Dato Tra Zehnder.

When I think of Richards, I always remember my first impression of him. He was conducting the police band early in the morning. I didn't know who he was then. I saw this European with curly hair; there he was in the morning. Every morning when I went to school I walked past the parade ground. I passed Fort Margherita parade ground on my way to school and so I saw the Police Band practicing with Richards conducting. I didn't know who it was, so I asked my father, "Sapa tuan ngajar orang main band nya" (Who is that European conducting the band)? My father said, "Oh, Tuan baru datai ari England" (He's a new European from England). (1) I was a girl, you see, about 13 years old at the time. Now I am 75 this year. I was in Standard 3 at that time, in 1939. It was only years later, after the war, that I came to know Richards well [in conversations with Anthony Richards' sons, Huw and Michael Richards, they said that their father was a good musician, but that he never had time to cultivate this talent as an administrative officer. However, later in life, he joined a church choir when he was back in England].

Then, you know, one day I went to see Mrs. Kitto's family. You know, Mrs. Kitto, we were very close friends as girls. (2) She stayed where my house is now, which was built later by my father. At that time, as girls, we spent much time together. We both liked to see Datuk Brandah play his violin. (3) He used to sit down and play, while we would listen. So [while we were listening], I spoke to Mrs. Kitto--we spoke Iban--"Have you seen those Tuans in that house?" I pointed to the house which is the Field Force mess now, which was where Richards then lived. "Oh," she said, "he's got another friend there. Another young European, a bachelor (orang bujang)!!" I didn't know it then, but that was Bill Morison.

Then, after that, I never saw him. I only saw him again after the war. I went to see Major Sochon, a [European] police officer, for rations. I told him that John Nichol had sent me to ask for food. (4) There wasn't much food at the time. The Major said, "You had better go see Captain Morris." So he gave me a note to see Captain Dick Morris. That is how I got to know Dick Morris. Morris provided rations to me for a few months, even after it was illegal. (5) Then, John Nichol said, "Why don't you also ask for cigarettes?" I said, "How can I ask for cigarettes? I don't even smoke!" But I did, and he gave me some [which Nichol smoked].

Then, later on, Morris introduced me to Richards. So I came to know Richards. I was with them all at the [conference on] tusun tunggu, on Iban adat, at Sri Aman years later, and I talked a lot about the women's side in adat. I was the only woman there, so I had to talk about women in adat. Of course, a lot of the men didn't like that. But Richards defended me and said that they should listen to what I had to say, for I was the only woman member of the Council Negeri. Richards and Hermanus Assan were co-chairmen of the Simanggang aura. Assan (6) told me, when we were having our makan (meal) in the rest house, in the presence of Temenggong Ngelambong, Pengarah Montegrai, and the others, "Kitai misti nyukong Tuan Richards enggau naka ulih laban Tuan Richards ke ngadu adat kitai engkah ke dalam bup" ("We must assist Mr. Richards all we can because Mr. Richards is codifying our customary laws inside a book").

And so, to go back, Morris introduced me to Richards. You know why? At that time, Richards was like a welfare officer. Not an official one, no; he was then in the Secretariat. You know, at that time, a European must not be married to a native woman. So they just kept them as mistresses. But, they were having children, and after they had children, then the officer would go back to England. When they came back again, they would be married (to English wives). So they had to tinggal (desert, abandon) the women, the Dayak or native women. I had one case, a woman from Lubok Antu by the name of Lumit. She had one son with Mr. F..., the District Officer of Lubok Antu. Then, I went to see Richards. According to this lady, Richards was a friend of F ...

When I went to see Richards, Richards said, "Wah! So you are Mrs. Zehnder, who fought so much in the tusun tunggu in Simanggang. And now you are going to fight more for women?" "Why not?" I said, "No one else is fighting for them. So here I am."

So I mentioned the woman and the child. "Yes, I know that child," he said. "He was given my name, this son. They call him 'Richard'."

