Interview with Walter Smith Sutherland Mackay [sound recording]

Comments on the management of the tea estates owned by James Finlay and Company in the High Range of Travancore. Summary: Playback Cassette Side 1: Family and educational background; reasons for going to India; class background of James Finlay recruits; history and organization of James Finlay &...

Full description

Archive & Special Collections OA4/24 Closed

Order number: OA4, Memories of the British in India, Sound Cassettes, Box 1 [CLOSED]
Date(s) of creation: 16 June 1984
Level: Item
Format: Archive           
Main author: Mackay; Walter Smith Sutherland (b 1904); tea planter
Other authors: Blake; David M (fl 1983); librarian and interviewer

collection SOAS Archive
id OA4.24
recordtype archive
scb_item_location Archive & Special Collections
item_location Archive & Special Collections
scb_loan_type Reference only
scb_order_with OA4, Memories of the British in India, Sound Cassettes, Box 1 [CLOSED]
callnumber OA4/24
callnumber_txt OA4/24
callnumber-sort OA4/24
prefix_number 24
scb_previous_numbers OA2/166/1-4
title Interview with Walter Smith Sutherland Mackay [sound recording]
scb_date_creation 16 June 1984
scb_level Item
level_sort 8/Collection/Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Collection/Sub-Sub-Sub-Collection/Series/Sub-Series/Sub-Sub-Series/File/Item
scb_extent 2 sound casettes
author Mackay; Walter Smith Sutherland (b 1904); tea planter
author_facet Mackay; Walter Smith Sutherland (b 1904); tea planter
Blake; David M (fl 1983); librarian and interviewer
authorStr Mackay; Walter Smith Sutherland (b 1904); tea planter
author_letter Mackay; Walter Smith Sutherland (b 1904); tea planter
author2 Blake; David M (fl 1983); librarian and interviewer
author2Str Blake; David M (fl 1983); librarian and interviewer
format Archive
scb_admin_history Walter Smith Sutherland Mackay - Employed by James Finlay & Co. in the management of tea estates in the High Range of Travancore of which Finlay were the Managing Agent. Assistant Manager 1924-32, Manager 1932-46, Assistant General Manager 1946-57.
scb_custodial_history Recorded as part of the ’Memories of the British in India’ project by India Office Library & Records [subsequently the Oriental and India Office Collection, British Library]. This recording was previously held at SOAS Library as part of the 'British in India Oral Archive Project' collection [Reference OA2], removed from this collection in August 2014 to reflect the recording’s alternative provenance as part of the ‘Memories of the British in India’ project.
description Comments on the management of the tea estates owned by James Finlay and Company in the High Range of Travancore. Summary: Playback Cassette Side 1: Family and educational background; reasons for going to India; class background of James Finlay recruits; history and organization of James Finlay & Co; strong position of Finlays in South Indian tea production; growth in world tea trade; Ceylon 'creeper' system of training tea plantation managers; feelings on journey out to India; meeting with member of 'tragic' Eurasian community; moplah rebellion. Summary: Playback Cassette Side 2: Maplahs; [long pause]; Mackay's written memoir; race relations between Europeans and Indians; Company policy on labour relations; British insensitivity to Indian way of life dating from Macaulay; Indian mistresses kept by some plantation managers; Indians not normally accepted in Club; isolation of High Range; comments on tea planting community in Ceylon;: social life in High Range and its limitations; heavy drinking but little alcoholism; Mackay's interest in Hinduism (not often shared by fellow managers). Summary: Playback Cassette Side 3: Attitude of Europeans to Indians; general honesty of Indians Indians as businessmen; reasons for British failure in India; lack of proper training for British sent to India; failure of British to make effort to understand Indian way of life; James Finlay's labour relations good but Company discouraged imagination; Company's failure to Indianize its management before independence exacerbated its difficulties after; labour problems after independence; beginnings of Trade Unionism; failure of British to understand the Indian mind a contributory factor in commercial failure; typical day's work of an assistant manager on tea estate; Europeans rarely went into tea factories and knew little of how leaves were processed; assistant manager's day; accounts of wages due to workers made up each evening; skills involved in plucking leaves; importance of Indian 'N.C.O' staff; Mackay learned all he knew from his 'N.C.O’, Thomas, a Syrian Christian. Thomas; Mackay's managers taught him little; Company's failure to promote Indian talent; corruption; opportunities for fraud in tea factories; labour relations chief problem for an assistant manager; worth of Tamil workers; Mackay becomes acting manager in 1930 and manager in 1931; manager's typical day; from mid-1930's, Managers took more interest in tea factories; Mackay's enjoyment of work; recreations; leave entitlement; High Range a state within a state; Company in practice dealt with law and order; story of murder case not pursued by police; manager's pay and standard of living. Summary: Playback Cassette Side 4: Conditions of Indian labour on tea estates; housing; food; pay; post war improvements in pay, and reasons why Company compelled to make them; contract labour system; indebtedness; introduction of 4% annual bonus scheme by Sir CP. Ramaswami Aiyar at end of war; Finlay's refusal to pay this bonus in 1953 began breakdown in labour relations; sanitary and medical conditions; sick care; contract labour served for 9 month periods; labour force reduced during hot weather; no unionization before independence; Staff (i.e. 'N.C.O's') Association started in 1946; ill-judged speech by Senior Executive; Congress and communist contacts with labour from 1946 onwards, but little political activity among plantation labour before then; attitude of Indian labour to managers; war and approach of independence made no difference; death of Gandhi; Indians appointed as assistant managers and admitted to club; club traditions still continued by Indians. Right of British to be in India unquestioned when Mackay first went out, and Raj seemingly permanent; war brought realization that British Rule would end; hope that India would evolve in same way as Canada; planters reactions to Cripps Mission, Labour Government, Attlee and early independence; Mackay's generation of planters confident of a future after independence; failure to realize that loss of India meant loss of Empire; opinion of Mountbatten; Mackay's belief that British should have stayed on longer to effect gradual transfer of power.
scb_access_status Closed
scb_conditions_gov_access Sound recording currently unavailable at SOAS Library due to preservation reasons. Researchers can access a copy of this audio recording at the British Library Listening & Viewing Service. For more details see www.bl.uk/listening or contact listening@bl.uk / 020 7412 7418.
scb_copyright Copyright held by British Library
scb_use_restrictions Private study only. For publication or broadcast please refer to Archivist
language English
language_search English
scb_originals Original sound recording of interview available at British Library Listening & Viewing Service [Reference: C63/116-121]
hierarchy_top_id_raw OA4
hierarchy_sequence OA4.0024

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