The Deli plantation society in East Sumatra was hierarchical in its organization and management. A typical estate had one administrator and four to six assistants overseeing the plantations and coolies. Each section had about a hundred coolies, supervised by an assistant with three foremen. The assistants held the lowest managerial positions and lived on the plantations in simple houses. They often cohabited with native women as they could not bring women or families from their homeland to the Dutch East Indies. In order to get away from the tedium and isolation of living on the plantations, these junior personnel spent their rest days (on the first and sixteenth of every month) in Medan which offered many attractions including bars and clubs.
