taller very much this term, but is again a bit fatter. A few days ago we also received her report, and I will write it down for you.

• Reading: 9/10, Is very keen
• Phonics: 7/10, Much improved
• Spelling: 8/10, Very good
• Writing: 7/10, Shows great effort
• Arithmetic: 15/20, Usually good
• Mental: 9/10, Very quick and accurate
• French: 13/20, Could listen better
• Handwork: Good
• Piano: Good
• Singing: Very good
• Gym: Must work harder
• Dancing: Can do good work
• Games: [Can't read!?]
• Rosemary’s work on the whole shows much progress.

So you see that is not too bad. Her games could be a bit better, but I think she does not like organised games. But I am so glad that her ‘learning part’ of the school is so good. Her height was 4’ and weight 3 stones 7 lbs.

Well Mum and Dad, now you know all about that. I am sure Dad will make some remark about my writing it all down for you, but I am sure you will be interested in it. Unfortunately we could not get a bungalow up the hill [Fraser’s Hill] during her holiday. Everything was ??[booked] up and we had to wait 2 months before we can get one (if we are lucky). It is an awful pity that we never can get a bungalow during the holidays.

We received 2 letters from you dated June 11th and 25th. We were glad to hear that Ena was getting all right. Poor Ena, she has had a lot of illness in the family during the last year. Has she received the letter we sent by clipper for her birthday? I hope so, because last year we were so very late in sending her her birthday letter, and the clipper sometimes does it in 9 days, so according to our calculations she must have received it in a reasonable time after the date. What a blessing it will be when everything is normal again. I read in the paper today that there are such horrible diseases in the Balkans. When you have no family there you think “how dreadful for the people”, but oh, when it comes to Holland as well I shall not have another happy hour till the war is over. I don’t think actually that it will come there, because people in Holland are rather clean and we don’t have many rats. I hope so that it will all be over by the time we are due for leave. I want to see them so badly and show them Piri and the children. And of course I am terribly longing to see you all. I think though, that it is not a nice time to travel and to show each other the countries we are coming from. Everything will be too miserable and damaged.

[Tuesday] 2-9-41

I had to stop last night because dinner was ready, and [I now] just can finish this letter before Piri comes home for tea. We had a most interesting man for lunch today. He just arrived from England and can give us here most useful information about the M.A.S. businesses. He is a very nice man. I forget his name now. Am still very bad in remembering English names. He lived in the Dutch East Indies for quite a long time before he went to England and knows most of the places where I have lived. So we had to talk quite a lot.

I will try Mum to write within a week to you and go back to my regular weekly letters. At the end of this month or middle next month I hope to be finished with them [the bandage ladies!] and if they have not got me another job (I am afraid though they have, perhaps training people in hospital) you can count again on one letter a week. And now I must finish. I do hope you are all well and that Ena is the old one again. (Is this English?) [her old self again?!] Will you please give them all our love when you see them again. With lots of kisses to yourselves and all our love.

Your loving Suze, Rosemary and Brian

[And added by Piri :]

Just a line to show you my handwriting. I expect Dad will be amused about our parade! I never thought I should ever have to shout orders to 400 people on the Padang — strange what jobs one falls in for during one’s existence in this strange world. Ten years ago I should have died of fright, but things like that don’t worry me now. Love to you all.

Yours aff.

Piri

P.S. There were over 2000 people on parade.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.