Chapter 18-

We don't grow morals

AT the end of the second week in January, Henry had had no reply to his request to join the army, and on Saturday he decided to go to Chinnar and tackle Sudden again. Jean had shrunk from facing the four-hour drive there and back just for a day, and had not wanted to go with him.

I'll be back fairly early to morrow; certainly by eleven, Henry told Jean on Saturday morning as he got into the Austin. He wanted to catch Sudden in the office; lus bungalow was hardly the place to have a show-down. It was nearly twelve-thirty when he got to the Brindian office.

As he had hoped. Sudden was still in his office; rose-carpeted, rosewood-panelled, and with the ornate marble fireplace that was said to have been brought over piece by piece from some stately home of England and reconstructed in Sudden's office. The heavy, dull green velvet curtains over the enormous bay-window had been pulled back and secured so that from Sudden's seat you could gaze at the immense panorama of the Brindian empire; a placid, brilliantly sunlit landscape of lake and forest and mountain, blue and green and deep blue again. h the icy Himalayan peaks tower- ing far behind, blinding white in the noonday sun. Life-size por traits of all the past Resident Duecturs looked sternly down from the walls.

Sudden was standing with his back to the fire place, smoking a cigar and looking like a portrait of himself, and he received Henry with a toothy. too bright smile. If he had had any idea as to why Henry had come to see him, he gave no indication of it.

Well, Henry? inquired Sudden, motioning Henry to a chair with his cigar.

I've come about my release, sir. To-day is the thirteenth, and I shall have to be leaving by the end of the month. I have still re- ceived no instructions."

Sudden was still smiling his too bright smile. Henry did not like it.

I was hoping you were going to come up this week-end, Henry, though I was not expecting you quite so early,' he said looking pointedly at the clock on the side wall. 'But I am glad you have come."

Had his orders come? Was that why Sudden was sounding so mellow?

'Have the orders come, sir?"

'Yes, and no,' said Sudden, pursing his lips. "You see, the com mand HQ at Naini Tal has agreed to your going on the February course at Belgaum. I have got the orders here. But I very much doubt if you will be able to... to take advantage of this special concession."

What's to stop me?"

"Well, ordinarily nothing--ordinarily. But in your case, the War Department itself has sent a telegram from Delhi telling Eastern Command to keep you here as long as the provincial government wants,"

The Assam government, sir? What have they got to do with it?" They have no powers as such; they can merely make requests; and they have made such a request to the War Department at New Delhi to keep you here for the time-being. And the War Depart ment, very naturally, has agreed."

Sudden wore a triumphant grin, and for a wild moment Henry wanted to slap his face. Was this something Sudden himself had engineered?

But the provincial government can have nothing to do with me, sir. Henry protested. I'm a subject of the home country. What grounds can they have to interfere....

I was just coming to that." said Sudden. You see, the Assam government wrote to Delhi telling them that you had... that you had very kindly offered to kill a rogue-elephant for them. They said they would appreciate it if you were not called away until the rogue-elephant had been killed. New Delhi agreed like a shot, of course. It was a question of morale-building as well as very sound propaganda... and... What's the matter. Henry?"

"Did you do this, su?" asked Henry.

'Me? No,' said Sudden very mildly. 'Oh, no. For one thing it had not occurred to me; indeed, for a time I had rather taken for

'Ring in the New

Turial thiee weeks before Christmas had passed Gradually almost imperceptibly, the new pattern of their relationship seemed to have hardened, making for itself a smooth groove. It was as though both Hemy and lean had got over the first animal taptues of their married life and settled down to adjust themselves to each other's real selves It was less hectic, more suber, and on an altogether richer level of life and yet, judged by the delirious first days of intimacy, it was a pathetically poor substitute.

