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rendered impotent. Even from this conflict and its resolution, though, the
Americans had in Indo-China drawn the wrong conclusions.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur on a fragrant evening, and were able to see much
of central K.L., a clean and modern city without evidence of poverty; it presented
a pleasing contrast to the shambles that was most of Colombo. We were able to see
much of the central district, as our train was an overnight to Singapore. While I
had always been something of a railway fan – it was the way to get to school, but,
more importantly, it was the way home as well – and the sheer magnificence of
British main-line engines was the stuff of legend, especially when while at school in
Folkestone we could nightly see the Golden Arrow steam past in the dusk on its way
to deliver lucky passengers to the continent. The Malayan trains were not quite so
glamorous, being more workmanlike diesels, but they were clean and fast (though I
always loved the ambient scent of smoke created by the British behemoths).

And, indeed, they were very comfortable. Never having slept on an overnight
train, this was my first experience of such a journey; I was overjoyed by the excellence
of the fare that was served and then by the quality of the bunk (and, of course, by
the blissful seven hours’ sleep). If the new experience was any harbinger of things to
come in this new chapter, then I was receiving a handsome introduction.
Singapore, then not as sparkling and grandiose as it became, was nevertheless far
smarter and tidier than the Malayan ports that I had visited. But there was no time to
dally; the agent drove us quickly to Pulau Bukom, where Mantua had by then arrived,
and we climbed aboard, my first time on a tanker. Greeted by the mate, Mr Tate, we
were shown to our cabin by one of the cadets remaining on board.

And this was a very welcome surprise. Not only was the cabin spacious,
enormously so by comparison with the cramped Khyber, it was gloriously air-
conditioned, as always much needed in Singapore, which is only some seventy
miles from the Equator. The ship was of a then new, but obsolescent, design, had
all the officers’ accommodation in a mid-ship’s ‘island’, and an aft superstructure
containing the dining room, the electrical and engine components, storage, the
galley and all of the crew.

The principal issue to be faced was, however, a bit more fractious and, indeed,
delicate. On this vessel the whole crew, other than the steward’s department
(which was, again, Goanese) was Pakistani and, therefore, Muslim. Someone
in London in ‘Ship’s Supplies’ had apparently studied unusual economies and
discovered that P&O was supplying toilet paper to ships with Muslim crews; it
appeared that Muslims were prohibited from using toilet paper, or at least had
some centuries before being so proscribed. (The issue is still contentious, but it
is apparently one of those religious rules that in the fullness of time and in the
face of practicality have been mostly eroded into oblivion). The ‘economy’ was ill-

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