In the Underworld

 

 

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Introduction

 

Calcutta has always been a port city where large riches and and large impoverished rootless population sat very close together.  The Social and moral rules of both India and Britain were often weakened in peoples minds upon arrival in this extraordinary city. 

The war and the resulting population pressure further increased both the desperation and temptation for many to resort to crime. 

All this and not least the overwhelming influx of single young men, led to a great increase in crime & vice.

The 1940s saw a boom in the criminal underworld in Calcutta.  New victims and perpetrators where washed into the city and the economic strains as well as the unprecedented influx of money and materials provided endless incentives and opportunity for illegal money making schemes. 

The Calcutta Police undermined by the political situation certainly had its work cut out for them and it changed itself just as much a the criminal classes in order to keep up with modern times.

 

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Goondas

 

 

 

 

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Dacoity

 

 

 

 

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Famous cases of Dacoity

1945 Dixon Lane Shooting

1945 Suri Lane Shooting

1947 looting of firearms in Tollygunge,

30 July 1947 Armed robbery of Lakshmi Bank

1948 DumDum Basirhat Armoury Raid

1948 the Pollock Street Robbery

16 October 1948, Strike at Kadapara Jute Mills in Beliaghata

1950 Sealdah Hotel Dacoity

1950 Tollygunge Taxi Robbery

1950 Arpuli Lane Dacoity Case

5 June 1950. Dacoity at the Guinea Mansion, a jewellery shop in Gariahat. Jewelry worth Rs.30000/- is looted.

 

 

 

 

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The Behala Church Dacoity

The notable event of that other visit was of a very different kind.  When Father Brown and his companion arrived at Behala they found the place in desolation, and sorrow on every face. Dacoits or burglars had come in the night, wrecked the interior of the church and carried off its treasures. Years before, similar ruffians had robbed Barisal, first when the church was being built, a visit which nearly cost Douglass his life, and after it was built to break into the sacristy safes. Here at Behala their object was to find the concealed safe and carry it off, and in their search they reduced the church to miserable disorder. When early in the morning it was entered by the Sisters a lamentable scene met their eyes, and everything of value had gone. For the first time the Eucharist could not be celebrated, the holy vessels had been in the safe, but the miscreants had discovered its hiding place and carried it off bodily. All that could be done was to tidy up the church as best they could, and send for help to the Mission House ten miles away. Amongst the losses was the gold crucifix presented to Douglass by the London police more than a generation before when he had been working at St. Pancras.

All that the visitors could do was to weep with them that weep and discuss measures for defeating thieves in the future. Where could a safe be hidden in a place like Behala so that bandits could not discover it.  That problem was indeed hard to solve.

So back into their car the visiting Brethren got, to carry heavy hearts back to Cornwallis Street; but they had hardly gone two hundred yards when they heard a loud shout from behind. 'That is a shout of Joy,' said one of them; 'let us go back and see if anything has happened.' In a few seconds they were back, and in a little copse on the south boundary they saw a group of Behala lads waving and shouting with excitement. What had happened was this. These young apprentices had gone off to work in Calcutta very early, and on their return had heard of the disaster. They went into counsel together, and decided that the thieves would hardly be likely to carry off down the road a heavy safe, nor would they be likely to use a car, for that would let another into their secret, and another to share the loot. They would be far more likely to bury the safe somewhere in the neighbourhood and come back at night with adequate tools to open and rifle it at their leisure. But if they buried it, where would they find a suitable place ? They looked round, and there close by was a little grove of trees. 'Let's search there first,' said they. Before long they noticed that a little carpet of fallen leaves was arranged far more neatly than nature -usually arranges them when they fall. They moved some of the leaves and found that the earth beneath them had been disturbed.

Spades were brought, and soon iron struck iron, and the stolen safe was unearthed. It was then that the loud, joyous shout went up, and as the visitors arrived Douglass was hurrying to the copse with the key of the safe in his hand. It was hauled out of its earthly bed, opened,  and everything was found intact within it. Back to the church they went. The safe was locked with a Earthing in it, for it was certain that the rascals would come back for their booty, and it seemed their capture could easily be brought about. Away they went to the nearest police station with their tale, and asked "that police might be concealed in the little wood that night and. arrest the thieves when they came. The Superintendent or Inspector made the surprising remark that their own lads would be far better watchers than his men. 'They will talk,' he said, 'and probably smoke.'

That night the big lads watched. They saw one thief, and one only, come; he examined the site of the buried safe and crept away to report that all was well. The next night an ambush of police was insisted on, and the robbers came, at once discovered that police were on the ground and fled; not one was captured. The Inspector was right; his men were not much good.

Since then the church of the Epiphany at Behala has been unmolested. Its old priest made a change in his rule of life. Daily he said at Terce, 'At midnight I will rise and give thanks unto Thee.' In the preceding verse are the words, 'The ungodly have robbed me'. At midnight now he rose and to the end of his life with his hurricane lamp in his hand made his way to the Sanctuary to spend an hour there in meditation and prayer. If thieves ever came to reconnoitre and peeped, into the Church they saw not only the light burning before the Blessed Sacrament but the lamp by the side of an old white-robed white-haired priest with bowed head kneeling in adoration before his God.. The church was safe.

Friends of Father Douglass, Missionaries and Charity workers in Behala, Calcutta, 1943.
(Source: Father Douglas of Behala. London, 1952 / Reproduced by courtesy of Oxford University Press)

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Burglary

 

 

 

 

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Theft & Pick-pocketing

 

 

 

 

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LOST AND FOUND

Inquire At.  U.S. Military Hq. at 6 Lindsay Street

Calcutta Police Hq. at Lal Bazar

Advertise In.  The Daily Bulletin.

The Local Newspaper.

Broadcast.  If you have lost something extremely valuable, such as important documents, get in touch with the Station Director of the All-India Radio Station.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

Do protect your money

2. Do protect your money. Stay in-bounds and you will not be molested. Robbery with violence is practically unknown here. On the other hand, there are many thieves, pickpockets, and swindlers operating in the in-bounds area. So carry your wallet buttoned up in your shirt or blouse pocket. Flashing your roll in public is like waving your red flannels at a bull - some pickpockets will immediately put you on his "must" list. All of you know that a soldier full of this Indian cane juice is easy to roll or to swindle - act accordingly. And remember that Indians are friendly, peaceful people but don't forget that there are unscrupulous petty dealers who will attempt to get a large part of your roll for the least possible return. In a friendly and peaceful manner, just plain refuse to be swindled.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

PERSONAL SECURITY AND MILTARY CONDUCT

Pilfering.  Yes, pilfering is part of YOUR PERSONAL SECURITY.

Security.  You are at the end of the longest supply route in the war. To maintain that route takes BLOOD! Every article, no matter how small, reaches the end of this route only as a result of a colossal, united effort that staggers the pre-war geared imagination. And any piece of equipment (again, no matter how small) that travels this route and arrives here only to be stolen, sold or given away - that becomes a misstep in the whole war scheme. To replace the lost item delays the ending of the war. It allows the blood to flow that much longer. Perhaps, YOUR BLOOD! Yes, it may well be yours. When needed, that piece of equipment will not be there for your defense; and meanwhile, it may, and probably will, have reached the enemy and have become a part of the very offense being pressed against YOU! You lack the war materiel! Why?! Because some DIRTY RAT, someone unfit to wear the American uniform, has stolen that materiel and sold it!

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

firearms

Be careful not to leave firearms around. They are likely to be stolen.

 

(source: “A Pocket Guide to India” Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army. War and Navy Departments Washington D.C [early 1940s]:  at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/booklet/guide-to-india.html)

 

 

 

 

 

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copper ornaments

There were several placements in India but for the main part Alfred was stationed in Bengal at Khargpur, where the remit was to keep the lines of communication open between Delhi and Calcutta and between Calcutta and Madras. Sections of the telegraph lines on which the messages were sent were stolen from time to time by the locals who melted them down and made copper ornaments from them. Alfred's company had patrols out to prevent the thefts as far as possible

Captain Alfred Richardson, Royal Corps of Signals Eastern Command, Calcutta, 194

 

(source: A4103506 Captain Alfred Richardson ISO JP and his War in India at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

Archie was a bad egg and would run off with the silver

This man was the most dedicated churchman I have ever known. He truly tried to live by Christ's example. He refused to lock the church at any time, saying that it was God's House and should be open to the needy at all hours. He helped many people who were shunned by society and one of the most memorable instances was a man called Archie who had been in prison for stealing and could not find any employment when he came out. Rev Bryan gave him a job looking after the Church grounds and the concensus of opinion was that Archie was a bad egg and would run off with the silver.

He did and Rev Bryan refused to call in the Police saying he would leave him to his conscience and to God. The extraordinary thing was that Archie came back - returned the silver and begged his forgiveness - ever after that remaining on the premises and looking after the Church grounds.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Calcutta, 1950
(source: page 55 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

 

Not in my Supply Dump you don’t!

Most who served in CBI remember it as a theater of chronic shortage: never enough material for the job at hand. Ironically enough, Calcutta, In the spring of 1944 found itself at the opposite extreme - glut.

More and more supply ships were  running  the   Indian Ocean/Bay of Bengal gauntlet and the Hooghley River ran heavy ship traffic with cargo destined for Assam and thence to China as well as creation of a material reservoir for the upcoming 2nd Galahad drive into Central Burma. Unfortunately the multi-gauge Bengal and Assam Railway, even with partial help from other unsophisticated veins of transportation, proved a bottleneck. Inevitably Calcutta's existing warehouse facilities were overwhelmed and overflow material, waiting for transport, had to be temporarily stored in hurriedly constructed outdoor dumps not only in the environs but In the city itself.