Was that what happened to all marriages Henry asked himself At least to all outward appearances Jean wis once again her old self Laughing and full of happy impulsiveness Would she be wholly the same agam, ever Would she surrender her being to him as completely and as wildly as she had done la fore? Henry kept asking himself without finding the awer Meanwhile, there were the holidays, the ten days of merry making in Chinnar, and he was happy to see that Jean set med to be just as eager for them. as he was himself And so they passed into nineteen forty, once again, dancing and singing Auld Lang Syne and d king champagne and kissing and being kissed. The war was aheady four months old, but it was a phony war, as the Americans had begun to call it Everyone knew that it could not remain phony for long, at m the meantime the

Highlands (lub had lashings of champagne and Scotch to drink the New Year in, and English bacon and tinned mushrooms and crosse and Blackwell jams for the breakfast of to monow and many more to monows thanks to Sudden's forethought Ring out the Old, Ring in the New! Damn Lieutenant Prien and damn the German U boats! Here's to the battle of the River Plate and to the Exeter and the Achilles and the Ajax and the whole of the Royal Navy Above all, here's to the Maginot fine! The Maginot Line!

Ring out wild bells to the wild skies! In the classic, time honoured manner of British clubs in the East, the Highlands Club was ringing out the Old, ringing in the New.

The news, on the very first day of the New Year, was shockingly unpalatable. For a few minutes, it put the glorious victory of the battle of the River Plate and even the shattering loss of the Royal Oak into the background. It brought out the stark, hidden, un- declared war that was going on within India itself; the war of sedi- tion and intrigue for the overthrow of British rule.

Propped up in bed with one eye barely open and sipping his first cup of tea, Henry Winton had picked up the previous day's Statesman and had read that Lala Jugal Kishore, Mazdoor-sangh member of the Assembly from North Tinapur constituency, had been invited to join the Government as minister of plantations.

For a moment, Henry felt a bitter, burning surge of helplessness, as though he had been kicked in the stomach while lying down and unable to retaliate. It was not fair, on the morning after the cus tomary excesses of New Year's eve festivities, to be confronted with this kind of nerve-shattering intelligence.

And then had followed the comforting thought that he himself need not remain in the tea district much longer; that a great war was waiting to draw him in, that all he had to do was to wriggle a little harder and assist the process of being drawn in and thus spare himself the humiliation of having a man like Jugal Kishore probing into his affairs. He might even come inspecting his garden, Henry thought with horror. He was not going to have it; he would be off, fighting the war-fighting a more open war with more com- ventional weapons even if it was against a more powerful enemy.

Henry shaved and showered, determined to have it out with Sudden before leaving Chinnar: he wanted a definite assurance from Sudden that he would be released in time to attend the first training course due to begin in Belgaum in early February. It was not as though he was making an unreasonable request; he was ask- ing for what was his by right. He had seen the directive to Sudden from the company's board telling him that any of the company's employees who wished to volunteer for the armed forces without waiting to be called up were to be permitted to go, and that their posts were to be held open for them till the end of the war.

Sudden was sitting under his blue-and-white striped umbrella on the lawn, reclining on a heavily cushioned easy chair with his feet placed on a cane stool in front of him, and he was about to gulp down the fierce-looking mixture of tabasco sauce, tomato juice,. and raw egg called a praine-oyster and said to be an excellent remedy for a hang-over He looked more like a Roman Emperor than ever, thought Henry, as Nero might have looked on the morning of New Year's day

Try one of these, Henry?' Sudden invited, smiling wanly.

'No, thank you, sir,' said Henry Then he explained why he had come.

Sudden was quite peevish 'No. Henry I have not sent up your papers for enrolment because frankly I did not expect you would prove so

so uncooperative I'm very sorry,' said Henry

'Why can't you wart until you're called up?- like any other man. Dammit apart from anything else it's it's unpatriotic to rush them like this The army cannot fit everyone in in the first tew courses They can't train more than a limited number of chaps in each cours, and there are all sorts of other categories they have to work through first before coming down to the planters and others who are already doing valuable war jobs I was told privately that the planters may not have to go until well into 'forty-one

I must get into this as soon as I can'

"And you don't give a damn what happens here-to your garden

I'm sure you will be able to find someone to run the garden.

It you want to know, I have written to every single one of the planters who have retued from nere in the last ten years to come and take their jobs on again-offered them the most attractive terms Only two have agreed to come, ar they are not expected here until the end of May.' Thadn't realized it was as bad as all that

'And yet you can't see your way to staying put until until things ease up a little? 'No, sir. I'm sorry.

