Part 58 (1/2)

'They'll find somewhere, Major, don't worry. Besides, it's an order. It has nothing to do with me. It's official, so there you are. Perhaps you'd like to know a little more about them?' And Smith began to explain that the Poh Leung Kuk was run by a committee of Chinese under the supervision of the Protectorate. There had been such an importing of young girls into the Colony to act as prost.i.tutes, particularly before the brothels had been closed down in 1930, that it had been necessary to find a suitable inst.i.tution to house them. Girls arriving from China were taken to an inspection depot and only released to genuine relatives or employers. Any employers with dubious credentials were obliged to post a bond for a sum of money that the girl in question would not be disposed of to someone else or made to work as a prost.i.tute. Other girls found themselves in the home as a result of police raids on illicit establishments. Unfortunately, since the Poh Leung Kuk was situated in a vulnerable part of Singapore in buildings near Outram Road (next to the prison on one side and near the Teck Lee Ice Works on the other), it had been found necessary to disperse the inmates where possible. The Major had been specially selected as a man of probity to give temporary shelter to half a dozen of these girls.

'Oh, and one more thing, Major. You'll probably find that some, if not all, of your girls are on the ”marriage list”. I suppose you don't know the procedure in that eventuality ...'

'No, I don't, and frankly ...'

'No need to take that tone here, Major. You don't seem to realize that there's a war on and that we must improvise as best we can. Now, about the ”marriage list” ...'

In due course the Major, accompanied for moral support by Dupigny, had driven over to the Poh Leung Kuk in one of the Blackett and Webb vans to take delivery of the half-dozen girls who had been a.s.signed to the Mayfair. He found himself waiting in a sort of yard aware that from the windows round about him a mult.i.tude of eyes were appraising him. After a while, the official to whom he had explained his business returned, saying rather nervously: 'They'll be out in a moment, I think.' He stood in silence for a moment, then said brightly: 'None of yours have any venereal problems, as far as we know.' The Major cleared his throat gloomily, but said nothing. 'Ah, here they come now.'

'But there were supposed only to be half a dozen. Here there are twice as many!'

'That was only an estimate ...'

'What d'you think, Francois? They look look well-behaved. Can we manage so many? I suppose they could help Cheong with the cooking and household ch.o.r.es ...' The Major surveyed the row of neatly dressed Chinese girls who had lined up beside the van as if for inspection, each with her little bundle of belongings. They kept their eyes meekly on the ground while the two men discussed what to do. Dupigny, who could see the Major already weakening and who, moreover, was experienced in the ways of civil servants, gave it as his opinion that they should return to the Mayfair and only accept those girls whom the Protectorate succeeded in billeting on them by force. well-behaved. Can we manage so many? I suppose they could help Cheong with the cooking and household ch.o.r.es ...' The Major surveyed the row of neatly dressed Chinese girls who had lined up beside the van as if for inspection, each with her little bundle of belongings. They kept their eyes meekly on the ground while the two men discussed what to do. Dupigny, who could see the Major already weakening and who, moreover, was experienced in the ways of civil servants, gave it as his opinion that they should return to the Mayfair and only accept those girls whom the Protectorate succeeded in billeting on them by force.

'But Francois, we can't possibly leave so many of them here! How would we feel if a bomb dropped on this building tonight? We could never forgive ourselves!'

And so, with the back of the van crammed with young women, the Major and Dupigny drove back to the Mayfair. 'I'm sure they won't be any trouble, Francois ... what d'you think?' There was silence from Dupigny and a raised eyebrow. 'Once we've got it sorted out which of them is on the marriage list and which isn't ... I mean, that's the only real problem.' Smith had explained that thanks to a shortage of women in the Colony, there was a great demand for brides from the Poh Leung Kuk among the less affluent Chinese who could not afford to find a wife in the usual manner, that is through a go-between, which could involve great expense. A man who wanted a wife, once he had given details of his circ.u.mstances, might look over the girls on the list and make his selection. The girl then would accept or reject him on the spot. He would then pay forty dollars for his bride's trousseau and undergo a medical inspection. And that was that.

'I shouldn't think there'll be many men wanting to get married in the present situation,' said the Major confidently. 'I don't think we need worry about it, Francois. What d'you think?' Dupigny smiled but still made no comment. From the back of the van there came one or two smothered giggles.

All the same, there was no question of the Major asking any of the refugees to leave so that he might accommodate the newcomers. He allotted the former Board Room to the girls as a dormitory, asked Cheong to make use of them for kitchen and cleaning duties and, having nominated Captain Brown to deal with any difficulties that might arise, he returned to his other preoccupations, hoping for the best.

