A Personal Heritage

A.M.S…
Ceylon has held a deep and romantic interest for us for many years. It was the island where my father, Emil Staehle, had operated a tea plantation about the period of 1890. He'd heard an English girl play a zither and wanted to meet her because she played so beautifully.

He did meet her in the hotel where she was staying, and shortly after they became engaged. That girl was my mother. Aside from these bare facts, I knew virtually nothing about an episode of such interest and importance to me personally.

A Frenetic Search

A.M.S…
We were to be here only two days, and those hours were pretty well filled with pre-arranged sightseeing and tours. Nevertheless I was determined to make every effort to ascertain or establish something about:

1. Where my mother and father actually met
2. Where my father was actually located and if possible, precisely what position he held, and for whom.

It seemed a formidable research undertaking for such a short visit; but with a combination of good fortune plus a willingness, in fact a resolution to pester anybody to death who might yield even a slight clue, I found the answers. This to both key questions!

Some Blind Alleys

A.M.S…
We started rather early the first morning, to call on a Mr. Clarence Perara, of the leading Ceylon newspaper, the “Ceylon Observer”, who was also a correspondent for the McGraw-Hill World News Service. We had a pleasant chat with him, told him our story, asked a lot of questions, but nothing came of it insofar as our inquiry into the Staehle romance was concerned.

Later, while at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo at lunchtime, we sought out the hotel's General Manager, Mr. Cyril C.G. Best, told him our story and what we wanted to find out. He was most sympathetic though doubtful that he could help, but called in a Mrs. Raundell, an elderly lady and long time employee of the hotel.

A Tenuous Lead

A.M.S…
Bless her heart, she was so interested, and recalled that many years ago a German firm, highly respected, had established tea plantations under the name of “Freudenberg & Co.” Here was at least a lead.

Further conversation with Mrs. Raundell and Mr. Best clearly established that in the period of 1890 there were only two hotels at which the meeting might have taken place, this same hotel (the Galle Face) or the Queens Hotel at Kandy, some 70 miles away. That, we felt, narrowed down the location quite nicely, but which one?

We then got a taxi and called on Freudenberg & Co. With no difficulty, we were ushered into the office of its Director, Mr. Ernst Schluter. While he, too, was sympathetic, he explained in answer to my suggestion that old records of the firm night yield some information about my father, that since the firm had twice been obliged to suspend operations during both World Wars, no such records were available.

The Name's “Boringer”

A.M.S…
I tried every question I could think of, to no avail, until Lois recalled that I had spoken only the day before of a Mr. Boringer with whom my father was once associated. It seemed irrelevant because I had no reason to connect this name with Ceylon at all. Anyway, I enquired: “Did the name Boringer mean anything?”

“Why yes” replied Mr. Schluter, “He was linked with Freudenberg in his tea operations many years ago”. Here was a real break! So then I got pretty insistent that somewhere, somehow, there must be a record relating in some way to my father.

Google of 1961 - The Ceylon Directory

A.M.S…
Mr. Schluter, helpful as he obviously wanted to be, said that all he had where I could look up anything was the Ceylon Directory, a massive volume published annually, e.g. the one on his desk was for the year 1960. What a directory! It had anything you would want to know about anything or anybody in Ceylon - for 1960.

We noted that it was the 102nd Edition! I felt now that the search was practically in the bag. All we had to find now was the edition for 1890, and for one or two years, either way.

Right then and there we phoned Mr. Perara, and asked him to get someone to search these directories which I was sure they would have since the “Ceylon Observer” also published them. “Could I call him back at four o'clock?” he asked.

The directory had my father's name, his title as Manager of the firm, and address in Colombo for the years 1890 and 1891. So far as I was concerned, this put the romantic spot in Colombo at the Galle Face Hotel. My father's location and exact business position had been established, beyond doubt.

Incidentally, we had missed nothing on the “Tour” for that day but the Colombo Zoo. Despite an oppressive and enervating humid heat which just took the starch out of you, the Ceylon visit to us, was already a great success.

Colombo

A.M.S…
Our first day in Colombo, aside from our research ventures, was on the dull and uninteresting side. It was, however, a very pleasant change over Egypt and India to see so much less sub-standard living. If one wanted to see poverty and the poor, they could be found, but not nearly as low as in the former countries.

There were many palm-lined streets, with nice residences; schools with neat, cleanly dressed children; several clinics with fairly well-dressed, clean people, queued up awaiting opening hours. There were many Buddhist Temples. The one we entered was spotlessly clean, and most impressive so far as Buddha figures were concerned.

There were a surprising number of Christian churches, mostly Catholic and a few Methodist. Many public buildings looked in good order and were fairly clean, and had quite a number of nice gardens and playgrounds. The Galle Face Hotel, right on the Indian Ocean, with attractive grounds, was very nice.

More Enquiries

A.M.S…
The Mount Lavinia Hotel (five miles below Colombo, also on the seafront) was most attractive. We had tea there. The pineapple here was the most delicious we have ever tasted. Incidentally, we also went to the American Embassy to inquire about a Mr. Froehlich, whom our good friend Ethel Burwell had written in a letter received this very morning.

We were told he was Area Representative for the “W.H.O.” (the World Health Organisation of the U.N.) and that he was in New Delhi attending a meeting at the moment. We were sorry to have missed seeing him.