Well, there's damn little I can do. Winton, in the face of this absurd view taken by the directors and the Government I can't stop you if you're determined to go. At the same time, I can't help feeling that you are rather. Well, being quite inconsiderate.'

I'm sorry you look at it that way, Sir Jeffrey," said Henry. "But it's just that I have been told that the next course for officers begins in February, and if I miss it I don't know how long I might have to wait. Perhaps April or May.'

That would have suited me ideally, Henry I can make some kind of makeshift arrangements by then. I would really appreciate your agreeing to stay put until May."

I'm sorry to appear so unat commodating, sir, but I want to go now, so that I can get into the February course'

'All night,' said Sudden without exasperation All right I will send up your papers. But don't forget that you are rather putting ine on the spot, as the Americans say I can't help feeling that you might have been a little more co operative

They drove back from Chinnar immediately after lunch on Tues day Henry was full of his interview with Sudden, and excited about the prospect of having to leave the tea district within the next two or three weeks

If they send me to Belgaum, would you like to stay in the Club at Chinnar until I finish the course and get a posting, or were you thinking of going to Poona and staying with your aunt? Poona is a nice place, almost like a hill station, and I could come and spend week-ends

I don't want to go on living here after you go I would like to go to Poona as soon as you go off so that I can get into one of the women's services-ATS or WAACS or something They ve a very big military establishment at Poona

Oh.' said Henry. This was the first he had heard of her desire to join one of the women's services He had been hoping that after he received his commission they would be able to live together in sume cantonment town resuming the pattern of their disrupted life

The realization that if she went into one of the women s services they might be separated for the duration of the war hit him with an almost physical force After that he drove in silence, feeling de flated and slightly numb All the way from Tinapur to Silent Hill they did not speak. Just as they were about to turn into the gate, Fddie Trevor's motor-cycle came tooting behind them and when Henry edged the Austin to the left, Eddie went flashing past, way- ing his hand and shouting "Happy New Year, Jean' Happy New Year, Mr. Winton"

Without meaning to, Henry found himself waving back and granted that the rogue was already dead. But the Avam govern- ment seems to think it's still about. No, it wasn't me it wasn't L And if I were to make a request like that, I am sure the War Depart- ment would have smelt a rat; they would only have taken the view that I was trying to keep my planters here as long as I could on one pretext or another-would not have played up at all. As it was, the request to retain you here was made by the Assam government, entirely on its own; by the minister himself, in fact, on behalf of the government--the new Minister for Plantations, Lala Jugal Kishore."

"Christ! That swine!"

I was myself rather taken aback-couldn't make out what was at the back of it all,' said Sudden. 'I knew he couldn't be all that fond of you, to be making a special request to the government to setain you here."

At the moment, he hated Sudden even more than he hated Jugal Kishore. Jugal Kishore was someone in the background, far away. half-forgotten; Sudden was standing before him, crowing, smirking, triumphant. His nerves tautened and his muscles flexed as though to ward off a blow, and the blood rushed to his head, making his temples throb.

I must not give in now, I must keep control of myself, he kept reminding himself. This was like big-game shooting; it was a time to keep cool. If I explo-le now, they could kill me, Sudden and Jugal Kishore between them could finish me ott. They're partners now, both ranged against me.

There was a lone thought, one flashing, repeating signal some- where at the back of his mind Then it came to him.

Suppose I finish off the elephant before... Well, in time for me to go on the February course. Can I not go then?"

'Of course, Sudden assured him. You n go the moment you've killed the rogue. Let it not be said that I held you back even for a day. If you finish the rogue. that is."

Then, as though he had not sufficiently emphasized the word, he repeated it. "If. I take it that as far as you are concerned,' said Henry, trying to prevent his voice from giving a sign of the storm that raged within him, I can get away the day I have shot the elephant.'

Rather, said Sudden. 'Absolutely. You shoot the rogue and go off and become a soldier, Henry, and I'll see that they pin a medal on you."