One of these in the city itself was, as I recall, a large open area maybe some four blocks square. This was now fenced in, closed to all but the military, and the supplies rolled in. Boot laces to aspirin, cigarettes, medical supplies, canned goods, weapons, you name it and it was there. Most of it protected only by waterproofed tarpaulins and fervent hopes that it might be moved soon.

With theft being a disgrace only if you were caught in this region of the world, the light fingered of the citizenry viewed this cornucopia as a gift from heaven; something to be plundered with abandon. The British, American, and Ghurka guards did their best but it was too much like guarding a lake of honey from an army of Invading ants. After all, while chasing one miscreant, how many others would be passed by, safely hidden under piles of supplies, waiting for their chance to grab booty and run?

Though some were shot, it had no deterrence. After all, for every one that was caught it was agreed by all that at least ten others made good their mission. No, the odds were with them and the Calcutta Black Market paid well enough for American merchandise to make the risks well worthwhile. What the overloaded storage and transportation systems couldn't handle, the local freebooters could and did!

It was at just this stage of the game that our unit, then known only as the Casual Dog Detachment (later to be designated War Dog Det-CBI) came to mind.

We had arrived on April 5, 1944, and held at Kanchrapara for acclimatizing and waiting orders. And though Europe had used military dogs for many years the concept was still novel to our warrior leaders so they didn't seem in any particular hurry for either.

Finally someone in the upper echelon remembered there was some kind of dog outfit around supposed to be trained for just this sort of thing. While the military is normally aghast at trying anything new or unproven, someone in authority used their intelligence and decided to let us show what our dogs could do so that twelve of our teams were temporarily assigned to the dump In question.

From all accounts, the first night at the dump could only be described as a turkey shoot. The regular guards were all pulled out of the Interior of the park and stationed only on their outside perimeter posts. To take the place of the regular twelve guard posts. Inside, each shift would have four of our teams enter and patrol in any manner they wished; the only criteria being that all points be covered.

This was all no doubt being taken in by those planning nocturnal activities and their amusement must have been great. The exterior and interior guard system they were very familiar with for, after all, it had never given them much trouble before. But now, four men were going to protect what had taken twelve previously? Strange Indeed were the ways of the pugia Emreekans. But no matter, it promised to be a very lucrative night.

The dogs? Who knows? But Indian city dogs all knew to keep out of the way of human's kicks and stones. Why should these curs be any different? All In all, the coming night seemed to show great promise for lucrative endeavors.

With their attitude toward the dogs In mind it would be difficult not to imagine their utter chagrin when, after infiltrating the outer perimeter (and on this first night some of the outer guards deliberately allowed this just to see what would happen) and sneaking into the dump, they would suddenly come face to face with the bared fangs and raised hackles of a dog very unhappy at finding an intruder in his domain. Not in my supply dump you don't !

The intelligent ones would quickly give up and be marched back to the perimeter guards who in turn would throw them into the fenced stockade erected just for this purpose. Some witless ones thought their two feet could run faster than a dog's four; a folly attested to by torn legs and slashed backsides. But of all the trespassers, the ones who actually infiltrated the area and found themselves a cozy hidey hole fared the worst. They thought it was business as usual and they could play their old game: find a hiding spot under or atop a pile of material, perhaps under the tarpaulin that covered most of these piles and once the guard had passed, grab their loot and run.

What these complacent ones failed to realize was that our dogs had been specifically trained to play this game and their ease at sniffing out these hide-a-ways was second only to their pride of accomplishment. Once the dog alerted, his handler would give the order for whoever It was to come out with hands held high. If the culprit was smart enough to obey there was no problem; Just a quick march to the stockade.

If, on the other hand, he thought to just He still and be passed by, he soon found It to be a very unwise decision for It was a simple matter to Just unsnap the dog's leash and let the animal follow through. Since these hiding spots were almost always dead ends and of close quarters, the unfortunate one would find himself between a no exit on the one hand and a set of slashing fangs on the other. The result was usually a scream of terror followed by an eruption of flailing arms and legs trying to escape the trap as best they might. A trap they themselves had set.

Not having been assigned to this duty, I cannot with certainty say how many people were bagged that first night but do know it was a respectable number: several of whom, through their own doings, had lost bits of their flesh to flashing teeth. Now some of these walking wounded were deliberately allowed to "escape" and it was a smart piece of psychology. The reasoning was, and rightly so, that if these examples were allowed to limp back to their friends they would tell what happened and, human nature being what It is. the telling would assure our dogs grew to the size of tigers with huge fangs dripping blood while their evil eyes glowed in the dark.

The second night was not quite as active as the first but still busy enough to keep out teams on the Hump. Some moonlight entrepreneurs had not yet gotten the word while others just refused to believe it. The result was, for the second night in a row, the stockade was not wanting for occupants.

By the third night, however, business had dropped off decidedly and by the end of the week, not only our own people but the perimeter guards as well found the duty to be quite boring. The fraternity of theft had gotten the word out that the dogs of the Emreekans were thrice cursed devils not to be trifled with and that other targets were much more amenable to the theft profession.

Temporarily, at least, the Calcutta Black Market was minus one of Its many sources while our unit suddenly found Itself a hot property.

Richard J. Zika, member of the US Army Casual Dog Detachment. Calcutta, Spring 1944.
(source: Richard J. Zika: “ Not in my supply dump you don’t” on page 42 in CBIVA Sound-Off FALL 1999 / reproduced by courtesy of CBI Veterans’ Association )

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with CBIVA 1999)

 

 

 

 

 

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Smuggling

 

 

 

 

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The Salt Tax

We lay at anchor in the River Hoogly at Calcutta for 28 days discharging the salt and every ounce of it had to be weighed on board before it was loaded into barges to be towed away. Apparently there is a Customs Duty levied on all salt in India so that is why they were so keen on weights.

James William Stanworth, Chief Steward S.S. “Harberton”, Calcutta, 1939

 

(source: A6021136 J W Stanworth - Memoirs part 3 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

The Halcyon

The Collector called me in and stated that smuggling had been on the increase during my absence and that something had to be done. I suggested having a fast motor launch built, big and strong enough to intercept the ships outside Sagar Island, at the mouth of the bay. The Scout could not be sent out there in rough weather. I proposed the building of the launch be given to Garden Reach Workshops. Tenders were called from them; also from Bum & Co and John King & Co. I had not much faith in the two latter firms; however, the tender from Garden Reach Workshops proved the best and they got the order. I went to the manager there and told him what kind of boat would be best-suited for the job and, jointly, we drew up a sketch of a German-designed meer [sea] bow boat, powered by three engines of 120 hp each.

For some unknown reason this design was turned down by Captain Walsh and the Chief Engineer Surveyor of Port Commissioners. In fact, I had no knowledge this had been done until the firm reported that the boat was half-finished and sent an invitation to the Collector to come and inspect their workmanship. He called for me to accompany him to the works.

I then saw that a new manager had been appointed at the boat works, and that the boat they had built was not of the design I had suggested to the former manager - and I told the Collector so. Walsh was obviously up to new tricks to get me discredited. The Chief Surveyor was also present and highly recommended the altered construction.

To say I was disappointed was putting it very mildly! I told the Collector that I very much doubted if such a boat would be able to attain the speed of 16 knots per hour asked for in the contract. But, on the recommendation of the Surveyor, I was over-ruled and it was completed.

The day came for the test and speed trials, to which I was not invited. The Surveyor reported they had obtained a speed of 15.15 knots, and this report was shown to me by the Collector. I asked him to order another trial run and to send me on it instead. This was done. I borrowed a stopwatch from a watchmaker and the trial was arranged by the Surveyor to take place on extremely high water, figuring he would be proven right and I wrong.

The Hooghly River has a peculiarity: at the peak of high tide, the ebbing begins at both sides of the river at once; whereas, in the middle, the tide still flows up-river for about an hour.

We went by the measured mile. Three runs were to be made, up and down the mile, with an average of the three runs taken. The first run was up-river in the middle, and the next two down the sides of each bank. In this skewed test, all three runs were made with the flow of the water in favour (running with the boat) in  both directions. On completion, I worked out the average speed to be about 15.5 knots. Then, allowing for the benefit derived from the runs made with the flow of water in favour both up- and down-river, 1 could come to no other conclusion: the boat could barely do 13 knots!

1 made my report to the Collector accordingly. This, of course, raised a storm of protest from both the firm and the Surveyor, and they came forward to argue their case before the boss. But I stood firm on my timing; and when they jointly questioned my ability to give an opinion on a speed trial, I said:

'I am only a poor man, but I'm willing to back my calculations with a sum of 500 rupees. If you will put up a similar amount, we will have another trial arranged - but on honest lines this time, not at the extreme top of high tide!'

They declined, of course, to put up 500 rupees, so the Collector declined to accept the boat. The contract had been fixed at 100,000 rupees. Some days later, the firm approached our office again: they were ready to accept 90,000 rupees, on account of their failure to produce 16 knots, if we would accept that price. The matter was referred to the head office of the Central Customs Board in Delhi. Mr Greenfield came down, inspected the boat, congratulated me on beating the experts, and accepted the boat as it stood.

The official launching then took place and it was named Halcyon by the Collector's wife. We were now able to intercept incoming and outgoing ships right outside the mouth of the Hooghly, thus preventing drugs like cocaine, heroin and opium from entering or leaving Calcutta.

