Dangerous Inheritance-Part Two

De Richlieu goes to Ceylon

By Richard Boyle 

Location: The Duke de Richlieu's villa, Corfu

Time: Early May 1958

When the English woman, Fleur Eaton, and the Duke de Richlieu's Ceylonese lawyer, Douglas Rajapakse, announce their intention of getting married, Trusscott van Ryn, Fleur's jilted boyfriend, immediately leaves Corfu. In the aftermath of this sensational announcement and dramatic departure, Fleur's parents, Marie Lou and Richard, endeavour, without much success, to accept the idea of their daughter marrying an Asian. ("If only his pigmentation was a few shades lighter we would be congratulating ourselves.")

Various characters throughout Dennis Wheatley's novel Dangerous Inheritance (1965) express the gamut of negative views and sweeping generalisations about such inter-racial marriages that prevail in the minds of many Westerners. It is a theme that, like the colonial experience and post-Independence politics in Ceylon, threads its way through most of the fabric of the novel. ("As the wife of an Asiatic, she'll be no more than his chattel." "They are different from us. As different as chalk from cheese," etc.) 

Richard Eaton candidly confesses to Douglas Rajapakse that he and his wife find it difficult to believe that such a union could turn out happily as both parties are from completely different races and cultures. Douglas, however, is far from perplexed by such an argument. Somewhat obliquely, he cites the extraordinary achievements and enduring nature of Sinhala civilisation:

'Forgive me if I mention that the elite families of the Sinhalese, such as mine, enjoyed poetry and discussed philosophy, possessed libraries, dressed in fine raiment and took a bath daily, when yours were still painting themselves with woad'.

For the first time an indication that Richard considered himself one of the master-race showed in his voice, as he replied, 'How unfortunate for you that a handful of Europeans should have arrived in your country and imposed their more primitive ideas about civilisation on a great part of your people. Or was it that your own was simply falling into decadence, as most such early civilisations did?'

'You are right about that, Mr. Eaton, although the Kingdom of Kandy maintained itself for several centuries against both the Portuguese and the Dutch, and even in 1815 it succumbed to the British only because it had a bad ruler. Sinhalese independence was not finally extinguished until after it had lasted for over two thousand three hundred and fifty years, and not many other countries can claim that'.

Despite their reservations about the forthcoming marriage, the Eatons give it their blessing. They insist, though, that there should be a three-month engagement and that they should accompany the young couple to Ceylon. When the octogenarian Duke de Richlieu hears of his friends' plan, he decides to take the opportunity to travel with them in order to investigate his recent strange inheritance, the Ratnapura gem mine known as Olenevka.

This gem mine, which had belonged to de Richlieu's cousin, the Count de Plackoff, is at present being illegally occupied by Ukwatte d'Azavedo who, it is claimed, has forged the Count's will. Douglas Rajapakse and his father are acting on de Richlieu's behalf in an attempt to gain possession of the property through the courts.

The party arrives in Ceylon on May 13th and proceeds to the Galle Face Hotel – a much-visited hostelry in literary fiction as well as in real life. (For instance, Peter Adamson's Facing Out to Sea [1997] is largely set there, and it contains some very true-to-life descriptions of the hotel's institutional nature as well as the characters that frequent it.)

Douglas brings his mother and father to the Galle Face Hotel to meet Fleur and her parents. The elder Rajapakse suggests that his son should take them all on a tour to Haputale, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy. De Richlieu, who spent some time in Ceylon thirty years previously, is eager to see Kandy again

'It will be a pleasure,' Rajapakse said. 'And it is just as well that you should go up-country for a few days, because the situation in Colombo at the moment is causing some anxiety.

'So I gather,' said the Duke. 'I was reading the Ceylon Times this morning, and it looks as if there is going to be trouble'.

At which point Doug- las provides de Richlieu with a forceful account of the grievances that the Tamils have in the wake of the Sinhala Only Act and the abrogation of the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam pact. Indeed, when they return to Colombo after their tour they find that the situation has deteriorated.

Harassed on the one hand by the Buddhist priests and Sinhalese extremists and on the other by the leaders of two million Tamils, Mr. Bandaranaike was shilly-shallying wildly. Tamils had been badly beaten up, and in Colombo there had been mass meetings on Galle Face Green to call strikes.

Plot-wise, things hot up even further when de Richlieu finds a letter from Ukwatte d'Azavedo waiting for him at the hotel, in which the Ceylonese requests a meeting to resolve the dispute and spare them both the heavy expense of litigation. De Richlieu agrees to the meeting, and the next day d'Azavedo turns up at the hotel accompanied by his son, Lalita, who is about thirty.

It was soon obvious to the Duke that the elder d'Azavedo was a rough diamond, a man of little education but forceful personality, whereas the younger was typical of the new middle-class intelligentsia, subtle-minded and glib of speech.

Father and son catalogue the weaknesses of the Duke's claim and propose that he should accept their reserve stock of gems in full settlement of his claim to Olenevka. De Richlieu does not commit himself immediately, but accepts an invitation to visit the mine and inspect the books

The Eatons travel with de Richlieu to Ratnapura in the d'Azavedos' car.

During the journey, Fleur discovers that Lalita is a fellow Socialist and the most interesting person she has met since arriving in Ceylon. As they approach Sri Pada, Lalita starts to talk about the pilgrimage to the holy mountain in decidedly secular terms:

'We educated ones know such pilgrimage waste of time. Soon we teach ignorant masses that. Half starve on journey, then climb mountain. But now, they still come. Even street girl refuse gold to be prostitute on way here.'

