Singapore Grip - J. G. Farrell [207]
‘Wouldn’t it be better if it read simply “All together” or “All working together”?’ suggested the Major. ‘It seems to me that there’s something a bit odd about “all in it together”.’
‘Oh, I don’t think so, no,’ replied Walter vaguely. ‘It seems all right to me … Not inside the bloody van, you idiot, on top of it!’ he added in an indignant howl at an impassive Chinese carpenter who was trying to drag a large sign bearing the words ‘Continuity in Prosperity’ into the driving seat of one of the vans.
‘Still no sign of the rest of the so-and-sos who said they’d come!’ Walter inspected his watch, looking defenceless all of a sudden. ‘Well, come on, we’ll give them another few minutes and then if they haven’t turned up we’ll call it a day.’
They walked on. A pink-faced youth, one of Blackett and Webb’s younger executives, hurried up with some problem for Walter. After a hasty conference Walter said: ‘if you don’t mind, Major, this young man will show you the rest. I’ll be with you again in a few minutes.’ He strode away, summoning an Indian secretary with a clipboard to accompany him. Once he was out of sight the prospective participants in the parade relaxed visibly.
The Major, with the pink-faced young man at his side, now found himself standing in front of Prosperity herself, depicted by sandwich boards as long as the van which was to carry them and twice as high. These boards had been skillfully painted to imitate Straits dollar bills, enormously magnified: on one side the blue one-dollar, on the other the red ten-dollar, and both with the oval portrait of the King which you would find on the currency itself, beautifully painted to show every detail of his wavy hair and high ceremonial collar, though perhaps with eyes more slanted than usual, for this, too, was the work of a Chinese artist. ‘Blackett and Webb 1892-1942. Fifty Years of Prosperity for Workers of All Races.’
‘I hope you approve, Major Archer,’ said the young man politely. ‘We in the Firm happen to think it’s a rather valuable contribution.’
‘I must say,’ said the Major dubiously, ‘that I wonder whether this is quite the moment to go in for all this sort of thing.
But no! didn’t the Major see that it was precisely now that such a jubilee parade was needed, now more than at any other moment in the history of the Colony?
They had moved on to yet another float in the form of a crown composed of vertical wooden laths painted silver to simulate metal and tipped with arrowheads. This float, which was entitled ‘The Blackett and Webb Group of Companies’, also carried the slogans ‘Continuity in Prosperity’ and ‘All in it Together’. The Major paused, fascinated, for behind the bars of the crown, as if in a cage, were a number of rather sulky-looking young women with marcelled hair and bright red lipstick wearing glittering silver lamé dresses. Each of these women was evidently intended to represent one of Blackett and Webb’s interests for although their dresses were identical they wore a variety of silk sashes proclaiming ‘Shipping’, ‘Insurance’, ‘Import-Export’, ‘Rubber’, ‘Engineering’, ‘Pineapple Canning’, ‘Entrepôt’ and a great many more. The Major, eyeing this float, was recalling uneasily his conversation with Matthew about how Blackett and Webb controlled the rubber companies under its management by means of incestuous investment, when the young women on the float spotted his companion; they appeared to recognize him for they crowded to the bars of the crown and began to shout abuse, including certain expressions which the Major was surprised to hear coming from such attractive young ladies. ‘When you give us bloody-damn money?’ they shrieked at him, among other things. ‘We waiting here all bloody-damn afternoon!’
The young executive,