And still, as the days went by, more refugees continued to arrive so that soon new arrivals were obliged to camp in the compound. Now the centre of the city was thronged with refugees from up-country, milling about aimlessly all day in the hot streets in the hope of coming across someone they knew who might be able to help them. Many of them were women with small children who had been separated from their menfolk in the upheaval and had no idea of how they could make contact with them again. The Major, gazing at these shattered-looking people, was appalled and angry at the inadequacy of the arrangements which had been made to cope with them. But at this late date, with the administration of the city already in chaos, what was there to be done?

There was, however, one newcomer to the Mayfair whom everyone was pleased to see. Returning early one morning from an exhausting night at the docks, Matthew saw a familiar figure sitting on the verandah chatting with Dupigny. It was Ehrendorf.

'You've got thin, Matthew,' he said with a smile, getting to his feet. 'I hardly recognize you.'

'So have you!' Matthew was taken aback to see the change that had taken place in his friend's appearance in the few weeks since he had last seen him. Ehrendorf's handsome face was deeply lined and shrunk, as if he were suddenly ten years older. His cheekbones stood out sharply and grim little brackets which Matthew had never noticed before now enclosed the corners of his mouth; as he was speaking his eyes kept wandering from Matthew's face, as if he were trying to estimate, by the sound of the ack-ack batteries, the course of the raid which at that moment was taking place to the south.

Ehrendorf's voice was firm, however, as he explained that he had been ill with dysentery in Kuala Lumpur. Later he had been to Kuantan on the east coast, then back to Kuala Lumpur to find that it was being evacuated. He had no specific idea of how the campaign was progressing but it was clear that it was going badly. The roads throughout Joh.o.r.e were jammed with reinforcements and supplies going in one direction and refugees going, or attempting to go, in the other. It had taken him many hours to get through the traffic by car to Singapore and there was a danger of the whole line of communication seizing up. It was already a sitting target during daylight hours for j.a.panese bombers. He had heard one piece of good news, though. Last Tuesday it had rained providentially and a convoy of reinforcements had managed to sneak in, thanks to the bad weather, without being taken to bits by the bombers which now prowled the sea approaches to Singapore. Provided there was some way of getting the new men and equipment into the line quickly enough ... Ehrendorf shrugged.

'I shall probably be going back to the States in a few days if I can get transport.'

'In the meantime, you can stay here and lend a hand at the pumps.' Noticing Ehrendorf hesitate he added: 'You haven't seen Joan, I suppose? Mrs Blackett and Kate have left for Australia. Joan's still here, I believe, but I haven't seen her recently. Come on, grab your kit and I'll show you the few inches that are your ration of floorboards. We'll soon make a fireman of you.'

54.

LEARN TO DANCE AND DROWN YOUR WORRIES IN CABARETS!Success guaranteed to anyone after two and a half hoursprivate coaching at theModern Dancing School5A Ann Siang Hill(the road is diagonally opposite to the Hindu Templeof South Bridge Road).Straits Times, 16 Jan 1942PROGRAMME FOR SUNDAY, 18 JAN, 1942,at the Sea View Hotel popular concert11 a.m. to 1 p.m. by Reller's band 1 Overture The Beautiful Helena The Beautiful Helena Offenbach Offenbach 2 Waltz Wine, Women & Song Wine, Women & Song Strauss Strauss 3 Fantasia Faust Faust Gounod Gounod 4 Selection s...o...b..at s...o...b..at Kern Kern 5 Rhapsody Slavonic Rhapsody Slavonic Rhapsody Friedman Friedman 6 Selection No, No, Nanette No, No, Nanette Youman Youman 7 Medley Somers Scottish Medley Somers Scottish Medley Rijf Rijf 8 Selection Tommy's Tunes Tommy's Tunes Pecher Pecher Tiffin special Curry served from 12.302.30 p.m.

MR SOLOMON R. LANGFIELD,.

PEACEFULLY IN HIS SIXTY-THIRD YEAR.

NO FLOWERS PLEASE.

The death was announced today of Mr Solomon Langfield, co-founder of Langfield and Bowser Ltd and a familiar figure in Singapore business circles for many years. Mr Walter Blackett, paying tribute, said that although not the first in the field Mr Langfield's family firm had made a contribution.