"Thank you, sir.' Henry remembered to say.

'And while you are here, old chap, I should like you to do me a favour; in your capacity as a member of the Club committee, ! mean. Would you go and carry out a really thorough inspection of the game cottage and put in a report; you know-whatever improvements you consider necessary. General and Lady Maclean are coming here some time next month, and I want to make sure that everything is absolutely tickety-boo. If Jock Maclean can manage it, he is going to bring the C-in-C for a day or two.

'I'll see to it this afternoon, sir,' said Henry

'Oh, no hurry. you know; no hurry at all. Any time you like. Just go and have a look so that we can get the place all shipshape."

Sudden's voice still bore the jarring suspicion of triumph, making it clear to Henry that he was not really asking him to do a favour. but ordering him, just as he had done for the past five years, con- fident that he would go on doing so in the future. It was time to make a dent in that overbearing conceit. So the Minister for Plantations has already started throwing his weight around?" said Henry.

Sudden gave hun a sharp look. What? Oh, yes; Lala Jugal Kishore certainly looks as though he is going to make his presence felt.

'It's a shame that a man like Jugal Kishore should be in a position to interfere with our labourers, sir,' aid Henry very quietly, not wishing to overplay his hand. You know, of course, that it was Jugal Kishore who stirred up all that labour trouble at Silent Hill."

'Yes, I do.'

"The coolies, by and large, consuler him their leader, the man who will get them better rates of pay and better living conditions -he used to take a cut from their pay every month to act as their spokes- man, and they paid cheerfully. With the power he now has, he can he can paralyse the working of any garden the whole tea district."

Humm: he certainly is a very powerful man, now,' Sudden agreed.

Was Sudden blind, or was he being deliberately dense? Did he have to be told the sort of ordeals Jugal Kishore could subject the tea industry to?

You may not have had much contact with him, Sir Jeffrey, may not know what kind of man he is. He is cunning and shifty, quite unprincipled, quite unscrupulous. He would be a most dangerous enemy."

Oh, I know all that, Henry. Tell me, was that why you... you became rather suddenly anxious to join the army?"

Henry recoiled at the implication. As you know, sir, I had applied to go long before Jugal Kishore became a minister."

Yes, of course, Sudden remembered. That's right. As soon as Eddie Trevor heard that he had been selected for a commission."

"But I have no hesitation in admitting that if I had not applied already, Jugal Kishore's becoming our minister would have cer- tainly made me do it. I cannot bear the man; knowing what harm he is capable of doing, knowing how morally corrupt he is. If it came to that, I would even have offered my resignation rather than....

'Getting into the war will spare you all that.' Sudden pointed out.

"There's no denying that the war. in this sort of situation, is something of a godsend, with a man like Jugal Kishore in a position of almost absolute authority over the affairs of the tea district; a man who bears me a personal grudge. I shudder to think what sort of trouble he would be creating here." "What sort of trouble?"

'Well, he can privately instigate the coolies to go on strike on some minor issue and then sit in judgment over... over the Brindian Company. He could force us to increase wages, build better houses, provide more me. cal tacilities, give them provident funds-the whole book of the new labour laws. He's capable of anything, and he will do it too... leave no stone unturned to para- lyse the tea business."

And why do you think he would be doing all this, Henry?" asked Sudden. "What would be his aim?

"Aim? To become more powerful; to harry the British; to under- mine the war effort and win greater support from the labourers." Sudden shook his right hand slowly in a gesture of denial, taking care not to disturb the ash on his cigar. "No, Henry; you don't know your babu politician. Politics are his business, just as growing tea is yours and mine. We grow tea for no other reason than because it gives us the wherewithal to live according to our standards: he goes into politics for much the same reason. I grant you that he is capable of raising all the trouble you have described, and more. And yet, he won't be doing it for any of the reasons that you have detailed. There is only one aim, one motive force?"

'Nationalism?"

'Far from it. Money."

"Money"

'Yes, Henry. You don't know your India as well as some of us here do. When you said a moment ago that Jugal Kishore would be a most dangerous enemy, you couldn't have been more right. But we are not going to have him as an enemy; we are going to keep him here as a friend, as someone... as someone hatting on our side."