[…]

The coming of the Halcyon was a blow to the big drug smugglers. They used to have the cocaine thrown overboard in water-tight containers from the incoming Chinese and Japanese steamers at the mouth of the Hooghly. That we put a stop to and, for a time, cocaine was almost out of the market in Calcutta.

August Peter Hansen, Customs Inspector, Calcutta 1939
(source: page 202-203 of August Peter Hansen: “Memoirs of an Adventurous Dane in India : 1904-1947” London: BACSA, 1999)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with 1999 Margaret [Olsen] Brossman)

 

 

Examples of Smuggling

Smuggling is an art: it's the wits of the smuggler versus the preventive officers. The Chinese are the most efficient experts in the game. Here are a few examples:

Opium was the chief drug leaving Calcutta. A Chinese came on board a ship in Calcutta bound for Hong Kong. On going from the gangway onto the ship, a sudden gust of wind blew his sola topee off his head. The preventive officer on duty on the gangway heard it drop with a heavy thud. He picked it up before the man could retrieve it and found it was very heavy. It was a fine day and the hat could not be rain-sodden. His suspicion was aroused. On pressing the hat, he found it was pulpy.

The man tried to run away, but he was apprehended. The hat was ripped open and, where the sola pith should have been, it had been taken out and the cavity filled with opium. He had tried to carry two pounds of opium on board in his hat!

Another Chinese likewise came on board. He had a pair of very thick rubber soles under his shoes and walked as if he had sore feet. On examining the shoes, it was found that the crepe rubber soles had been carefully carved out and he had a pound of opium in each shoe, acting as soles!

Once a steward of a steamer bound for China came up the gangway. He had with him a coolie carrying a huge basket of eggs. On going under the sundeck at the top of the gangway, some obstruction rolled an egg off the top of the basket. It fell on the deck, but though the shell cracked, neither white nor yoke flowed out.

The preventive officer on duty noticed this. Upon examining the eggs, they were all found to be full of opium! They had been very carefully sawed off near the ends and had then been filled with opium. The sawed-offends were then fitted on again, glued fast, and the eggs whitewashed to cover the joints. In that basket of'eggs' was one maund of opium - 80 pounds, the value of which would be worth many thousands of rupees in China.

Once drugs get on a ship, they are very hard to find, for there are so many nooks and corners where it's almost impossible to find them. Other methods are also adopted for large consignments of drugs. A decoy is sent with a couple of packets supposed to contain opium. An informer then goes to the preventive officer on duty and points out the man, saying: 'That fellow there is carrying opium.'

The officer then goes after him. Whilst away arresting the man, a couple of bags - perhaps 160 pounds of the stuff- are then carried on board. The decoy, when arrested, may be found to have only a harmless packet of shoes or some cloth under his arm. As cocaine comes in both vials and paper packets, it is easier to conceal than opium.

August Peter Hansen, Customs Inspector, Calcutta late 1930s
(source: pages 203-204 of August Peter Hansen: “Memoirs of an Adventurous Dane in India : 1904-1947” London: BACSA, 1999)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with 1999 Margaret [Olsen] Brossman)

 

 

Smuggling Cocaine

The coming of the Halcyon was a blow to the big drug smugglers. They used to have the cocaine thrown overboard in water-tight containers from the incoming Chinese and Japanese steamers at the mouth of the Hooghly. That we put a stop to and, for a time, cocaine was almost out of the market in Calcutta. It was not long, however, when our sleuths reported that the market was again flooded with drugs. Obviously, a new way had been found to circumvent the usual channel.

Japan was a big exporter of tiles of all kinds, a large amount of which went to India. They came in willow crates rolled up in rice straw. These crates would ordinarily be opened by the Appraising Department; but as that would entail a lot of work, it was seldom done.

Nemesis, as a rule, overtakes all scoundrels sooner or later. One day, a crate fell out of the sling and burst; whereupon, some of the bundles of glazed tiles opened and, in each bundle of six, it was seen that one had the middle cut out - giving place to a square tin about four inches and the thickness ofthe tile. Each tin was found to contain five ounces of cocaine - a huge consignment! Needless to say, all was confiscated. The firm to whom the tiles were consigned denied all knowledge ofthe cocaine and refused to take delivery of them.

The law was defective. A person had to be found in actual possession of drugs before he could be arrested. The bundle had broken open whilst in the custody of the Port; the duty had not been paid on the tiles; the consignee refused to take delivery, so all the cocaine was taken over by the government and the tiles sold at auction.

That avenue was closed, but the smuggling ring is big finance and they found another outlet. An agent for a big English chemical concern applied for a permit to import old military coats (cast-offs) for sale to the poor workers. The permission was granted and the first bundles arrived. They were, of course, opened and thoroughly examined. Nothing was found. The coats were then sold by the agent at ridiculously low prices, and the poor people were pleased to get such cheap woollen tunics to keep them warm in the cold weather.

Suddenly, something went wrong: someone squealed. The next bundles arriving were more thoroughly examined and it was found that, under the lining at the back of the tunic breast pockets, each coat had a one-ounce paper packet  sewn in. The man had already taken delivery of the consignment, a raid was made on his premises, and hundreds of ounces of cocaine were recovered from the coats. He received the maximum sentence: 1,000-rupee fine and six months in jail. What did he care? He had, before the exposure, imported many hundreds of bundles of coats.

This was a hard blow to the ring, but they were not beaten. A Chinese firm got an import licence for cane furniture, tables and chairs from Singapore. Again, it was carefully examined. The brass plate ferrules of the table and chair legs were removed to see if the hollow bamboo contained any drugs. Nothing was found and the Customs were lulled into the belief that the imported furniture was a genuine transaction. Besides, the prices charged for it were very high.

Naturally, the Customs eased off; that was fatal for, sometime later, in the course of unloading, one chair leg got broken and out streamed cocaine powder! The cunning Chinese had waited patiently, and when he found the Customs examination had slackened off, he began to import.

The most daring case of smuggling cocaine, I think, was performed by a second engineer of a steamer running between Calcutta and Rangoon. He had been two years on the run and, during that time, had kept a motorcycle for his own amusement and comfort. When the steamer arrived in Calcutta, he would have his cycle landed on the wharf by one of the ship's cranes. It would stand against any of the sheds unattended until the ship was securely moored in the river. Then, in the evening, he would come ashore, collect his motorbike, and go riding around the town.

At the end of his two-year term, he gave the cycle to an engineer friend. There was a farewell party, they all got more or less intoxicated, and his friend wanted to pay him something for the cycle. 'Not at all, my dear fellow. That cycle has earned me 200,000 rupees during these two years. I am never coming back out East again.'

He then explained how it had earned him all that money. In Rangoon a certain firm would pump his cycle tubes full of cocaine. In Calcutta he would go to an Indian house on Lansdowne Road. There the tubes would be removed and a new pair put on. This had gone on twice a week for the two years - right in front of the Customs! Brave man! I hope he is enjoying his easy-earned money somewhere in dear old England.

August Peter Hansen, Customs Inspector, Calcutta early 1940s
(source: pages 203-206 of August Peter Hansen: “Memoirs of an Adventurous Dane in India : 1904-1947” London: BACSA, 1999)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with 1999 Margaret [Olsen] Brossman)

 

 

Smuggling Gold

There was another daring smuggler: a Mandarin woman from China. During World War II, aircraft were constantly flying from India to Chungking, mostly with war material for the Chinese. Passengers were also carried. This Mandarin woman - at least she was dressed like one - came on one of these planes, and was decked out with all kinds of very heavy gold ornaments.

Gold was at a very high price in China. She declared her ornaments with the Customs; they were weighed and totalled about ten pounds. She remained in Calcutta about a fortnight as the guest of some wealthy Chinese family. On departure, she had all her ornaments on and nothing was thought wrong.

She came again, after some time, wearing the same-looking ornaments. We thought it strange she should spend such huge sums on flying to and fro, as the fare was about 3,000 rupees one way.

Whilst weighing the ornaments, we had a testing instrument ready and found that the ornaments were made of gilded brass. She was allowed to go with it all; but when she was ready for departure and we examined the ornaments, they were found to be of pure gold! She was taken into a room and a lady searcher of the Customs had her undress. It was also found she had a band of pure gold around her waist, and the soles of her Mandarin silk shoes were hollowed out and filled with gold plates. In all, the good lady had pure gold totalling 20 pounds in weight on her person! It was, of course, confiscated, as there was no export permit for gold from India. Considering the gold value in India, as compared with its value in China, the brave woman had, on her first trip, netted about 25,000 rupees!

However, gold smuggling was not at an end by her capture. The crews of the planes were as much interested as anybody. We virtually had to examine every plane before departure. They even had tools made of pure gold, but lacquered over with black varnish to disguise them. It was an endless hunt! Eventually, restrictions were put on the sale of gold; but, even then, some got smuggled out of the country.

August Peter Hansen, Customs Inspector, Calcutta mid 1940s
(source: page 206 of August Peter Hansen: “Memoirs of an Adventurous Dane in India : 1904-1947” London: BACSA, 1999)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with 1999 Margaret [Olsen] Brossman)

 

 

 

 

 

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The Black market

 

 

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… allied forces and their friends, hooting wildly as they drove around

On that particular day the streets were filled with trucks full of allied forces and their friends, hooting wildly as they drove around. A small gang of us youngsters piled onto a tram and crossed and re-crossed the Howrah Bridge, whooping and shouting encouragement to all and sundry. The only people not looking happy were the black-marketeers. They had done well out of the extraordinary wealth of goods shipped in to feed American troops.

