Oscar aux parents de Nelly

3 mars 1935

My dears

It’s long ago since I wrote to you, but it can’t be helped. From Nelly you have heard how hard we have to work of late, and I’am afraid this will remain for some time to come still as we are in the midst of a reorganisation and more-over Mr. Visser wants to go on holiday for a month on account of the health of his wife and children. Nelly writes that in this case I may be left alone to direct everything. Indeed there has been talk of such decision, and that Mr. Visser would ring me up every day to hear how things were going – but I’m not sure it will be managed in this way. We haven’t heard anything further yet, but I’m inclined to think it won’t be done in this way. Although I’m not afraid I couldn’t run the factory on my own, even though I’m not yet a year in the administration, I rather fancy they will decide otherwise as at the moment the oil-market is very difficult and does not at all behave as one would expect in the circumstances. Coprah is scarce at the moment, so that to be able to get sufficient one has to pay High prices. One would expect that because of this the prices if oil would also rise, as oil is also becoming scarce and it is one of the principal ingredients the natives need for their nourrishment. But no, all along it  becomes more difficult to sell oil, and prices tumble down instead of rising. It at least the price of oil-cakes would rise accordingly it wouldn’t matter. But here is a great difficulty : Java has hardly any use for oil-cakes, so that we dépend on the European market for this product. The Java market for oil and the European market for oil-cakes do not of necessity depend on each other nor counterbalance each other. And unhappily the European market at the moment is also moving downwards. If this continues I’m afraid we are in for loss during the next months. In January we were able to book profit, because for some reason people went mad on speculation, and bought big stocks at higher and higher prices. They speculated on the fact that for some months there would be a shortage of coprah and because of this a shortage of oil, which is fairly sound reasoning. I too thought that even if the prices could ot remain so fantastically High, they would in any case remain so high that we could keep a safe margin for profit. But it seems there is something wrong in this reasoning. And I think it’s principally because the native are so terribly poor, and the failure of rice- and other harvests in thèse parts have left them poorer still. Unthinkable as it seems they have given up buying oil, or rather if they have to they refuse to pay such high prices or otherwise they buy now a half-bottle when formerly they would have bought a whole one.  So our Chinese clients remain with big stocks or contracts on their hands, which they cannot sell quick enough or which they must sell at a loss. Which means they won’t, or else try to make us take the loss. A Chinese has very strange thoughts on this subject. If the going is good he loves to make big business and he is only happy when he has a lot of contracts so that every day he can calculate on his funny counting machine  (abacus) how much profit he has made and still can make. 

Abacus

But, oh dear, if the prices go down and he should lose a cent – he suddenly forgets all about contracts and simply doesn’t come to fetch his oil away. Although he has signed the contract its hardly ever the use to bring the case before the courts. He’ ll gladly prove he has gone bankrupt and that everythging he owns belongs to his Brother Liem Ban Shoo and his cousin Diem Siauw Tan, etc.  etc. The family Liem hold together, and once he is bankrupt by law he will go off somewhere else and the family will give him money to start business anew. That’s why we always try tro sell contant (cash), but generally if a Chinese doesn’t receive credit he refuses to do business. 

«Contant » is a word one doesn’t like here in India.

I wonder what this new reorganisation will bring to us. I hope for the best. We just managed to crawl out clean at the end of February, but still the prices are going down. I’m afraid March will be a bad one, also for our own pocket.

It has been a riddle to me why Amsterdam got so angry about our results during 1934. As far as I can overlook things the principal fault lies with Amsterdam herself, for keeping the selling of the oil-cakes in her won hands and then selliong the mat such bad prices that – speaking for Keboemen – our whole los sis due to these bad prices. Many a time I wrote to my Father about this and have criticised that they want to put the fault on us, which is proven by the fact that they want to reorganise things here.  It did not seem fair to me. But he writes back to me that although Amsterdam has also made mistakes, the quintessence does not belong to the oil-cake-affair and that the representatives here are well aware of this.  Well ! Then there is something I do not understand and I’d better keep my mouth shut, as I’m only a bookkeeper in an out of the way place.

The best one can do, is to work one’s hardest and feel satisfied about one’s work. I’m sorry Mr. Meyeringh is leaving, but it seems that Amsterdam is not satisfied about the way he carried out his instructions, and so it’s perhaps the best that he left on his own account. Still Father seems to be angry that he did this without waiting till Mr. Voskuil came here to talk things over. In my opinion this would have made little difference, but it’s of course the way things are done.

I wonder if Father has already written to you that he is leaving the Bank at the beginning of May ? In any case it’s now known all over so that there is no need to make a secret of it any more. He has deserved his rest and I hope he will find his share of happiness now that he can use his time at own will.

Indeed there are many changes coming in our society and we hope that all this new blood will be for the best.

I must stop now, as I see the car with Mr. Visser coming back, which means that I have to go to the office to receive and count the money he brings back from his voyage.

It’s a strange experience to have to pass the evening without Nelly, but I’m happy for her that she has this chance to have her hair done in Semarang, to which she has been looking forward so much. From Semarang she goes on to Solo where she will enjoy the company of her dear Jans.

There comes the night-watchman. I must go. Good bye and good health and happiness to all of you with love from

Sans signature (Oscar)