Bernard

Because the thing was really, at bottom, they had a respect for your Uncle Norman, and the respect was based on the fact that there wasn't anything in the Press that they did that he couldn't do. See if it was on a Linotype, he could handle the keyboard. If it was on a Monotype, he could handle the keyboard there. If it was setting at the case (hand composing lines of type), he could set at a case. If it was bookbinding, he could do simple bookbinding. If it was machining, he could run the machines. And it was that that commanded the respect of any worker if they know that the Number 1 can also do, or understand, how various processes are carried out, whether it's printing or whether it's engineering. That's when a man commands respect, and your Uncle Norman had the respect of the workers for that fact. He could handle machinery. He could strip a machine and put it back again. He could handle a Platten (a basic printing press), and Automatic. He could set at the case, well so could I (they were both trained to compose by their father at the family press at Riddings, Derbyshire) if it came to that, set at the case. I could handle a Platten but not an Automatic, not as well as he could. I didn't understand a Linotype keyboard. I know how it worked but your Uncle Norman could do it because he did a course. He was a very skilled man... very skilled man.

We were lucky in that respect. The workers liked your mother. That was another key factor. They liked your mother and they liked having Ronald and John knocking about the compound. They loved to see them running up and down and playing in that sandpit. And they also liked to know that the Sahib, who was in charge, was prepared to take his coat off and thack in as much as they did.

But what happened after we'd gone I do not know. We were still making 10 to 12 thousand pounds a year profit... clear profit to the Society. All the (property?) was restored. There were new customers. We'd got a new Linotype put in and some more new machinery. Everything was working like clockwork. It was an ABSOLUTELY GOING ENTERPRISE again. It had been all the time your Uncle Norman was there. Some years they might make £14,000 a year profit, which is a large amount of money for a big press. It all came back to the Society. It doesn't sound much now but it was a lot of money then. 10 to 12 thousand we were making regularly. If the Society got into trouble, you know, or showing a deficit, then I used to go into it with Suresh, he knew more about money than I did, Suresh Babu, head of Confidential: "Have we got any in the reserve fund that we can make available to the Society because they are in dire...?" "Oh yes we can spare so much out of such a fund." "OK, we'll tell 'em." and so on and so forth. Then Earnest Madge came out on one visit and he had the nerve to stand on the top of our steps and say "The trouble with the Baptist Mission Press is they make too much money." Make too much money. It's not going into our pocket!

But it was a going concern and inside two years, from what we were told when we got back, Nullis had got another lockout. In less than a year I think, he'd got another lockout, and then the Society had to start pumping money into the Press, to keep it going. That would never do with the Finance Committee. Now there isn't a single private press in Calcutta so I understand. They've all been taken over or closed up. The Government have taken over a lot of them.