2 - Growing Up in Colonial Singapore: 1917–1925

Summary

BACK IN SINGAPORE

In the years David was away, Singapore underwent more changes. The island was untouched by the First World War, save that German residents were interned and German ships were seized. For the ordinary inhabitant of Singapore, the most significant and dramatic event in these years was the Indian Mutiny of 1915. Distressed by the fact that Britain was at war with Turkey, the Light Infantry — consisting solely of Punjabi Muslims — revolted, killed their officers, and seized control of Alexandra Barracks, where the Germans had been detained. They released the German prisoners (since Germany was an ally of Turkey) and proceeded to kill any European they met. The Mutiny was put down within a couple of weeks — 36 mutineers were shot, 77 transported, and 12 imprisoned. Kassim Mansoor, the man who had incited the mutiny, was hanged rather than shot as he was a civilian coffee-shop owner.

When the Marshal entourage returned to Singapore, Saul had already moved the family to a shophouse in Adis Road, a stone's throw away from where David had been born. Adis Road was considered a higher class area than Middle Road or Selegie Road. At the end of the row of shophouses where the Mashals lived was a huge grand residence — Eu Villa, the palatial home of Eu Tong Sen. Eu had made a fortune in traditional Chinese medical products through his flagship company, Eu Yan Sang, and was reputedly one of the richest men in Singapore. Even with the move to Adis Road, the Mashals were still within walking distance of the Maghain Aboth Synagogue and this was very important to Flora.

Flora Mashal was a stickler for ritual and made her family observe a large number of rules in this connection. Her religious fervour was early in evidence — she had travelled to Singapore from Baghdad with her own shokhet or ritual slaughterer so that all the meat she ate met with the Torah's tenets. The presence of the shokhet also enabled Flora to run a kosher kitchen. On the Shabbat or Sabbath, all work was forbidden.