The Empire Trilogy - J. G. Farrell [580]
One thing, however, did come as a shock to the Major. He had expected that resentment towards the Forces, endemic for the past few years among European civilians, would be dissipated immediately by the opening of hostilities on the mainland. But on the contrary, it grew even more acute. The Military, it was felt, who were supposed to be defending Singapore’s commercial activities, vital as a source of produce for the Empire and for the earning of dollars from America, were doing everything to make business impossible by their high-handed requisitioning of land and property. If the Army had had its way it would have made off with a sizeable part of the labour force into the bargain, to build the camps and fortifications which they should be building for themselves! What indignation would presently be caused in Singapore when (in the third week of January) the Sunday Pictorial in Britain published what the Straits Times called ‘absurd allegations regarding whisky-swilling planters, indolent officials and greedy businessmen who refused to pay taxes.’
But as January pursues its course the civilians and the Military are at least united in one pastime in the increasingly devastated and dangerous city … they go to the cinema. They go to see Private Affairs with Nancy Kelly and Robert Cummings at the Cathay, or Bad Men of Missouri at the Alhambra, or Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator at the Roxy. Battered troops from up-country or new arrivals from Britain, Australia and India watch John Wayne in Dark Command at the Empire beside anxious and forlorn refugees from Penang and Kuala Lumpur. Together in the hot darkness they watch Joe E. Brown in So You Won’t Talk?, Mata Hari with Greta Garbo and Ramon Novarro, and Henry Fonda in The Return of Frank James which, despite the boom and thud of bombs and anti-aircraft guns filtering into the cinema, has had all traces of gun-play removed by the Singapore censor in order not to give ideas to the city’s Chinese gangsters. Perhaps as they sit there they are a little reassured by ‘the first drama of Uncle Sam’s new jump fighters’: Parachute Battalion with Robert Preston and Edmund O’Brien … but no doubt they find parachutes too close to reality and prefer Loretta Young in The Lady from Cheyenne: ‘It was a man’s world until a low-cut gown took over the town.’ They watch in silence with the light from the screen flickering on their strained faces. The week it is shown (by that time people will be wearing steel helmets in the stalls during air-raids) will see, on Tuesday, a massive raid by eighty-one Japanese Navy bombers on the Tanglin and Orchard. Road district and, on Wednesday, an even more devastating raid on Beach Road.
‘Pakai angku punia sarong muka! Put on your gas-masks! Jangan tembak sampai depat hukum! Don’t fire until you receive orders!’ exclaimed the Major, stifling a yawn that threatened to have its way with him. ‘Jaga itu periok api … bedil itu sudah letup. Beware of bombs: the shell has exploded!’ Such was the heat and humidity that a prodigious effort was required merely to keep one’s eyes open. His head began to droop once more on to his chest. He forced himself to straighten up and say: ‘Gali parit untok lima kaki tinggi. Kapal terbang tedak boleh naik sabab musim ribot. Dig a trench about five feet high. The aeroplanes can’t go up owing to stormy weather …’ Again his head began to droop. There was a sudden crash and he sat up with a start. Dupigny had just hurled a book across the room at a fat, ginger cockroach which was making its way, glistening with health and horribly alert, across the wall of the outer office where they were sitting. The book had missed, however, and the cockroach