So troubled were the times that for the general public the pa.s.sing of old Solomon Langfield, who surprisingly had turned out not to be quite as old as everyone had thought, took place with scarcely a murmur. There were none of the official manifestations of grief which had marked old Mr Webb's departure, for example, none of the letters of regret from the Governor nor the flying of flags at half-mast over buildings frequented by rubber dealers, bankers and merchants. At best a few of his old colleagues from Club or committee found their way to the Blacketts' residence to pay their last respects and offer condolences to young Nigel Langfield on his bereavement. If there were not even as many of these as one might have hoped, considering the long and devoted service which Solomon Langfield had bestowed unstintingly on the Colony in a number of different fields of endeavour, it was partly because in these troubled times everyone had difficulties of his own. It was partly, too, because some of those who were among the first to make the sad pilgrimage to take leave of their friend, reported back that Walter was inclined to be moody and odd in his behaviour, feigning not to know why they had come and then, when they had explained, giving the impression that their journey had been a waste of time and that they were disturbing his peace unnecessarily for such a trivial matter. However, with a shrug of his shoulders he would direct them to the room where the body had been laid out (refrigerated fortunately) awaiting mortuary attentions.

No doubt Walter's moody behaviour would have seemed more explicable to the friends of the deceased if they had known the extent of his disappointment over Solomon Langfield's rejection of the match he had proposed between their respective children. Walter was bitter about this. It had been such a good idea. When you are in a pickle as complicated as that which Walter considered himself to be in, with a partner in your company you cannot depend upon, with a daughter to marry off, and vast stocks of rubber to s.h.i.+p, it could only be expected that the rejection of a single elegant solution to these disparate problems would come as a blow. Add to that old Solomon Langfield's insulting behaviour and you have enough to make blood bubble in the veins.

A great deal of thought must be given to your daughter's marriage. Otherwise she will simply slink off like a cat on a dark night and get herself fertilized under a bush by G.o.d knows whom! Yes, even a sensible daughter will, there's no trusting them, particularly these days ... Or to put it another way, there are no sensible daughters. Not even with a girl like Joan, who had her head screwed on more tightly than most, could you be sure that you would not wake up one morning to find her entangled with some worthless adventurer. Now, although Walter was confident that sooner or later the present difficulties with the j.a.panese would be overcome and life in Singapore would return to normal, it was increasingly obvious to him that for some time to come the Singapore community would be scattered to the winds. Finding herself in a different environment, in Australia, say, or India, was there not a danger that Joan would lose the sensible perspective she had acquired in Singapore? Yes, there was, and that was why Walter felt he must see Joan married before she left Singapore. The last thing Walter wanted was to find her captivated by some mustachioed flight-lieutenant who happened to catch her fancy because he was serving his country so heroically.

The morning after Langfield had rejected his proposal so impudently Walter had discussed the matter with Joan. 'The old brute was against the idea,' he had explained grimly, 'and even if Nigel was so besotted about you that he was willing to go ahead without the old man's permission, it still wouldn't do any good because if I know Solomon he'd just cut off the funds. Then we'd be stuck with Nigel but with none of the Langfield business which would be the worst possible solution.' Yes, it had begun to seem to Walter that he had left this question of marrying off his daughter until too late. Fate, however, had then taken a hand.

When, in due course, Abdul came to inform Walter, first that Tuan Tuan Langfield had not risen for breakfast, then that Langfield had not risen for breakfast, then that Tuan Tuan Langfield would not be rising again on this earth, Walter had merely said to himself: 'What a blessed nuisance! Trust that old codger to make a nuisance of himself!' But presently it did occur to him that provided Solomon had not discussed the matter with his son, his death might not be such a nuisance after all. Joan was inclined to share his opinion. Langfield would not be rising again on this earth, Walter had merely said to himself: 'What a blessed nuisance! Trust that old codger to make a nuisance of himself!' But presently it did occur to him that provided Solomon had not discussed the matter with his son, his death might not be such a nuisance after all. Joan was inclined to share his opinion.

Walter was astonished to see the effect that the news of his father's death had on Nigel. The young man seemed positively afflicted to hear of it; he was visibly on the verge of breaking down. Walter inspected him with curiosity, marvelling at the resources of human nature that could inspire, even for such as Solomon Langfield, an affection so deep. But there was the evidence: Nigel sat before him with his head in his hands, overcome. Such grief could only be respected.

