My dearest All,

The Op Ten Nioorl took us to Semarang where we arrived early Friday morning. Fletcher & I took a car after landing in the launch and we had a beautiful drive through Mid Java to the Hindu Temple of Borubodor. The carving in stone were magnificent. We motored through rice fields, tapioca plantations, coffee plantations ,kapok trees. There seemed thousands of natives in beautiful colours.- Look up pictures of Borubodor. It is sure to be in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, perhaps under Hinduism.. Fletcher asked me to sing the Welsh National Anthem, and I did as we were motoring through a village and it was probably the first time that they had heard it there.

Fletcher told me that the natives are excellent poisoners. He knows of several white men who have been poisoned by the natives. Women who want to poison a white man sometimes choose a very slow poison which may take many months or even years before the victim dies. One form of poison is a kind of glass from bamboo which is ground and put in food and it cuts up the victims stomach.

We arrived at Batavia early yesterday morning. I had talks with the Consul (British) etc and coffee at the Hotel des Indies with Fletcher and his friends. Then we motored out about 80-90 miles past rice fields to the Soekamandi plantation which is capitalised at £ 2 1/2 million. There are 50 white men here and they live very comfortably. We see volcanic mountains in the distance.

I am wondering how you all are at home. How is lanto? Have you any new photos ? It must be lovely in Porthkerry Park now with primroses, bluebells and violets I’d like a walk with lanto to Llantwit Major and then a meal cooked by Auntie Winnie on my return. Soon I shall have been away 6 months and there won’t be long to go before my return home. Fletcher finished his leave and can’t go home for 3 years! Most people out here in the East can’t go home for 5 years. So I am lucky. Today I wrote an article for the M.G., but I find it hard to write when I am moving place to place all the time and have no steady hours. On Saturday I sail for Singapore and shall be glad to be on British soil again. Then I sail for Siam or go by train.

This afternoon I went for a walk past native cottages and through part of the plantation. A storm came on and I sheltered in a native hut .Imagine my surprise when the conversation (a native spoke about 4 words of English) turned not on devils or spirits or poisons or tigers but on the local football team. "Solkamanda football - five goals. good - other no goal. On Tuesday I go to Batavia and have conversations with the local big wigs.

10 p.m.night Good Friday, April l9th, 1935.

My dearest All,

I have had a really consular day. This morning I a had a long conversation with the German Consul-General a fervent Nazi .After lunch the Japanese Consul-General called for me in a huge, elegant car and he took me to the Buittengorg at the foot of the mountains. We went to the botanical gardens where we saw nutmeg trees (the smell of the leaf made me think of preparing Christmas pudding) clove, cocoa tree, cannon ball tree, camphor, coffee trees etc. There were huge palms and a rushing river. It was pleasant and cool there, but we had a sudden tropical storm. The Consul-General and I had tea and then motored back to Batavia, through native villages. After a bath I drove in a taxi to dine with the young vice consul and his wife, Mr and Mrs Pullan who have been proud parents since 10 weeks ago. I thoroughly enjoyed lively conversation and a good dinner. Pullan did the consular exam the same time as I did .They were rather tired of Batavia.

Wednesday was an interesting day. Lots of talks with politicians, economists. Lunch was with

Mr and Mrs Peakema with the head of the Opium administration here. Mrs Peakema - a tall handsome

Dutch woman with so they whisper - a dash of native blood believes in Black Magic and practices it.

She said at lunch "I can break up any marriage in Batavia by black magic if I want to. I can separate

the most devoted couples."

Tomorrow morning I go to see an opium factory. It will make a good article. The head of the opium administration has invited me. What an exciting job he has!  He has to fight the import and smuggling of opium, but he controls an opium factory by which the State supplies opium to addicts in small quantities in order to wean them off the habit gradually.

I had an intensely interesting visit to the opium factory. 1 got up early and at 8 o’clock was in the office of the head of the opium administration. A taxi took me out to the big factory on the out skirts of Batavia. An Austrian took me and showed me first the raw material which comes in small blocks like dark peat from British India ,Persia and Turkey I saw how it was smoked; then watched huge machines getting it ready until it becomes a thick blackish - brown sickly smelling liquid. Then I watched it being driven into little tin bullets and then packed In one corner there were a number of boxes on top of each other - not very big and the were worth £70,000 .All the boxes in the room must have been worth £300,000 to £400,000. The Government sells £12 millions worth a year; Formerly they sold about £5 millions worth in all made in that factory. The most exciting part was the place in the factory where all the investigations against smugglers takes place. I saw opium being concealed in medicine bottles, in door nobs, in jugs with false bottoms, in eggs from China etc. There are 50,000 licensed opium addicts in Java.

I saw opium being especially prepared by the French Government Administration in Indo-China for the King of Cambodia. There was also opium concealed in "Cough Pills"

I wish I had time to tell you what I have heard about black magic. The Pullans tell me that when they came to their house the servants dug a hole in front of the house and also behind the house and put a goat’s head in each Fletcher told me that he knew people who had been poisoned by natives out of motives of revenge.

Before coming to Singapore I shall be crossing the Equator again.

And now I must go off to the boat.