You know why I mention this? It is because Richards was a very kind person. He then helped me with this case. Then I brought another case. This case involved a Malay lady working for a European, an agricultural officer. I can't remember his name, but he was a bachelor.

Dick Morris was [involved] with Richards in organizing the Conference on tusun tunggu in Simanggang. Dick Morris was then a Resident and Richards was in the Secretariat. So, being a close friend of these two, I made use of it to help me. I had to do it, for, you know, in the colonial days, we women were nothing. I happened to be in the Red Cross then, in social work and women's affairs, and was the first secretary of the Sariku Indu Dayak. So women came to see me. I was more or less like an office boy, with all these ladies sitting in front, while I was the one pushed to do things. So I went to see Richards about the problems of local women and children by European fathers. Richards looked aider this problem, so I went to see him. Richards was ever willing to help me. We got maintenance for the children. This was all through Richards' help. Then, we have to realize that he compiled the adat, so he had to do something. Not just writing about adat, but [seeing that people] observed it. He was not only helpful, he was kind. When he solved one case, I brought him another, and another. I had to do it.

C. Sather: So, was Richards something like a welfare officer?

No, as I said, not in an official sense. But, he was willing to look after such problems. He was also kind and had a lot of influence among the European officers. When he said something to them, they tended to follow what he said. He was also approachable. How did he solve these problems? Well, some of the men didn't want to give maintenance to the child, so Richards had to make all the arrangements. In a third case, the European officer did not want to acknowledge the child, a girl. Otherwise, he was afraid, later on, she would come looking for him to claim an inheritance. But Richards solved that case, too. In the case of the Malay lady, Richards asked the officer to give the woman the lump sum of 8,000 dollars. Well, 8,000 dollars at that time was a lot of money. So, the woman bought land in Siol Kandis, across the river. Richards got the government to pay compensation to her. And the daughter, who was a very pretty girl, is now married to a Datuk's son! A bank manager.

Later, Richards used to ask me, "How are the children doing, the children you looked after?" He asked about them even after he went back to England. And I told him, "Oh, they are doing fine," or, "This one has gotten married." He was always pleased.

There was only one time he was against me. This was when I was a member of the Council Negeri and I asked for a special day for the Dayaks--Gawai Dayak. Richards was one of those against my proposal. But it was not that he was against me, because, personally, he was a friend, but he was acting as State Secretary, taking Snelus' place, and he had to answer me and was against my proposal. So, we argued. This was because of his position, he had to answer the way the government wanted it. Not only he opposed it, but Tun Jugah and lots of others also opposed it. I think it was said at the time that there were too many holidays already on the calendar.

I didn't see him again after he returned to England. I heard that he came back once, when he was working on the dictionary, to interview people, but he didn't come to see me. When I went to England, he invited me to come to Cambridge, but I couldn't make the trip. We talked on the telephone. I told him I was going to see Tuan Tuai (J.K. Wilson), but Richards said that, while it would be easy to come to Cambridge, it would be hard to find Tuan Tuai. He was not staying in a house; he was staying in a caravan in Scotland and moved from place to place. Richards was correct. We were never able to find Tuan Tuai. (Dato Tra Zehnder, former Director of the Majlis Adat Istiadat)

(1) Dato Tra's grandfather was a Sarawak Ranger and her father, Sergeant Jemat, an Iban police constable.

(2) A life-long friend of Dato Tra, Mrs. Kitto's original name was Susanah Daud. She later married a New Zealander who worked as a supervisor in the Land and Surveys Department.

(3) Edward Brandah was, in his time, a colorful personality. He was the most senior Iban police officer in Sarawak during his career and later became Superintendent of Prisons.

(4) John Nichol anak Kassim, another well-known Iban police officer, ended his career as Assistant Superintendent of Police and aide-de-camp of the first Governor of Sarawak after Malaysian independence.

(5) That is, after rationing had officially ended in Sarawak.

(6) Hermanus Assan, then the Sibu District Officer, died a short time later. An able administrator, he was widely expected to become State Secretary following independence. Richards says more about Assan, whom he greatly admired, in the autobiographical Research Note that follows.