Nandita Sen, Schoolgirl, Calcutta. August 1945
 (Source: Nandita's story at: http://timewitnesses.org/english/%7Enandita.html, Nandita Sen Hyderabad - January 2005, seen 18th November 2005)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Nandita Sen)

 

everyone was looking for easy money, at any price

It was a Mecca for most of the troops who were stationed in the cantonment or there on sick or normal leave. Every possible luxury had been imported, from the four comers of the world, and in profuse quantities: wine, women and song were the order of the day. It was a poor man who was unable to find whatever special vice he enjoyed - providing, of course, that he was prepared to pay for it. No matter how rife your imagination ran, still you would be unable to plumb the true depths of the decadence that was possible. And Just about every country had its representative contingent of heaven knew how many thousands amongst the burgeoning population of fifteen million natives. They came from the United Kingdom and the United States - who appeared to outnumber us, and were still increasing, day by day. There were Chinese, Australians, New Zealanders, French (what were they doing there? They lost Madras a hundred years ago), Poles, Czechs, West and East Africans and Uncle Tom Cobley and all - and they all had money to burn. The streets were jam-packed solid with the buyers and the providers, Just say what you wanted and it was yours in a flash - but be wary, for you could as easily get your throat cut and end up dead in the labyrinth of alleys for which Calcutta was noted. And everyone was looking for easy money, at any price: there were gangs galore, both white and coloured, and the local constabulary was too small to cope with them. As well as preying on the tourists, there were no end of gang rivalry fights.

William Pennington, Captain 134 Field Regiment Royal Artillery, Calcutta, Summer 1945

(source: page378 of  William Pennington: Pick up you Parrots and Monkeys and fall in facing the boat. The life of a boy soldier in India. London: Cassell, 2003)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with William Pennington)

 

 

 

 

 

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Gambling

 

 

 

 

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Pornography

 

 

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G.I.s at bookstall

48

 

Corner bookstalls, specializing in lurid novels, sex treatises, are fascinating spots for British and American soldiers alike.  Typical titles, "The Escapades of Erotic Edna", "Kama Sutra, The Hindu Art of Love".

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

(source: webpage http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/?  Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson, South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)

 

 

 

 

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Opium Dens

 

 

 

 

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Opium den

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A little snooping in Chinatown will turn up the little opium dens stuck down an alley (not recommended without police escort).  Actually, the smokers shown in this picture do it legally.  Each den is licensed for so many pipes.  Each pipe costs a rupee, a phial of opium five rupees.  Average smoker consumes a phial a day and there are about 186 pipes licensed in Calcutta.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

(source: webpage http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/?  Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson, South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)

 

 

 

 

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Brothels & Prostitution

 

 

 

 

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Nightfall in Calcutta

49

 

Nightfall in Calcutta stirs the imagination and curiosity as to what goes on down dimly-lit alleys often leads an occasional soldier into the out-of-bounds areas.  If you don't know the way, five rupees will buy a trip to the few still existent brothels in one of the garies shown here.  (Warning: MP's take a poor view).

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

(source: webpage http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/?  Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson, South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)

 

G.I.s and Indian women

53

 

Highlight of the out-of-bounds visit is of course, a look-in on the lassies.  These dusky ladies of the night ask from $3.00 to $6.00 for the dubious pleasure they offer.  The GI seems to find making choice hard.

Clyde Waddell, US military man, personal press photographer of Lord Louis Mountbatten, and news photographer on Phoenix magazine. Calcutta, mid 1940s

(source: webpage http://oldsite.library.upenn.edu/etext/sasia/calcutta1947/?  Monday, 16-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of David N. Nelson, South Asia Bibliographer, Van Pelt Library, University of Pennsylvania)

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

There are "easy" girls

3. Take care of your health if you want it to take care of you. You will not find a brothel in-bounds either according to the M.P.'s, according to your present health and the future health of your children, or according to your pocketbook. There are "easy" girls, the so-called amateurs, in the in-bounds area. Sure, there are. But you didn't persuade her with your charm. Some other fellow made the road easy for you. And he, that last customer in this free bread line, might have left a present with her to be relayed to you. Over 50% of these kind-hearted amateurs have V.D. And if you forget all else, for remember the "Pro" stations listed in the Health section of this booklet.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

Temptations

India - en route

October 13, 1944

My Darling Reva,

This is my second note to you tonight, my charmer, for in thinking while alone endlessly and forever my theme is you. How proud I am of you, darling, and how happy that I have you to think and dream of.

I share the weaknesses of other men, and in some instances have faults beyond redemption, but in one respect I have disciplined myself. I have done in this land as you wished, and found that it was my wish, too. There is no regret on my part for a physical want not satisfied. It can wait until proper, complete, and marvelous satisfaction comes in your arms and in your arms alone.

I should have written before on this subject, but I wanted to be sure. Temptation is ever present, and here there are in-bounds houses. The first question the taxi driver asked us tonight was - . The soldiers on leave, at least many with whom I have talked, spend a large part of their savings on prostitutes.

This is a sordid matter; but I wanted you to definitely understand what I was talking about.

Your faith and trust is great, dearest, and mine matches yours, but I know that you like reassurance. Well, here it is, little wife. "An humble and a contrite heart" you know.

So, lie back, with your pretty face framed in your luxuriant black hair, and let me look deeply into those starry eyes of love.

Goodnight, precious,

Dick

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, October 13, 1944

(Source: page 73 of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)

 

Calcutta is riddled with venereal diseases

Women.  (Whoops, here we go again! But we don't mind knocking ourselves out if you guys don't mind listening.) Those of you who have already made up your minds to abstain, kindly turn to the movie section and decide what show you want to go to tonight. That eliminates part of the audience - we hope. To go on: As in any port city in the Orient, Calcutta is riddled with venereal diseases. Studies show that professional prostitutes are 150% infected (half have one and the other half have two). Even in the native population the rate is well over 50%. That good-looking amateur whom you think you convinced by your personal charm may be just the baby to hand you a gift package - unwrapped.

Prophylaxis.  So we didn't convince you - or you got sort of tight and forget that you were convinced. Then do remember that there are Prophylactic Stations located at:

77c Park Street

6 Lindsay Street

14 Watgunge Street

Hindusthan Building

Each camp dispensary in the Calcutta area.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

Under Village Palms

UNDER THE VILLAGE PALMS OR Why Not? It's Been Going on a Long Time

by Richard Beard

The Officer on Duty and the sergeant of the guard called for me at the club and I joined them with alacrity, for we were about to visit the village brothel area – on business, not pleasure.

We drove into the darkened village about 10:00 o'clock at night. The road was dusty and bumpy; the jeep creaked and heaved its way along. Every other blackened shop had an open kerosene lamp flickering in the front, revealing skirted shapes sitting quietly on benches and sleeping boards. A musty odor saturated the air, drenching our spirits. Forty-fives jutted from the hips of the Officer on Duty (OD) and the sergeant of the guard. The twentieth century was moving into a community sagging under the dreadful burden of a thousand years of unchanging superstition, poverty and human degradation.

The old, rotted and gutted by the termite time, was confronted with the modem, strong, self-sufficient, scientific, and hard. The ancient gave way as the bow of a ship cleaves through the water, and just as the waves heal the wound made by the passing, so did the ancient soul of this village close in and around us. We were a foreign excrescence struggling vainly in its age-old shadows.

We rounded a corner and came to a shop before the narrow lane leading into the compound. Several natives were standing in covert watchfulness before another of the nameless "confectioneries" which scar the streets. They knew we were Americans, representatives of the mightiest nation the world has ever known; we were all rajahs; compared with their puniness, we were veritable giants; our thundering silver bombers roared their song of death in a fierce battle chant over the quiet of their homes every morning. They were not impressed. They simply watched. Some days we would leave as we had come, in a jarring burst of flaming exhausts, and then once again they would pad are footed over their rice paddy trails, safe from chattering, clanging trucks that jerked madly over the roads.

The sergeant rudely shoved aside an un-protesting Indian soldier who blocked the path. Our flashlights made tentative jabs into the gloom of the bamboo-sheathed alley. Silent palms were outlined against the darker blue of the sky. The stars mutely shamed us. But we walked warily on, unsure of our footing. The trail turned and debauched into a courtyard with a suddenness that appalled us. We blinked in the sputtering light from the open lamps. When our eyes had accustomed themselves to the semi-darkness we saw that we were surrounded by heavily clothed seated figures, They were the "beebies" and were waiting for trade. They said nothing, for they knew that we were the American patrol, We walked around the circle, flashing our glaring lights into their faces as they stiffened on the ground. One especially attractive, well-dressed girl did not pause in preening her hair. It rested on her head in marcelled waves like a blue-black, glistening crown.

"May I touch it?" I asked, curious to know if it were set in grease. She said nothing, but, at my gesture, leaned forward slightly. I hesitantly touched her hair, careful not to disarrange her hairdress. The spun hair was soft and silky and dry.

I followed the Officer on Duty (OD) and the sergeant of the guard to the first of the closed compartment doors. "Open up, open up!" the sergeant jocosely shouted in a lewd tone. There was a rustle, then silence.

"Open the Goddamned door before I break it down," he yelled and kicked viciously at the flimsy bamboo. Apparently fastened only with a bamboo string, the door sagged away from the sill. Our combined flashlights lit up the interior. An Indian poked his head from under a dirty sheet which covered the bed.

"Let's see the beebie," the sergeant raucously commanded. The man half lifted the sheet, revealing the upper part of a black woman. "More, damn you." The sheet went all the way up, and the half naked backside of the "beebie" flashed" for a moment before the sheet dropped. The sergeant laughed.