Walter gave Joan a nod and a wink and she advanced to place a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder. Walter himself retired then to brood in his dressing-room. He believed he had thought of a way to bring solace to Nigel in his hour of loss. Thus, later in the morning when Nigel had regained control of himself, Walter summoned him and said: 'My boy, I know how you must be feeling. I won't beat about the bush. Your father and I had our ups and downs but we always respected each other. When you get down to it, you know, we were very much alike in many ways. Well, I hesitate to tell you what I'm going to tell you because I know that he did not want you to be influenced in any way. I think that poor Solomon may have had some intimation that the end was not far away because the other evening, while we were chatting together about old times and the fun we'd had as youngsters in this Colony, he happened to say how concerned he was for the future ... Yes, to put it in a nutsh.e.l.l he told me that he would not be at all averse to seeing you settle down and start a family. ”Well, Walter,” he said to me, ”this may come as a surprise to you, considering the ups and downs we've had in business matters, but there's only one young woman I'd like to see him married to and that's that young woman of yours, Joan.” There it is, Nigel, and I was pretty surprised about it, I must say, but once I'd got to thinking about it, why ... Lord, are those the wretched air-raid sirens again?'

'But Mr Blackett!' cried Nigel who in the matter of a few seconds had flushed, turned pale and was now flus.h.i.+ng again.

'Dammit! It's only five to ten. This is becoming too much of a good thing ...'

'I thought my father ...'

'Well, there we are. We'll talk about it later ... but of course, only if you want to. Maybe I've been speaking out of turn, maybe I should have kept mum about it: it wasn't an easy decision for me to bring it up. And mind you, I know he didn't want you to be influenced in any way and he even told me that if anything he would pretend to take a dim view of such an arrangement just so that ... Ah, there go the guns! d.a.m.n these air-raids! How can we possibly get anything done? By the sound of the guns they seem to be coming our way ... We'd better go to the shelter this time, I think. You go and get Joan and I'll tell the staff to get under cover ...'

There was no time for further discussion. Already the bombs were beginning to fall and the thudding of the anti-aircraft guns matched the thudding of young Nigel's heart as he dashed upstairs to get Joan and bring her to the shelter which Walter had had dug beside the Orchid Garden. This time, it seemed, the j.a.panese bombers were not going to be content with an attack on Keppel Harbour or the Naval Base: they were setting to work on the city itself and on Tanglin in particular.

Nearby at the Mayfair those of the Major's firemen who were awake after their night's work listened wearily to the sirens. Only when the guns at Bukit Timah opened up did they make a move to take shelter. Here, as almost everywhere else on the island, it was hard to see any distance, except upwards. And so as they struggled out of the building, still red-eyed and bewildered from lack of sleep, they looked upwards ... to see a densely packed wave of j.a.panese bombers flying at a great height and directly over Tanglin. In a moment the leading bomber would fire a burst of machine-gun fire: at this signal all the planes would drop their bombs at the same moment and there would be havoc on the ground. Meanwhile, a few hundred yards from where they stood the light ack-ack battery over the brow of the hill was blazing away quite uselessly, it seemed, for the bombers were flying well out of range.

Now the aeroplanes above, like monstrous insects, began to deposit batches of little black eggs into the sky and a fearful whistling grew in the air around the men fleeing through the flowerbeds. Soon the shelter was crammed and people flung themselves down in any hole or ditch they could find while the Major, wearing a steel helmet, bundled the girls from the Poh Leung Kuk and other latecomers into the recreation hut whose walls had been padded with rubber bales, mattresses and cus.h.i.+ons, more as a gesture than anything else. As he did so the first bomb landed in the long-disused swimming pool sending up a great column of water which hung in the air for a moment like a block of green marble before cras.h.i.+ng down again. Another bomb landed simultaneously in the road blowing a snowstorm of red tiles off the Mayfair's roof and out over the compound, and another in the grove of old rubber which lay between the Mayfair and the Blacketts' house. The last explosion, though some distance from both makes.h.i.+ft shelters, was strong enough to blow in one wall of the recreation hut, hurling those who had been huddled against it back into a jumble of cus.h.i.+ons, mattresses and struggling bodies: the roof, too, began to sag and utter piercing cracks. In the deep hush which followed, the telephone could be heard ringing, very faintly, in the empty bungalow. People began to extricate themselves from the jumble on the floor of the recreation hut. n.o.body seemed to be badly hurt.

Abruptly there was a roar overhead and everyone ducked. 'It's one of the RAF buses!' someone shouted as a Hurricane vanished over the tree tops. A ragged cheer went up. The telephone was still ringing: it seemed a miracle that the wires had not been brought down in the bombing. The Major ran towards the bungalow to answer it. He had to swing himself up by the verandah rail because the wooden steps had been carried away by the blast from the bomb which had fallen in the road and now sagged in a drunken concertina some yards from the building. As he had expected they were being called to a fire: houses and a timber yard between River Valley Road and the river had been set alight.

