ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: H.P. Hall, Margery Hall COLLECTION: 4700.581

IDENTIFICATION: Britons in pre-Independence India

INTERVIEWER: Frank De Caro, Rosan Jordan

PROJECT: British Voices in South Asia

DATES: 3/1/78; 2/28/78 FOCUS DATES: 1930s

Tape 848, Side A

man who used spy techniques in Kenya; Indians in Fiji; religious make up of Indians in Fiji; Hall knew Indian high commissioner and his wife in Fiji; Hall spoke their language; Indian languages and dialects spoken in Fiji; maintains good personal relations with Fijians and Indians; holidays and dates; involvement in Malaysia; took action without getting advice from London; drawing up constitution for Malaysia; naturalization laws for British subjects; Malaysians automatically became Malaysian citizens, forfeited British citizenship; differences in administration between India and other colonies; cases Hall tried in India; assessing revenue from crops; avoiding money lenders; improved yields of wheat and rice; incident when his driver was wrongly jailed after misinterpretation of Hall=s joke; driver suffered from syphilis; instances of VD in area; maharajah with a well-stocked bar; going down the river on barges, pageantry; maharajah=s scandalous homosexual behavior; homosexuality in area; court case involving homosexuality and VD; Halls= bearer ran off with pantry boy and stolen articles; fantastic old cemetery; reverence for maharajah; poverty, many babies of the Indian women; inadequate diet available to many Indians; Hall=s colleagues killed in the 1930s by monsoons, war, ambushes on frontier; quinine for malaria, other medications; weaker people dying of malaria, other maladies; Hall devised education programs for developing countries; gave up alcohol because weather was so hot; air conditioning, opinions on interior climate; malaria precautions; servants; cocktail party Halls attended; Hall served during war in Poona; story telling in India; transfer to Quetta; appointed to position of major in Delhi, pay; confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia while he was setting up Malaysia; telling stories as entertainment, small pox story; ghost story; ghost dog at Fort Sandeman; money appearing unexpectedly when Margery really needed it; haunted house in Borneo that the Halls almost lived in; bad feelings Margery had about house.

dance cards; met Lady Fraser; Halls= relations with other people in India; Hall was in charge of an opium factory at Nimach; history of Nimach; description of house at Nimach, its inhabitants; General Octoloni?; description of opium factory, process; visited small state not far from Jhansi, stayed in palace with the maharajah; plans for a state banquet, attendees; had a date in Jhansi with a dancer; other characters he knew there; description of train he rode; Sir Gilbert Laithwaite; opinions on independence of British colonies with them; took law exams in Lucknow; revenue inspections in the Punjab; peacock as food, but sacred to Hindus so had to get permission to shoot them; Bateman, a cartoonist who went hunting peacock with Hall; Delhi was the only place in India with a surplus of girls; AFishing Fleet@; attended last ever viceroy=s ball in 1938, description of festivities, outfits; pigsticking; social events at Wheeler Club; porridge with worms in it; religious processions, riot duty; took course in Simla about dealing with maharajahs; getting permission to marry in 1939; bachelors sent to remote places considered unsuitable for British families; silver wedding presents; visiting prisoners awaiting hanging; hours courts were in session; played tennis, squash; Indians were keen on litigation; Indian barristers; trouble with director of medical services; woman who wanted to be repatriated to New Zealand; members of the foreign service who came from Australia and New Zealand; comparative status of different regiments; regiment that wanted its members to play polo; very important in the service to be good at games; description of his chosen regiment, the 15^th Pubjab; social life in different regiments, cavalry regarded as playboys; first chose Cheshire regiment because of location; Hall was a good soldier, good leader; reasons why Hall accepted into his chosen regiment.