The courtyard was closed on three sides by the compound building, which was  continuous, being separated only by bamboo sheathing. The fourth side, forming the square, consisted of a solid fence. The door of the next compartment before which we stopped was open and no one was inside. The room was about six by eight or ten feet with a seven-foot ceiling or roof.

There was no flooring. The ground was not the true color of ground. It was black; worn shiny and hard by countless footsteps. Vermin, rodents, sweat, excrement, filth, waste, human misery had left their imprint were now the floor upon which some girl even now was faltering through a living hell -- the sordid sop of a depraved appetite; a piece of human flesh to be torn on the calendar of lust until the warm blood no longer seeped from its open wounds. A rag, a dirty, filthy, scummy diseased rag - with no more soul than a reeking, grunting hog. How had this happened? How, indeed?

Furtive figures could be detected silently slipping from stealthily opened doors. They soon melted in the shadows without a backward glance. I approached one of the compartments from which this culmination of an illicit union had resulted in this skulking retreat. Through the half-open doorway I cold see a miniature woman adjusting her girdle of abundant cotton cloth more firmly about her slim hips. She deftly tightened the flow of the sari over her shoulders, throwing her tiny breasts into high relief. Childish hands of grace smoothed the folds of the skirt and softly patted her hair, which was drawn tightly over her head and tied just below her ears. I spoke to her sharply, "Mulam English?" She shook her head in a pert negative and answered, "Nay mulam."

"Mohammedan?" I questioned. In a gush of words, she shrilled, "Nay Mohammedan, nayteek. Me Hindu," Despite her lack of knowledge of the English language, she understood the universal language of praise all too well. With no more invitation than that, she glided to the doorway, stretching her hand to me in   supplication. I eluded her momentarily by backing away hastily.

She laughed again and shook her head wisely. In alternative English and Bengalise, we conversed for five minutes, neither knowing more at the end of that interesting period than we had at the beginning, but we were becoming acquainted.

Several times I inquired, "How much?" and tired to make her understand that I wanted a distinction between Indians and white men. But her responses of "Two annas, four annas, one rupee" seemed irrelevant and unwitting. Her attitude indicated that she wanted me to touch her, but under the circumstances, it was not difficult for me to refrain.

The Officer on Duty (OD) loomed out of the shadows and suggested that we continue our checking. As we went from compartment to compartment our experiences varied, but the squalor of the rooms did not. The accommodations were usually a dirty pad, stretched on the black dirt floor. Beside the pad were two small jars of ointment. A cracked earthen bowl of water set across from the lubricating oils, and near that was a raised mound of earth, disfigured with ashes. Above the ashes, the tarnished brass bowl in which the "beebie" prepared her meal of boiled rice.

Despite the known fact that the American and British patrols would be active at 10:00, a number of local residents had determined to exercise their libido regardless of possible interruption. About half the stalls were occupied or had just been used. As we approached one door a Hindu broke from it and ran through us, as we scattered before his dash. The door remained ajar, and we looked curiously inside. This compartment had a large open oil lamp and was clearly lighted up. Rolling from side to side on a raised bed was a black woman. The bed sheet had been pulled around her body. A continuous stream of moans issued from the bundle.

"Hey," the sergeant called. Louder moans. More wriggling. "What the hell goes on in here, you nigger bitch?" the soldier wanted to know. Some spark of indignation stirred in the poor wretch. Without turning toward us, she said low and distinctly, "Jow!"

With an outraged loud curse, the sergeant seized the door, crashing it to the door frame with a parting benediction, "S— in your face, f— you." The OD and I stood by without a word.

We were informed that there was still a further brothel compound, deep inside the labyrinth of stagnant ponds. We stumbled along in the darkness lighting our way with flashlights, walking on the ridge between two cesspools. A sheeted Hindu slipped down the bank ahead of us and stooped before the water, dipping into it with a bowl. He washed his hands fastidiously, then drank deeply and spat into the pond. To our left we noticed a block-like structure, apparently constructed from huge quarried stone. A Stygian aroma assailed our nostrils and we blanched, faltered, strode recklessly up the gravel path to look inside. We saw what we knew we would see: an Indian latrine. It had no roof, was built that some degree of privacy was insured. Open at four sides, the walls projected in such a way that the cubes couldn't be seen from the walk. Defecatory indications lay heaped everywhere, and since the subject squatted on a flat surface, naturally we were puzzled as to just what benefit was secured from its use. However, the ways of these people have not been revealed to us in anything like rational clarity, so we passed on, noted as we went that a rain would drain the accumulated faeces into adjoining ponds.

In dimensions and general appearance the second area was like the first, except that it was deserted. Lack of business, a British sergeant told us. The girls were all purchased for the purpose of prostitution, he added, or were widows with no other means of living. They were Hindus, but he was vague about whether men other than Hindus visited them. We returned to the first compound and found that the situations had not altered materially. The "beebies" were still waiting, squatted on their haunches in the darkness.

The group surgeon once had occasion to examine five of these women for venereal diseases. All five were afflicted with a running soreness caused by uncleanliness. Signs of gonorrhea were present in each case, and two had symptoms of incipient syphilis. The institution is, therefore, a social cancer in the community, but no control is attempted except that maintained by the Allied armies. Military restrictions do not cure, nor even prevent, infection. The ideological myth of continence is promoted by the army on the theory that stating a thing makes it so. Ergo, black is white, and never mind the evidence of your eyes.

Before leaving, the eldest woman and the madam of the establishment invited us into her compartment. Two British sergeants were seated at the edge of a huge bed, while one of them fanned a sleeping child. The madame made love to the not-too-bashful Officer on Duty (OD), clinging to his arm, simpering that "American officer very rich," and sing-songing, "With you, not a rupee, not two annas, for notheeng. Just love, you and me?"

Her arms slipped around his neck and she raised her legs, throwing her full length against his bosom. But American officers are made of stern stuff; the Officer on Duty (OD) extricated himself from her warm clasp, muttered closely behind me, "One word of this, and..."

I followed closely behind his retreating, hulking back, only to find that the bedeviled woman had leaped on me. In a panic, I tripped, shook her loose, and began to run. As we retraced our steps to the jeep, in considerable confusion, mocking laughter - tingling in space - floated in the night air after us. They were sure of themselves. We were not. Our sergeant was befouling himself with filthy curses, but we heard him only faintly.

In the security of my own basha, I sat for some time in serious thought, then I walked out into the night for a breath of fresh air.

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital, Calcutta, mid 1940s

(Source: shortened version on pp. xx-xxii of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elaine Pinkerton & Texas Tech University Press)

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

 

 

The Red Light District

The red light district (for Europeans only) in Calcutta was known as Karaya Lane (more of a boulevard than a lane, with its broad street, its shady trees and uncharacteristically clean pavements). Down each side were neat, well-decorated bungalows lying back from the road in their flowered gardens. Run by very superior Mesdames, and staffed by girls from Singapore, Hong Kong, French Indochina and of course, Russian emigres—vagabonds of the Far East living by their wits and with a saleable commodity to offer.

Micheal Carritt, ICS officer. Calcutta, 1930s.
(source: Micheal Carritt: A Mole in the Crown. New Delhi: Rupa 1986)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Micheal Carritt )

 

 “Nice English girl Sahib?”

In the 3 days before we had the wedding arranged, David, Pat & I took a look at the Calcutta shops. Pat & David were plagued by offers of girls that they might want to go to bed with —“Nice English girl Sahib?”

Kitty Calcutt, Nurse, Kalimpong Calcutta, October 1945

 

(source: A1307026 Wartime Memories of a Nurse at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

pimps chasing you to have a Bibi

Then there was the pimps chasing you to have a Bibi (woman/ girl). If you went in there you probably wouldn't come out alive or at least would get a dose.

Ernest Thomas Clifford, Royal Air Force, Calcutta, 1944

 

(source: A2615726 tom clifford - the war years 2 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

Upper Chitpur Road

… Upper Chitpur Road the busiest road in Calcutta at that time. With all the trams and cars and people going by and the din of motor horns and hawkers. It bemused me how they could work in that cacophony! Until the early Forties this area also used to be famous for her prostitutes and the singing and dancing girls. If you passed in the night, you could hear the sound of the bells on the legs of the dancing girls and the sound of their singing and instrumental music.

Ravi Shankar, sitar player. Calcutta, 1942
(source: Ravi Shankar / George Harrison (ed.): “Raga Mala – An Autobiography”, New York: Welcome Rain Publishers, 1999.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ravi Shankar)

 

… the area was called Chowringhee and it was notorious

We didn't really do any special jungle training while we were at Calcutta. We seemed to get an awry lot o' leave there, local leave. We could wander out into the town and what not. Apparently the area we were in was called Chowringhee and it was notorious. It is •well known to most troops that nave gone to India. There's a lot of brothels in the area. And it's a pretty seedy nm-down part o' Calcutta. The troops were prohibited from going to the brothels; they were out of bounds. But they went! The Military Police roved around there and if you were caught in mere you were for the high jump—well, put on a charge.

Eddie Mathieson, Marines’ commando soldier  on the Burma Front. Calcutta, 1944/45
(source: pages 236-237  of MacDougall, Ian: Voices from War and some Labour Struggles; Personal Recollections of War in our Century by Scottish Men and Women. Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1995)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Ian MacDougall)

 

 

 

 

 

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Sexual crimes

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

Indian Women

Indian Women. Indians are great family men. But their wives are kept much more secluded than western women. In certain circles it is a breach of good manners to inquire of a man about his wife or to mention women in any respect in conversation. A married woman wears a red spot in the center of the forehead. Many wear a small jewel in the side of the nose purely as an ornament as American women wear earrings. The jewel has no religious or caste significance.

