Island - Aldous Huxley [55]
Dr. Robert gave her a little smile and nodded his head.
“How was Shivapuram?” Will enquired.
“Pleasant enough in itself,” the doctor answered. “Its only defect is that it’s so close to the outside world. Up here one can simply ignore the organized insanities and get on with one’s work. Down there, with all those antennae and listening posts and channels of communication that a government has to have, the outside world is perpetually breathing down one’s neck. One hears it, feels it, smells it—yes, smells it.”
“Has anything more than usually disastrous happened since I’ve been here?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary at your end of the world. I wish I could say the same about our end.”
“What’s the trouble?”
“The trouble is our next-door neighbor, Colonel Dipa. To begin with, he’s made another deal with the Czechs.”
“More armaments?”
“Sixty million dollars’ worth. It was on the radio this morning.”
“But what on earth for?”
“The usual reasons. Glory and power. The pleasures of vanity and the pleasures of bullying. Terrorism and military parades at home; conquests and Te Deums abroad. And that brings me to the second item of unpleasant news. Last night the Colonel delivered another of his celebrated Greater Rendang speeches.”
“Greater Rendang? What’s that?”
“You may well ask,” said Dr. Robert. “Greater Rendang is the territory controlled by the Sultans of Rendang-Lobo between 1447 and 1483. It included Rendang, the Nicobar Islands, about thirty percent of Sumatra and the whole of Pala. Today, it’s Colonel Dipa’s Irredenta.”
“Seriously?”
“With a perfectly straight face. No, I’m wrong. With a purple, distorted face and at the top of a voice that he has trained, after long practice, to sound exactly like Hitler’s. Greater Rendang or death!”
“But the great powers would never allow it.”
“Maybe they wouldn’t like to see him in Sumatra. But Pala—that’s another matter.” He shook his head. “Pala, unfortunately, is in nobody’s good books. We don’t want the Communists; but neither do we want the capitalists. Least of all do we want the wholesale industrialization that both parties are so anxious to impose on us—for different reasons, of course. The West wants it because our labor costs are low and investors’ dividends will be correspondingly high. And the East wants it because industrialization will create a proletariat, open fresh fields for Communist agitation and may lead in the long run to the setting up of yet another People’s Democracy. We say no to both of you, so we’re unpopular everywhere. Regardless of their ideologies, all the Great Powers may prefer a Rendang-controlled Pala with oil fields to an independent Pala without. If Dipa attacks us, they’ll say it’s most deplorable; but they won’t lift a finger. And when he takes us over and calls the oilmen in, they’ll be delighted.”
“What can you do about Colonel Dipa?” Will asked.
“Except for passive resistance, nothing. We have no army and no powerful friends. The Colonel has both. The most we can do, if he starts making trouble, is to appeal to the United Nations. Meanwhile we shall remonstrate with the Colonel about this latest Greater Rendang effusion. Remonstrate through our minister in Rendang-Lobo, and remonstrate with the great man in person when he pays his state visit to Pala ten days from now.”
“A state visit?”
“For the young Raja’s coming-of-age celebrations. He was asked a long time ago, but he never let us know for certain whether he was coming or not. Today it was finally settled. We’ll have a summit meeting as well as a birthday party. But let’s talk about something more rewarding. How did you get on today, Mr. Farnaby?”
“Not merely well—gloriously. I had the honor of a visit from your reigning monarch.”
“Murugan?”
“Why didn’t you tell me he was your reigning monarch?”
Dr. Robert laughed. “You might have asked for an interview.”
“Well, I didn’t. Nor from the Queen Mother.”
“Did the Rani come too?”
“At the command of her Little Voice. And, sure enough, the Little Voice sent her to the right address. My boss, Joe Aldehyde, is one of her dearest