Cariad Cynesaf

GARETH

*******

The boat is going through the Straits of Banka. Before long we shall stop at Munhok. Java was most interesting. It was a fine sight to see the opium factory yesterday morning and to read the secret police reports on the smuggling of opium and raids on the Chinese who sell opium illegally. (As I write I can see low lying land with tropical trees on each side) It is moderately hot. In half an hour I am going to read my notes to a German Mr .Schumacher with whom I discuss the political situation in the Far East. Then I shall prepare to write an article on the opium factory and also an article on Black Magic for the I.N.S. and an article on the "Dutch East Indies and Japan" for the M.G. Then I must write short stories on the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies for the Berliner Tageblatt. I am getting quite excited about the prospect of letters in Singapore. 1 hope there will be a good store and lots of news and that lanto’s back is quite all right.

After lunch

Vicki Baum, the novelist (Grand Hotel) is at my table, artificial blond hair. She is now in Hollywood. It is good fun on board. There is a travelling troupe of actors and after dinner last night they performed - a Viennese comedienne who sang in French, English and German and a pianist who was brilliant.

We shall be crossing the Equator before long. We can see some Islands to the East. I have just written to Estyn Evans to congratulate him on his article by him I saw in the Illustrated London News. He will be glad to hear that his article was read just off Borneo.

There are masses of wonderful flowers on board, for Java is famous for it orchids. When the Consul-General took me to the town in the tour in the mountains and we saw the botanical gardens.  There was a fine collection of orchids. W e also saw an insect flower which attracts the insects all around.

There was some terrific tropical rain yesterday. But the weather is generally quite cool. Although in the tropics I had to sleep with a blanket last night.

Just before lunch we passed a place called Muntok, a port on the Island of Banka which is famous for its tin.

The Far East will be rather quiet this summer, so my hopes for a scoop have been dashed. But I shall have grand preparation for knowledge of the Far East. I shall have covered a lot of ground by the time I am 30!

Mail:- In the end of May I shall be in Hong Kong (Dollar Line) and June at Shanghai (do Dollar Line); then in the beginning of July I shall be in Peking (do British Consulate) Please send from England about 2½ -3 weeks before via Siberia.. In August I shall be back again in Tokyo do Imperial Hotel. 1 am not certain how long I’ll stay there .It ‘11 depend on how much money I’ll have left. I have received no confirmation of my terms with I.N.S. and Americans often do not keep to an oral contact. So perhaps I won’t have much money left by that time -- Oh yes I’ve got £350 with me now and about £250 at home. So that ‘s all right.

I have my note books packed with material - it’s all pretty technical and hard to summarise into a letter.

I then came back to the YMCA for lunch and started talking to the man (American next to me who is a teacher and a Baptist - (and what more can one say of any man!). He has to stay here 4 years without going home. Another man - an Englishman from London has to stay here 5 years without going home and a third man 4 years. Poor Fellows! If I were in their position it would mean I should not be in Barry until 1940 How would you like that!!

The American teacher and I decided to hire a car and go and see the Sultanate of Johore which is about 15 miles away. Off we went, past the Chinese rows of shops and then on perfect roads past miles upon miles of rubber plantations and here and there a rubber factory. Suddenly a tropical downpour came - thunder and lightning -and terrific rain. Soon the road became in parts like a river ;from the sides of the road s torrents came rushing down. We soon crossed a causeway near which there was a British gunboat dominating the residence of the Sultan of Johore and the town. We went through the town ,past the Palaces of the Sultan and his beautiful gardens, then past the Mohammedan mosque. We went into some shops and were amazed to see Japanese goods were 2/3rds or even 1/2 the price of the British goods of about the same quality.

Yesterday I went rushing about seeing people and making arrangements. I did the following;

1. 1 was inoculated against smallpox.

2. Injected against typhoid . The doctor said that those two were the only necessary things.

3. Got my ticket to sail on a British boat to Bangkok sailing tomorrow evening or Friday morning

arriving Monday. Luckily I got 15% reduction as a journalist and it cost me £6.

4. Got my Siamese visa.

5. Called to see Mr Bailey and Mr Clarke, two directors of the Straits Times

6. Called to present letters of introduction to the Japanese Consul-General --had talk.

7. Went to the Dollar Line Office (my first call) and was so glad to get your letter of April 9 and the W.M. cutting about my time in Wisconsin.

9. Called to see the American Commercial Attaché -away.

Then I had a swim with a Londoner in the YMCA swimming pool about 300 yards away. The doctor had said (after inoculating) that it was quite all right .He also told me that I had been very well inoculated when I was a baby.

At about 7 Burke (plump young lawyer) half Irish and a great talker called for me and took me to his house which he shares with some other lawyer bachelors. He told me to look out of the window at the next house. 1 did so and saw the tips of two big leaf fans (from the banana trees I think) moving up and down above a screen. "That’s the Prince of Siam who started a revolt," said Burke "and some of his concubines are fanning him. He has eight concubines there .1 think it will be a long time before we shall be able to point out to our visitors such curious next door neighbours."

After dinner we went to the Galli-Cucci concert and I enjoyed it thoroughly Had Auntie Winnie been there when she sang "Home Sweet Home" she would have wept.

After the concert we went to watch the dancing at the Raffles Hotel. (which is the chic hotel here )There 50 very big electric fans (diameter about 4-5 feet) whirring over the dancers.

And so to bed. Today I am invited to lunch by Burke at the Singapore Club and to dinner by the M.G. correspondent. I sail tomorrow. I hope the illnesses are all over Dutch Air Mail leavers today.

Cariad cynesaf

Gareth