Indian women keep to their homes as much as possible. Most Moslem and many Hindu women take particular care not to show their faces before strangers and wear heavy veils when out of doors. In the villages and rural sections where women are working out of doors, you should exercise special care not to stare at them or address them. Many will run at the approach of a white man.

 

(source: “A Pocket Guide to India” Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army. War and Navy Departments Washington D.C [early 1940s]:  at: http://cbi-theater-2.home.comcast.net/booklet/guide-to-india.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

A rape case

August 26, 1945

Dearest Girl:

Good old gloomy Sunday...the whole darn day...every bit of it...gloomy. And just awhile ago, it rained like the seven hells had broken loose and heaven had sent all of its fire departments to put out the blaze. However, the rain did let up in time to let Gus and me go to dinner about 7:15.

Just as I finished my letter to you last night, I was commenting to a patient on the fact that it had been a quiet evening, and I hadn't taken my duties too seriously. I laughingly rapped on wood, but I should have hit it a terrific lick, for just then an MP walked in and that started a four-hour mess that carried over the next day,

It seemed that an Indian girl had been raped by two Gl's and that the Gurkha guards were yelling for vengeance. I found the girl in the Receiving Office, a pitifully huddled figure perched at the rear of the building on the pavement. When I checked the barracks in which she was supposed to be, no one knew anything. I called the downtown MP's, for the interpreter said that she had been assaulted, or said she had, in the mouth, vagina, and rectum. They sent out two CID men who located one of the soldiers, who confessed that he had had, in company with the other men, relations of the type so unhappily described.

Then, in the rain, I had to find a gynecologist for the examination. We secured a nurse, opened the operating room (about 1 a.m.) and gave the girl a thorough examination. It was as she said, but the question was, had she struggled and screamed as reported? If so, where had she gotten G.I. gum and handkerchief? It was my opinion that she had gone willingly enough but put up a fuss when the men didn't pay her. I was pretty angry with the fellow we had caught, the dope! He could have saved me a lot of trouble if he hadn't behaved in such a niggardly fashion. She, the girl, turned out to be a Hindu widow, which under the Hindu laws, is damned near a prostitute's level to keep body and spirit together.

Someone hit a bearer on the head at the club...otherwise, no excitement. Major Schnitker and I had late dinner together and enjoyed some good talk on "the hell with the army." After my final round, which went smoothly, I had coffee with some of the enlisted men. To bed at 4 a.m. Work went as usual this morning. Read papers and napped this afternoon. Decided against seeing "The Great John L."

But very much in love with you,

Dick

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, August 26, 1945.

(Source: p.190 of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)

 

 

 

 

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Murder & Manslaughter

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

A stabbing by the docks

The boys in the Receiving Room took me to the morgue, where they were laying the 20-year-old boy, packed in ice, away forever in a plain, varnished pine coffin. I learned that the ordinary seaman, a Negroe, was captured on the spot. The essential tragedy in all this was that the boy (who died from a severed jugular vein) had not even been involved in the original dispute but was merely trying to help a group of white seamen take the knife away from the crazed and drunken sailor. His life-long friend, John Smith of Milwaukee, was unable to realize that his classmate and friend was dead, but he gave me all the essential information and took back to the ship all but the I blood-stained trousers.

Richard Beard, US Army Lieutenant Psychologist with 142 US military hospital. Calcutta, November 10, 1945.

(Source: pp. 240 ff. of Elaine Pinkerton (ed.): “From Calcutta With Love: The World War II Letters of Richard and Reva Beard” Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002 / Reproduced by courtesy of Texas Tech University Press)

 

Police Seek Indian Heiress

NEW YORK. March 27. FBI agents, army intelligence and police today searching for 22-year-old VALSA MATTHAI, daugh- ter of John MATTHAI, wealthy Bom- bay, India, Industrialist, who disappeared from her residence here a week ago. Police said the girl, who came here last September to attend the business school at Columbia university, was last seen about a. m.,...

(source: Reno Evening Gazette, Reno Nevada,  Monday, March 27, 1944)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Reno Evening Gazette)

 

Phyllis Day

Another family we knew were the Days. Phyllis Day was an Anglo-Indian girl married to a Bengali man. This was very unusual, High caste Hindu families were very opposed to mixed marriages but even more so when the girt was "Half-caste". They had a huge house on the outskirts of Ranchi and we often visited them. There were many children - I cannot remember all of them, I was much younger and spent most of my time with Stephen when we went to their house. The last we heard of this family was that Phyllis had killed her husband. The details were never made public but this was years later when we were living in Calcutta and of course, people did not discuss things in front of the children.

Elizabeth James (nee Shah), AngloIndian schoolgirl. Ranchi, mid 1940s
(source: page 24 Elizabeth James: An Anglo Indian Tale: The Betrayal of Innocence. Delhi: Originals, 2004 / Reproduced by courtesy of Elizabeth James (nee Shah))

 

The Invisible Girl

All night the snow fell heavily. Before dawn it lay eight inches deep on the streets of sleeping Manhattan.

At 4:50 a.m. the elevator signal buzzed in International House, the massive 13-story lodging place built by John D. Rockefeller Jr. for foreign students. The elevator man had a blind right eye, but as he stopped the car he turned to look at his lone passenger. She was Valsa Anna Matthai, 21, a pretty Indian girl from Bombay, a Columbia University student. She was not wearing the Indian sari pulled over her hair, but a bright kerchief; and as she walked out of the empty, lighted lobby, the operator noticed she wore a tan polo coat, dark slacks, and sport shoes. She had no bag. The street lights along Riverside Drive made pale yellow pools on the drifted snow, but beyond, Grant's Tomb and the park sloping down to the Hudson River were lost in gloom. That was the morning of March 20.

Valsa Matthai did not return. Last week her disappearance was still a mystery to the scientifically thorough (and 99.2% successful) Missing Persons Bureau of the New York police. It had stumped private investigators hired by the Manhattan office of Tata Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., branch of the rich House of Tata which controls much of India's heavy industry.

Valsa's disappearance was big news in Bombay, where her father, Dr. John Matthai, is managing director of a new Tata enterprise, a $5,000,000 chemical plant. Dr. Matthai, a Christian, educated at the London School of Economics and Oxford's Balliol College, distinguished himself as an official of the Indian Government before joining Tata in 1940. A believer in freedom for women, he sent his only daughter to convent schools in Calcutta and Bombay, and finally to the U.S.

At International House Valsa was not missed for more than 24 hours. Then Pritha Kumarappa, an Indian, and Salma Bishlawy, an Egyptian, Valsa's two closest girl friends, went to her room. The key was in the outside lock. The bed was turned down neatly. It had not been slept in. Her room and her clothes were in order; even her purse was there, with lipstick, identification cards and $17 in cash.

At first the case seemed routine to detectives from the West 100th Street station. They got her description for the routine form which the police call "DD-13." For the Missing Persons Bureau, which seeks 9,000 people a year, turns up 8,900 of them, alive or dead, before twelve months are out; and 80% come back by themselves, 50% within 48 hours.

But by week's end Captain John J. Cronin, the deceptively delicate-looking commanding officer of the Bureau, was directing a meticulous search which had spread across the whole U.S.

Cronin's men quietly invaded International House. If the girl had met with foul play, they reasoned, she might never have left the building. They drained two 9,000-gallon water tanks on the roof, another 5,000-gallon tank in a 13th-floor engine room. They shoveled and sifted their way through 150 tons of pea coal in basement bins. They searched the building's 550 rooms, foot by foot. They found no trace of her: Where had Valsa been going, in the snow, before dawn? She had only an amateur interest in Indian political affairs. If she was dead, where was her body? If she was alive, who had seen her?

Restaurant operators, taxi drivers, residents of the area for blocks around were questioned. The charred ruins of a burned-out apartment were combed. Ticket sellers at Hudson River ferry terminals were interviewed. The Hudson was dragged.

Had Valsa planned the disappearance? Usually the people who attempt to vanish are in search of love or money. But Valsa had all the money she wanted: there was $1,400 in her bank account. Love? On the afternoon before her disappearance Valsa had met a young officer, Lieut. Elmer Rigby of the Army Medical Corps, at the Waldorf-Astoria. The two had known each other since New Year's, had met often. Rigby showed investigators a recent letter from the girl; it was casual, friendly, with no hint of romance.

The detectives on the case, attempting to understand Valsa Matthai, began to experience an exasperated futility. Her friends said she was proud, brilliant, interested in her studies. She smoked cigarets, and occasionally visited nightclubs, in groups, escorted by an older Indian friend of her family. But as the case dragged on, digging began to change this image of Valsa Matthai. She began to sound less like a reserved visitor from an exotic land, and more like any other glamour-dazzled girl, first seeing Manhattan's bright lights.

Her interest in nightclubs, it turned out, was far from casual. She was an habitue. She sat at nightspot tables with American girls and young American and British officers night after night. A photograph made by a nightclub photographer showed a Valsa who looked different from the girl in muddy photographs made back in India. Valsa's hair was not primly tight around her head, but hung in a loose wave. Valsa's smile and Valsa's eyes suggested what students at International House reluctantly confirmed. Valsa had hangovers, and missed classes. She was repeating first-semester subjects. Late last winter some of her friends had remonstrated with her. They had reminded her that she represented India to Americans. The Missing Persons Bureau checked 85 reports that Valsa Matthai had been seen in New York City. All were erroneous. After one careful three-day check, officers closed in on an indignant Armenian woman.