"And how are you going to manage that?"

'Don't be naive, Henry; we have already managed it. By buying him off, of course. Did you know that the Brindan Tea Company contributed five thousand rupees to his election expenses, and the other two companies two thousand each? Do you know that the day he became Minister for Plantations he was given an assurance, on behalf of all three compames, that he would be given a regular monthly remuneration of one thousand rupees if he stayed on our side? Jugal Kishore, thank heavens, is not like some of the other ministers I can name -inaccessible. He is wholly amenable to listen to reason, particularly when reason is accompanied by the tinkle of rupees." You mean you are the companies are- bribing him, paying hush-money to a man like Jugal Kishore?"

We don't grow morals in the tea district, Henry; we grow tea. And whatever is conducive to the growth of tea. we foster. To us here, it is a simple matter of hard, business arithmetic. The whole year's expenditure on keeping a man like Jugal Kishore on our side is as nothing compared to having a one-day strike m the entire tea district-like the strike you had.""

But... but hush-money," said Henry, still sounding shocked. Blackmail!' '

There's nothing wrong with the judicious payment of money to keep the right people on our side; indeed it might be called the bed- Lock of the Empire's frontier strategy. As you know, we pay lakhs of rupees every year to the tribesmen on the North-West Froutier, just to keep them quiet-just to behave themselves. Those who have to run the business of the Empire have found the system in-valuable. As Jock Maclean always says, it is better to pay a lakh of rupees to a tribal village to behave itself than spend ten lakhs of rupees in sending a brigade to destroy the village.

But how do you know... How can anyone tell that a man like Jugal Kishore will not let all of you down... Whenever he is faced with making the choice between labour and management?'

For the excellent reason that the coolies don't pay him a thou- sand rupees a month. He will side with us just as long as we side with him. Jugal Kishore's becoming the minister of this new port- folio they have created, the Minister for Plantations, is going to be au unmixed blessing, vo far as the tea companies are concerned. Let's hope he stays in lus post. In his public speeches, he has pro- mised to put in a good word for the tea companies, and to appeal to the labourers that now, in times of war, they must be prepared to make sacrifices; privately, of course, he has promised to do much more. Oh, he's a good man to have on one's side, but I should hate to have him as an enemy And Sudden glanced meaningfully at Henry.

Thank God I won't be having to... to make efforts to keep on the right side of such a character"

Depending on how soon you finish off that elephant, Henry," Sir Jeffrey reminded him. 'And remember that there are others who have to... have to face up to these higher-level problems, whether they like it or not. That's why they pay us the kind of salaries they do. Otherwise all of us would take the easy way out and join up, and to hell with Brindian and tea!"

"I'm sorry to give you such an impression, Su Jeffrey," said Henry. But I should like to... to off you my sincere tongratulations on the way you have... have tackled a character like Jugal Kishore."

"These things come naturally, Henry, sal Sudden, looking very pleased with himself 'If one beats in mi d that the company's interests come first, always and every time. Do you remember my asking you at Silent Hill, the day of the strike, whether we should pay something to Jugal Kishore to keep your labourers quiet and you said "No"? Well. Arkell's advice was quite the opposite. Arkell has been in the police in this country for twenty years. He knows his Indian far better than any of us. "Beat them up only if you cannot buy them off cheaply." Arkell always says So the three Resident Duectors at Chinat met hete, in this toom, and decided to send Jugal Kishore an offer to help him out with his election expenses. Worked like magic; you must have noticed how well behaved your labourers have been since the strike.'

I certainly have, they are singularly docile.

That's the way all big business has to be done. One thing we do know is that we cannot afford to have any strikes. You won't, of course, mention any of this to anyone, will you. Not to any of the other managers or anyone

'No, sir.

Sudden looked at the wall clock. 'Ah, one o'clock. Time for tiffin.

You staying over for the week-end?" 'No, sir, I'm going back early to-morrow morning."

"You won't forget to take a look at the game cottage, will you?' Sudden reminded him