Mr Tayabali's Farewell Party

This is another fascinating picture from my mother's album, taken at a farewell tea party for Mr Tayabali, Head Clark in the general office of the British administration in Zanzibar. The Chief Secretary, SBB McElderry, is at centre with Mr Tayabali on his right and Mrs Tayabali on his left. Mrs McElderry is to Mr Tayabali's right and my mother is at far left. My mother doesn't name anyone else except, at far right, front row, Jack Adie, who is described in her 'Life' as a Cadet.

What the picture illustrates is that the staff in the secretariat were largely of Indian origin. My mother was appointed to the post of Office Assistant to the Chief Secretary because it was felt that confidential information was 'leaking' from the office to the Indian community at a time when the clove growers in Zanzibar, overwhelmingly Arab, were heavily in debt to members of the Indian community, something which the administration felt "had to be righted".

The geography of the secretariat's offices reflected this. As my mother wrote, "My office was situated between the Chief Secretary's and the general office where Tayabali, the Head Clerk, and his staff worked and where the long line of filing cabinets was situated. I had in my office the confidential files in one cabinet, and the secret files were in the safe in the office the other side of the Chief Secretary's."

Not unsurprisingly, on arrival my mother was not particularly popular with the other members of the office. "On one occasion," she wrote, "missing files were found on my desk, deliberately put there to try and damage my reputation." However, "I managed in the end to get on fairly good terms with most of the clerks and there was no more trouble."