BUITEN BEZWAAR VAN 'S RIJKS SCHATKIST

("not at Government's expense")

An interesting "agency" of Holland Africa Line offices in Port Elizabeth, Durban, Beira and Mombasa was the Netherlands Government !

The Manager or his assistant were appointed Honorary Netherlands Consul, HAL providing tools such as office and a secretary to take care of the office work. The Netherlands Government did not contribute anything towards salaries or office expenses except for the consular fees for visas, passports and other services.

An annual cocktail party on the occasion of her Majesty's official birthday was for account of the Consul (not HAL as some people often thought) but the sweetener was that supplies could be obtained free of duty from the Embassy or Netherlands Consulate supervising the Consulate !

It was most useful to open doors business wise ! If you had to see a Government official you could discretely wave the Dutch flag.

The Netherlands Government seemed to like appointing Holland Africa Line as their representative. Probably because there was quite a bit of shipping business involved, such as checking ship's registers (zee en meet brief), muster role (correct certificates ?) witnessing ships protests, signing off and on of crew, etc.

My first experience as Consul was Port Elizabeth. I was assistant manager under J. van Hattum who went on leave in 1955. (in those days 6 months) Van H's replacement, Mr. A.L. Bath (the No. 2 of our Durban office), did not speak one word of Dutch. In Natal, Afrikaans was not very common.

So I was appointed. As the Port Elizabeth office was very basic with only one separate office for the Manager, a Consular office was created at the back of the office across a small court yard, after a lot of old rubbish had been removed. It needed careful handling on my part to make sure people would not think of me as the Manager but fortunately "Bobbie" Bath and I got on like a house on fire and I made sure that he was invited to all parties I had to go to as Consul.

Of course the Queen's birthday (then 30^th April) fell in the v. H. leave period. Fortunately my mother-in-law had a very nice house in the centre of Port Elizabeth with a large front garden. So, the party went alright.

Most other work was routine such as visas and passport extensions. The delicate part was chasing of maintenance settlements by divorced Dutchmen who had left their ex-spouses and children in Holland. The only way to force payments was threatening to refuse issuing new passports. I never had to enforce that.

In those days newly arrived settlers had to register at the Consulate. In case of emergencies the Netherlands Government then had an idea of who lived in the area. These days Professional Consulate Generals do not want to know about us.

Anyhow, I cannot remember any other extraordinary occurrences during the 6 months of my being the Hon. Consul in Port Elizabeth and I received a nice "thank you" letter from the Consul-General in Cape Town at the end of the period.

Mombasa, Kenya, was another kettle of fish ! For example:

Two brothers, Dutch white fathers (Catholic missionaries) working in Tanzania, got themselves killed on the Mombasa/ Nairobi road which runs through the Tsavo National park, when a rhino crossed the road without looking. So, what now ?

Fortunately I got permission from their family in Holland to cremate them which is unusual for Catholic clergy. So, the moment I had their consent, I organised the cremation in what was popularly called "the Bombay grill", a Hindu facility. It was done in all dignity in the presence of a Hindu priest and I duly received two small tin boxes with the ashes and what sounded like small bones. They were delivered to my office and duly placed on my desk.

So, the best I could do is to take them personally to the embassy in Nairobi in the back of my car, which I did on a special trip ( 1000 kms) The Embassy staff looked a bit taken aback when I walked in with the two parcels, especially as they rattled when shaken ! But the matter was handled with proper decorum and the boxes were flown by K.L.M. to Holland for burial by the family.

Ships and other emergencies usually arrive on Sundays or Public Holidays and so it was one Christmas day when I received a message from Foreign Affairs in Holland that a young man of 20 had killed himself in a motor bike accident on Christmas Eve. His mother was holidaying in Mombasa and could I tell her soonest possible. They did not have a hotel name but it was not far from a ferry. This must be the Likoni ferry which connects Mombasa (an island) with the road going South.

So the number of hotels were narrowed down and in the end I traced her without her knowing I was looking for her. But when I asked the clerk to call her I had to reveal my identity. As she entered the lobby and saw me she said: "it's about Henk". She knew by intuition that something was wrong. So I told her quietly in as few words as possible. A brave woman ! We made arrangements for her to fly home immediately. (Our office also had a travel department/agents KLM)

There was another road accident involving a Dutch family which were hospitalised for a month in Mombasa.

About 200 Dutch people lived in Mombasa. Trading firms, Shell refinery, ABN bank and some elderly retired people. So the Queen's birthday party was a big event. Apart from my countrymen, I also invited Consular colleagues and Government dignitaries like the Provincial Commissioner and Chief of Police.

Fortunately the company house was eminently suitable for such events. It was bought on behalf of HAL by my predecessor, Bill Valstar, from a Greek engineer who had spent five years lovingly building his dream house on a 2 acre plot on a beautiful site 200 metres from the beach. The Greek had some daughters and got cold feet after Kenya Independence. Emigrated to Australia. Sold in a hurry for a song ! Marble floors, huge swimming pool, fishpond and even a small waterfall next to the path to the pool !

One day a very distressed Dutch gentleman, director of the DAF truck concern, came to my office: He and his wife had been enjoying a walk on the beach when they noticed the most magnificent display of bougainvillea flowers obscuring a large residence. They went to take some pictures when suddenly a couple of armed soldiers jumped from behind the bushes making a big fuss speaking Swahili ! They arrested them and confiscated the camera. They kept it but in the end let them go.

I contacted the head of police and Provincial Commissioner ( related to the President Jomo Kenyatta whose beach house it was) I spoke to them and the next day the camera was returned with apologies by the Police chief who went to their hotel ! The DAF director wrote a very pleasant letter of thanks to me. (He did not enclose a new car)

Kenya is presently known for being corrupt. The only request to me for a present was from the Provincial Commissioner. He told me Mzee (Swahili for Elderly man, a term used for Jomo Kenyatta) had noticed a briefcase of zebra skin belonging to some diplomat. He would dearly like to have one as well. So I wrote to HAL Amsterdam who fixed this immediately although one chap at Head Office took me aside during one of my overseas visits asking if I knew how much it had cost: 4000 guilders ! Bad luck I replied and I am afraid the Provincial Commissioner wants one as well ! HAL management obliged, no problem ! In return when I left Mombasa in 1977 on transfer to Hong Kong the P.C. gave me a hand carved walking stick reserved for elderly dignitaries only. It is prominently displayed in the "Africa Corner" of our Wyoming house !

There is more ! Some other time !

Anton Jansen

26th of June, 2005