Newspaper reporters and photographers, following a telephoned tip, burst into a Willard Hotel dining room in Washington, D.C. They found an Indian woman, but the embarrassed newsmen soon discovered that she was with her husband, P. A. Menon of the India Supply Mission.

At the end of last week Captain Cronin and his men, still toiling, still could not answer the very first question: why did the girl leave her room at 4:50 a.m.?

J. J. Singh, president of the India League of America (TIME, Feb. 28), guessed why: Valsa had never seen snow, and was so fascinated that she could not resist walking out into it. Captain Cronin, a far-from-casual student of abnormal psychology, pondered this idea seriously: "We know that sensitive people are sometimes driven to suicide by the depressing sight of rain, snow or bleak landscapes."

Suicide? Could she have been pregnant? A policewoman checked her girl friends, reported that she was not. Amnesia? But real amnesia, despite fiction, is exceedingly rare. And a woman with amnesia would still need food, and would probably wander the streets.

Cronin, baffled, pondering murder, saw only one really possible answer—his old enemy, the river.

"If she's in the river, maybe we'll know," he said. "We're just getting our December bodies up now. But they come up quicker in the springtime—men face down, women face up. If she's in the river maybe we'll know in May. If there's a thunderstorm we'll know before that. An odd thing, the way thunder will bring them up."

(source: TIME Magazine, New York,  Apr. 24, 1944)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

 

Died. Valsa Anna Matthai

Died. Valsa Anna Matthai, 21, daughter of Bombay Industrialist John Matthai, Columbia University student whose disappearance two months ago was an unsolved mystery (TIME, April 24); by drowning; in the Hudson River. It was believed that she would be found in the river, that a thunderstorm might bring her to the surface; last week, three days after a thunderstorm, her unmarked body was found floating near Yonkers.

(source: TIME Magazine, New York,  May 29, 1944)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Time Magazine)

 

 

 

 

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Espionage & Sabotage

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

MILITARY SECURITY

The following paragraph is well worth quoting here, and well worth your reading and consideration.

"Have you ever stopped to consider just what is our best source of protection in this country: If you've been in India as much as a week, you probably know that it would be practically impossible for American or British Intelligence to cope with alone any sabotage plot of other underhand doings in this section. It is the Indian policeman and the Indian civilian who can keep our Intelligence informed as to what is going on, or who can ignore us completely, depending, in the final analysis, upon how much they like us . . . . ."

No one can argue successfully against the truth of the foregoing statements. We do need Indian civilian and police co-operation. Whether we continue to get it or not depends on how they feel about us - on how you cause them to feel about us. It comes right down to you!

And what are you doing to help? Most of you are okay. But - there are an unfortunate number of you who mistreat Indian civilians and who disobey Indian police and flaunt their authority. Does that make sense? Can you reasonably expect to kick an Indian civilian around or to thumb your nose at an Indian cop - to do these things one minute and the next minute expect these people to be 100% on your side? How could you, yourself, react to such treatment? Well, that's exactly the way the Indian responds. And rightly so, too.

Give good treatment, and you'll get it. Show respect, and you'll earn it for yourself. The Indian's friendship is worth having. If you do something against an Indian, the harm is possibly small to yourself; but it is a great harm to your country, and to the Allied cause. As men, as Americans, you were brought up to be respectful of the law and kind to those around you. The fact that your environment has been changed is all the more reason why you shouldn't change. Remember the old proverb:

"Man who stands behind mule is wise to remain on friendly terms with said animal."

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Memories of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

 

 

Cloak and Dagger in Calcutta

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION: […] Paperback readers believe that spying and attendant dangers occur only in the pages of novels. Not so. The event which is the subject of this issue of MEMORIES occurred during the Christmas holidays of 1944 in Calcutta. James Garcia had served in the 40th in Puerto Rico and Panama. He returned to the States, rose to colonel and went to India as Intelligence Officer of the XX Bomber Command.

On June 15,1944, the first B-29 raid on Japan was carried out. Col. Garcia flew on the raid with his brother-in-law, Winton Close (40th and later 444th). The world, and especially Washington, was waiting for word that bombs had been dropped on Japan. A code word was established to be flashed over the radio when the bombs were released if the mission was a success. That code word was "Betty," the name of Jim Garcia's wife.

Against the possibility of capture if he flow over enemy territory, special permission had to be obtained from the XX Air Force in Washington for Col. Garcia to fly the mission. Approval was received by scrambled telex at the Bomber Command Headquarters in Kharagpur only just in time. Meanwhile, as is known, U.S. cryptographers had cracked the Japanese most secret code. Security was so tight that transmission of such information was extremely limited.

In fact, only just prior to the June 15 mission, an officer was dispatched from Washington to brief Gen. K.B. Wolfe and his Intelligence Officer, Col. Garcia, on information derived from this code- cracking effort.

Col. Garcia sensed that the briefing would hold such high classified information that he would be precluded from flying the mission if he knew it. Accordingly, he sent his deputy Col. George A. Stinson, to attend the briefing in his place.

By the time Christmas 1944 had come around, Col. Garcia had received orders transferring him to Guam. Celebrating Christian holidays in a non-Christian land was an alien experience; but American troops, with their British counterparts, carried on their traditions in India at this season as best they could! Garcia was invited to a Christmas party in Calcutta. As Leonard Lozano, who was, at that time, M/Sgt. and chief clerk of the Bomber Command Intelligence section notes, "The Christmas party was only an incidental part of an official trip to Calcutta. I remember Col. Garcia would not go 60 feet from his quarters to attend a party-much less 60 miles."

On this evening in Calcutta, Col. Garcia was driving his own car. He agreed to drive some nurses, who were attending the party, back to their quarters. It was his intention to spend the night with a U.S. Naval officer friend who was stationed in Calcutta and who had an apartment in the city. Heading toward his friend's apartment after returning the nurses to their quarters, Garcia became uncertain of directions. (How could it be otherwise in the streets of Calcutta at night?) To orient himself, he stopped to read a street sign at an intersection. To better read the sign, he got out of the car leaving the engine running.

It was at that moment that he was jumped by perhaps four men. They asked him to come with them. Garcia protested, saying that he was just an American officer having no knowledge of anything that would be of use to them. One of his captors responded by saying, "We know who you are, Col. Garcia."

Well his captors could say they knew who he was. Garcia recognized one of them who was Chinese and who walked with a decided limp. He had attended the Christmas party where Col. Garcia had also been a guest. (Knowing that Col. Garcia could not possibly fail to identify him, removes from speculation the chances that the Colonel would have survived this kidnapping.)

Garcia was forced into a car which he recognized as being of American make. Garcia also made another life-saving observation, it was that, on this make of car, the door release was activated by pushing the door handle forward. The car was being driven at moderate to slow speed. The captors drove in a pattern of turns and changes of direction intending to confuse Garcia so that he would not know where he was when they reached their destination. Thwarting this move, Garcia kept track of the turns that were made and continued to hold a picture in his mind where they were. He was being loosely held in the back seat between two of his captors, with another in the front and the fourth driving. As they made a turn, Garcia leaned in that direction and eased forward as if to absorb the turn. In doing so, he suddenly fell forward, pushed down on the door handle and opened the door. As he tumbled forward, one of his captors reached out and slashed Garcia in the back with a knife. Garcia got to his feet and dashed back in the direction of his car, backtracking from the spot of his escape. He reached the intersection and there his car still stood with the engine running. He jumped in and made his escape. He made it to the quarters of his Navy friend and together they patched the slash in his back sufficient to hold until he could get to a military hospital. He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds suffered in this encounter.

British counterintelligence was brought into the case and they said they believed they knew who the perpetrators were. One of the kidnappers had a friend in a Calcutta hospital. When it was known that his suspect was going to visit the hospital, it was arranged to have an appropriate CID man bedded next to the patient. Screens were positioned and Garcia was introduced into the screened area in an effort to listen to the voices to see if he might be able to identify them. The effort was inconclusive.  Being scheduled for transfer to Guam, Garcia did not participate further in the investigation of the incident. No successful conclusion ever was reached.

General LeMay, in 1988, noted that the purpose of the kidnapping was never determined for sure although it was thought that somehow the Chinese might have been involved. The only action taken by the Bomber Command was to close the Chinese restaurants that had concessions at some of our bases. That was unfortunate, this officer observed, because we were on British rations and the Chinese restaurants were the only places a good meal could be found.

Garcia served in the Marianas as Intelligence Officer of the XXI Bomber Command. He had not previously qualified as a pilot of a B-29 and he wished to be so qualified, before returning home when the war was over. Tragically, he was killed in a crash while shooting landings on the last day of the war.

Col. James Garcia, Intelligence Officer of the XX US Bomber Command. Calcutta, 25-31 December, 1944.
(source: Mrs. Betty (Garcia) Stinson: “Cloak and dagger in Calcutta”, in Issue #23 September 1988 of “40th Bomb Group Association Memories” / reproduced courtesy of 40th Bomb Group Association http://40thbombgroup.org)

 

 

 

 

 

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Police

 

 

 

 

          _____Pictures of 1940s Calcutta_________________________

 

Calcutta police on Strand Road North near the Calcutta approach to Howrah Bridge

Glenn Hensley, Photography Technician with US Army Airforce, Summer 1944

 

 (source: Glenn S. Hensley: Calcutta police, I002, Calcutta police on Strand Road North near the Calcutta approach to Howrah Bridge.  seen at University of Chicago Hensley Photo Library at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley as well as a  series of E-Mail interviews with Glenn Hensley between 12th June 2001 and 28th August 2001)

 

 (COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced by permission of Glenn Hensley and under a Creative Commons license)

 

 

Traffic Cop

 

Seymour Balkin, USAAF 40th Bombergroup. Calcutta, 1944

(source: webpage http://40thbombgroup.org/indiapics2.html  Monday, 03-Jun-2003 / Reproduced by courtesy of Seymour Balkin)

 

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

Headquarters of the Calcutta Police

The thoroughfare branching off the north-east corner of Dalhousie Square, with Mission Row on the right and Radha Bazar Street on the left, is Lall Bazar Street. The whole of the northern side of this street is occupied by the Headquarters of the Calcutta Police, a commodious up-to-date structure in the Grecian style of architecture, with the facade of the central block, adorned with classical columns and the Royal Coat of Arms.