Shortly afterwards a strange cavalcade was to be seen setting out from the Mayfair. In the lead came the Major's Lagonda towing a trailer-pump, followed by Mr Wu's Buick crammed with pa.s.sengers. Next came two Blackett and Webb vans commandeered from the nutmeg grove by the Major and it was these which lent the Mayfair unit its air of rather desperate carnival, for there had been no time to unbolt the bizarre wooden super-structure which had been fitted on top of them; besides, it might give added protection from shrapnel. The first van, towing a second, newly acquired trailer-pump, still carried the gigantic facsimilies of red and blue Straits dollar bills, complete with slant-eyed portrait of the King. From the other van eight long arms painted dark brown, light brown, yellow and white, each pair supplied with a papier mache head, emerged symbolically from the jaws of Poverty; since these arms, which were enormously long and stretched forward over the cabin of the van, were supposed to be reaching for Prosperity, it had been collectively decided that the van displaying the dollar bills should go first. Otherwise, as Dupigny remarked, it might almost look as if dollar bills were chasing the representatives of the four races and that they, arms outstretched, were fleeing in terror.

As they emerged on to Orchard Road they saw for the first time the extent of the havoc caused by the air-raid. A stick of high-explosive bombs had fallen along the upper reaches beginning near the junction with Tanglin Road and neatly distributing themselves, two on one side, three on the other, reducing a number of buildings to rubble, bringing down overhead cables and smas.h.i.+ng shop windows so that the pavements of the covered ways glittered with a frosting of gla.s.s. The way into Paterson Road was blocked by a number of blazing vehicles which had been hurled across the road by the blast; a lorry lay upside down, its wheels in the air; everywhere people scrabbled desperately in the rubble searching for survivors. A greyish-white cloud of dust muted the blaze of the burning vehicles and turned the people struggling in the road into figures from a winter scene.

The Major continued down Orchard Road hoping to approach River Valley Road from the other direction; he looked back once or twice to make sure that the others were following. Behind the two vans a motor-cycle brought up the rear of the column, carrying Turner, formerly the manager of the Joh.o.r.e estate, but now obliged by military preparations across the Causeway to return to Singapore, and a Chinese friend of Mr Wu's whose name was Kee, a strong and taciturn individual, extremely courageous.

They had to proceed carefully here, sounding their horns on account of the people, many of them apparently still dazed, some wandering about aimlessly, others laying out the dead and wounded at the side of the road. Once they had to stop while an abandoned vehicle was dragged out of their path; then they came upon an oil-tanker that had collided with a tree but by a miracle had not caught fire. Not far away the Cold Storage had had a near miss and badly shaken shoppers were being helped from the building. Near the vegetable and fruit market next door a block of flats was on fire. A Sikh traffic policeman, still incongruously wearing the basketwork wings that gave him the appearance of a dragon-fly, waved his arms vigorously, trying to direct the Major towards the burning flats. But the Major would not be directed: he had his own fire to go to. As they pa.s.sed by he saw the policeman sink to his knees and then fold up with his forehead on the sticky tar surface of the road, evidently overcome by shock or concussion: one of his basket wings had been neatly broken in the middle and bent back behind the shoulderblade. A moment later and he had been left behind in the swirling dust and smoke, motionless as a dying insect in the road.

By the time they reached the timber yard two Chinese AFS units were already at work under a detachment from the Central Fire Station but it was clear that there was no chance of saving either the yard itself or the adjoining saw-mills, both of which were well alight. To make matters worse a stiff breeze was blowing from the north-east in the direction of a group of slum tenements standing a little way back from the river: an attempt was being made to arrest the wall of flame advancing towards them.

When the suction hose had been dropped in the river and the delivery hose had been laid out the pumps were started up: the Major and Ehrendorf went ahead with one branch, Mr Wu and Turner with the other. Kee, who was a mechanic, had taken charge of both pumps, a.s.sisted by Captain Brown, while Matthew, Cheong, Dupigny and the others ran back and forth as the branches advanced, laying out extra lengths, signalling to the pumps, uncoupling and coupling again, dizzy and breathless with heat. His head spinning, Matthew watched the jets from half a dozen branches curving towards the fire but nevertheless it grew and grew. Flames were now rising over half an acre of piled-up timber and roaring a hundred feet into the air and the water seemed to evaporate before it had time to touch any part of it. Once, when he was accidently splashed by water from another branch on his way to relieve the Major, who was lurching drunkenly and seemed about to fall, Matthew gave an involuntary cry of pain: the water was scalding.