When they arrive at Olenevka they find that the house is "hideous", and that Ukwatte d'Azavedo has a housekeeper called Mirabelle de Mendoza, who is also his mistress. That evening, while showing Fleur some gems, Lalita makes a pass at her, which she stoutly resists

Her father's initial, en raged comment on the incident, "This just shows the sort of thing to which you are exposing yourself to", reveals his racial fear of the libidinous native taking advantage of a white woman. Of course in this instance the fear is compounded by the fact that the victim is a blood relation and has already demonstrated an attraction for a man of another race.

They listened to the English broadcast, which followed the one in Sinhalese. The news was far from good. Many riots were reported in which small Tamil communities had been mobbed and, in some instances, people killed. . . There were rumours that Tamils in the north were preparing to march on Colombo and exact revenge.

Next day the d'Azavedos take the four Europeans to see the mine. Having dropped off their guests, however, father and son speed off in their car as a mob of angry miners, who happen to be Tamil, surge forward. There follows one of the dramatic highpoints of the novel in which the group is besieged and nearly killed by the miners. Later we learn that it is the d'Azavedos who have deliberately incited the miners by terminating their employment and insulting them. Their aim, of course, is to get de Richlieu out of the way.

The Europeans are chased down a slope and across a bridge – a retreat during which they are able, surprisingly, to pelt the pursuing miners with stones and bludgeon some with staves. Fleur even manages to viciously squeeze the testicles of one miner who catches up with her. 

By tearing out the planks of the bridge they gain enough time to reach an unlikely-sounding horizontal mine shaft, into which they barricade themselves.

The miners, on being repelled by the pit-prop wielding Europeans, proceed to build a bonfire near the barricade at the entrance to the mine in order to smoke their quarry out. Within minutes of the bonfire being lit, however, a huge explosion occurs. The Europeans surmise that one of the boxes they used in the construction of their barricade must have contained some explosives.

Their barricade had been blown to smithereens. Outside a dozen black bodies, their rags burnt away by the flash, lay dead with grotesquely twisted limbs, or were writhing in agony. With wails of lamentation other Tamils were returning to carry away those who still lived.

This is not the end of their ordeal, though, for they continue to be besieged by a small band of miners who are hell-bent on revenge. During the night, after one attack has been repulsed, there are screams in the distance and the Europeans hear the Tamils hurriedly depart. After a while the group ventures outside the mine to be greeted by horrific scenes of brutish racism - or ethnic cleansing as it is euphemistically termed in the clinical, sanitised 1990s

For the next half-hour they watched the awful spectacle of a small community becoming the victims of the ferocious hatred of a much larger mob. The wooden houses and palm huts caught fire like tinder and by the lurid light of the flames they could see small dark figures running about, struggling together and being trampled on.

At length the blaze died down and the place where the village had stood could be located only by scattered piles of glowing embers. Shrill cries of agony and terror were still coming up from the jungle across the river, where solitary Tamils were being hunted down and their women raped.

At daylight a contingent of police arrives, headed by Inspector van Goens, a typical old-guard Burgher disillusioned by the political events of the late 1950s. The Europeans learn from him that the police had been notified the day before that a group of Europeans had been left stranded among rioting Tamils, but the telephone had gone dead before the operator could discover the name of the village. Then, only an hour earlier, a report had come in that there had been a massacre at the Olenevka mine. The heroes of the story realise how clever the d'Azavedos plan to murder them had been. They could not be accused of failing to notify the police of the incident, but by refraining from providing their names they had sabotaged any rescue attempt. Richard Eaton asks the Inspector "how things have been" in the country since their ordeal began:

'Bad. Damn' bad. And they will continue to be as long as we are saddled with this weak-kneed Government. Yesterday there were serious riots in Colombo. Still, that may be all for the best. Our Governor General, Sir Oliver Goonetilleke, is a good and strong man. He's had enough, and this morning he took over. He has proclaimed a State of Emergency, which cuts the ground from under these vote-catching politicians.'

When Richard tries to secure accommodation for them at the Ratnapura Rest House the manager informs him, rudely and unconvincingly, that all the rooms are full. Later the Inspector explains:

'Maybe you haven't realised that this "Sinhalese Only" agitation isn't aimed solely at Tamils. They want to get the last of the British out too, and the Dutch Burghers like myself. The Sinhalese want the whole country for themselves; and when they get it, God only knows what an unholy mess they'll make of it.'

After a few days at Ratnapura as guests of Inspector van Goens, the Europeans move back to Colombo, where they find that, although the State of Emergency is taking effect, the general attitude towards foreigners leaves them feeling distinctly uncomfortable. So they decide to get away from it all in Nuwara Eliya.

It does not take long, however, for Fleur to develop pangs of love-sickness for her handsome Douglas, who can only come up from Colombo at weekends to see her. Her parents realise that the object of the exercise in bringing Fleur to Ceylon – for her to get to know Douglas better – is being defeated. Therefore, they decide to allow their daughter to marry Douglas immediately.

The marriage is nearly called off, though, because Fleur, being the liberated and strong-willed person that she is, refuses to live with Douglas in his parents' house. ("Live in the same house as your mother! Be overlooked in everything I do and dictated to morning, noon and night Never! I'd sooner give you back your ring.") But the very next day, Douglas gives in over this often-contentious issue and agrees that Fleur should have her own house. Three weeks later they are married.

Part III next week.

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