The Calcutta Police consists of 5645 officers and men, and is rightly considered to be the best organised and most efficient Police Force in the East. The Force comprises the Armed Police,  the Port Police, the Mounted Police, the Motor Cycle Patrols and the Criminal Investigation Department, and has acquired great traditions since its inauguration.  In addition to maintaining law and order and regulating traffic in this large city, made doubly difficult by diverse 'races, creeds, languages and customs, the Police garrison suburban Police outposts.  The Criminal Investigation Department, in particular, has a splendid record of achievement. Another department under the administration of the Commissioner of Police, is the Fire Brigade, that gallant band or men who guard the city from the ravages of one of the greatest elements.  The Brigade is a smooch running, efficient service and consists of a courageous body of 272 fire fighters.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source page 21-22 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Addresses of Police Offices in 1940

                                                                                                   Phone

Calcutta Police Headquarters           18 Lall Bazar Street                  Cal. 2300

Commissioner of Police                     18 Lall Bazar Street                  Cal. 2301

Dy. Commissioner of Police 18 Lall Bazar Street                  Cal. 2302

Port Police (North Division)     67/3 Strand Road                     Cal. 2349

Port Police (South             )   SastitolaRd. (Kidderpore)         South 110

Police Vehicles Department(Motors &- Hackney Carriages)

                                                38 Beltola Road                                   P.K. 2020

Calcutta Police Club              31 Bentinck Street                    Reg. 259

Calcutta Police Morgue                     2/1 Nil Madhab Sen Street       B.B. 2339

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 221 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Addresses of Police Thanas in 1940

Alipore                        Section 8 Belvedere Road         South 309

Amherst Street                      57 Amherst Street        B. B. 2390

Ballygunge                38 Beltola Road                       P.K. 87

Belliaghatta               6/1 Gas Street              B.B. 4219

Beniapukur                40A Gorachand Road  P.K. 933

Bhowanipore             7 Russa Road               South 233

Bowbazar                   42 Central Avenue        B. B. 2307

Burrabazar                8 Mullick Street                        B. B. 2364

Burtolla                      1 Raja Raj Kissen St.   B. B. 2312

Chitpore                     19 Cossipore Road      B. B. 2276

Cossipore                  86 Cossipore Road      B. B. 2325

Entally                                   12 Convent Road         Cal. 2330

Garden Reach                       71/2 Garden Reach Rd.            South 337

Hare Street               42 Central Avenue        B. B. 239

Hastings                    4 Middle Road, Hastings          South 324

Jorabagan                  74 Nimtala Street         B. B. 2306

Jorasanko                  2 & 2/1 Chitpore Spur  B. B. 2314

Maniktala                  20 Canal West Road    B. B. 2328

Muchipara                 6 St. James' Square      B. B. 2317

Park Street                89 Park Street              P.K. 303

Shampukur                47 Shambazar Street    B.B. 2310

Taltala                                   4 Taltala Lane               Cal. 2321

Tollygunge                 28 Russa Road             South 8

Watgunge                  16 Watgunge Road       South 336

 

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 221 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

Military Police

Sure the M.P.'s are part of YOUR PERSONAL SECURITY. Let's get the M.P.'s straight for once. They are YOU in a different branch of service. That's all. Believe it or not, their primary purpose is to help you, to protect you - protect you from others, and even from yourself if necessary. They want to answer all of your questions, they want to aid you in having a good time, they are on your side. Of course, they do have to maintain discipline and good order; that is simply a necessary part of their job. Nevertheless you will find that the M.P.'s in the Calcutta area will give you every possible break and will only as a final resort subject you to arrest or confinement. Revise your attitude: look upon the M.P. as a friend, as a source of guidance and protection, and as a walking information booth. Cooperate.

 

(source: “The Calcutta Key” Services of Supply Base Section Two Division, Information and education Branch, United States Army Forces in India - Burma, 1945:  at: http://cbi-theater-12.home.comcast.net/~cbi-theater-12/calcuttakey/calcutta_key.html)

 

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

 

 

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Under Surveillance

 

 

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          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

Left behind by the departing Germans

You have probably heard of Dr. E. Schaefer, a German who spent mid-summer 1938 to July 1939 in Sikkim and Tibet. We allowed him to employ as interpreter a Sikkim subject of Nepalese extraction, Kaiser Bahadur Thapa, who was a Junior clerk . -. Schaefer professed a passionate affection for the young man and made great efforts to obtain permission for him to proceed to Germany at the expense of the German government... In my letter of 14 July 1939 Kaiser was told that he should report to duty to the Assistant Engineer, Sikkim as soon as his duty with Dr. S terminated. He failed to do so, and we are glad not to have him back in Sikkim ... I suggested that the Calcutta Police should be asked to keep an eye on him.

(source: letter from Sikkim govt. addressed to the Commissioner of Police in Calcutta In Christopher Hale: Himmler’s Crusade. London: Bantam, 2003)

 (COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Christopher Hale)

 

Kaiser's sorry fate

He has been closely watched while in Calcutta and I have had him up for official examination. He appears to have lose his head completely at the prospect of going to Europe and had developed a kind of hero worship for Dr. S. Shortly after he came down here the German consulate secured a job for him in a German motor firm, so that he has now lost his job and is looking for work elsewhere- If you like, I will send him straight back to Sikkim, but having once tasted life in Calcutta where he was earning Rs 70 per month as salary, I very much doubt that he will stay with you ...

(source: letter from Calcutta police to Sikkim govt. In Christopher Hale: Himmler’s Crusade. London: Bantam, 2003)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with Christopher Hale)

 

 

Surveilance on the INA riots

The next job I did in Calcutta was a very short job — at that time there were problems with the Indian National Army which had been serving with the Japanese and there was quite serious civil unrest at that time. It was decided to send Intelligence people to about four of the main towns. I got some Signals people and trained them up and sent them out, to set a network up to send Intelligence back. And then it was decided that I would be sent to Tokyo to start the main station in Tokyo, in the Embassy in Tokyo.

Dafydd Archard Vaughan Williams, Specialist Wireless Operator, Swanage to Calcutta, Nov 1945

 

(source: A7889700 Part Two - Under cover in WW2 at BBC WW2 People's War' on http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/ Oct 2006)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with the original submitter/author)

 

 

 

 

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Under Interrogation

 

 

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The Criminal Courts

 

 

 

 

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The Hartley Affair

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Malcolm Moncrieff Stuart O.B.E., I.C.S. (Indian Civil Service) District Magistrate 24 Parganas, Calcutta, 8th February 1946

(source: personal scrapbook kept by Malcolm Moncrieff Stuart O.B.E., I.C.S. seen on 20-Dec-2005 / Reproduced by courtesy of Mrs. Malcolm Moncrieff Stuart)

 

 

 

 

          _____Contemporary Records of or about 1940s Calcutta___

 

 

THE HIGH COURT

Location :—Esplanade Row (West).

Trams:—Park Circus to High Court via Harrison and Strand Roads:Sealdah to High Court via Bow Bazar Street and Dalhousie :Dalhousie to High Court (on weekdays only), 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Buses .—Nil.

This splendid edifice of Gothic architecture, with a handsome tower 180 feet high, was designed by Walter Granville, who is said to have been inspired by the Town Hall of Ypres, Belgium. The foundation stone was laid in 1864 and the building, erected on the site of the old Supreme Court, successor to the old Court House in Dalhousie Square, was completed in 1872.

The structure takes the shape of a rectangle built on the four sides of a quadrangle, the interior having arcaded cloisters which give access to various Courts and Legal Apartments.

Ascending the main staircase we reach the first landing, adorned with a bust of Sir C. M. Ghose, while right above in the southern corridor is a statue of Sir Edward Hyde East, (Chief Justice, 1813-1822) by Chantrey.

On the first floor, on the right, is a bust of Baron Sinha of Raipur, and farther down the corridor, one of Sir R. C. Mitter. On the left is a bust of Sir Rash Behari Ghose, and, let into the wall, a tablet to the memory of Syed Amir Ali. The various Courts, the Judges' and Bar Libraries, and the offices of the Registrar are on the first floor. The walls of the different Courts and offices are lined with portraits of members of the legal professions; particularly noteworthy among these is one of Sir Elijah Impey, (first Judge of the Supreme Court) by Zoffany. In the Meeting Room of the Judges' Library are two finely executed oil paintings of their Majesties King Edward VII and King George V. The Administrator-General and the Legal Remembrancer have their offices on the top floor.

From the lofty tower over the main entrance, a splendid view of Calcutta and the river Hooghly can be obtained.

John Barry, journalist, Calcutta, 1939/40
(source pages 81-82 of John Barry: “Calcutta 1940” Calcutta: Central Press, 1940.)

(COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Reproduced under 'fair dealing' terms as part of a non commercial educational research project. The copyright remains with John Barry 1940)

 

 

 

 

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In Prison

 

 

 

 

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