Scottish and Naga children exchange letters

Class 7C of the Culter School in Aberdeen, Scotland was visited by Burma veteran, 85-year old Stanley Rothney, early in 2007. As a result of his visits, the pupils wrote letters to their counterparts in Kohima. The letters were forwarded by KET to Pfelie Kesiezie – the school's headmaster – and literature about KET was sent to Mrs Cowie, the teacher who had invited Stanley Rothney's visit.

As a result there has been an exchange of correspondence between the pupils of the two schools, of which here are two extracts:

From Jaimie in Aberdeen, "He told us about the Naga people. He said they looked after him and his fellow comrades. They gave them food, water and shelter."

From Anish, David and Lima in Nagaland, "The Nagas did not fight the war but helped the British by carrying their goods and doing intelligence work about the position of the enemies etc. That is how the enemies were prevented from entering India."

I saw many wonderful things when we went to England. We stayed at East Hendred with our hosts Robert and Sylvia. The village was neat and clean, quiet and peaceful. It was beautiful too with flowers blooming everywhere. One of the things that impressed me was the Kohima Museum. I never expected to see such a museum in Great Britain named after Kohima!

At the museum we saw a film which depicted scenes of how the Nagas fought with the British against the Japanese and the guns they had used during this war. We also saw the War Cemetery and a view of Kohima town. I even saw a Chakhesang shawl displayed on the wall. But the most memorable things that I noticed were that the people are very polite and kind, and that the countryside and the cities are very clean!

Venu Lohe, Grade 8,
Baptist High School, Kohima