The Empire Trilogy - J. G. Farrell [644]
‘If by “progress” you mean the increasing welfare of the native then I’m afraid you’re going to have a job proving the beneficial effects of these public works you make such a song and dance about …’ Matthew was saying: he had not forgotten his moment of illumination while sitting exhausted beside the fire at the timber-yard: he still intended to give up theorizing and devote his life to practical work of some kind. But there were one or two arguments he felt he had to finish first; besides, the mere presence of Ehrendorf, even mute, was enough to start his brain secreting theories and his tongue expressing them. As for Ehrendorf, he was peering ahead at the dark house with trepidation, half hoping, half dreading that they would bump into Joan. A moment ago he had bravely offered to accompany Matthew across the compound to see Walter about something, but he had not expected to feel quite so vulnerable.
‘I suppose you’re talking about railways … In our African colonies something like three-quarters of all loans raised by the colonial governments are for railways. True, they’re useful for administration … but what they’re mainly useful for is opening up great tracts of land to be developed as plantations by Europeans. In other words, it’s done not for the natives’ benefit but for ours! To which you will reply, Jim, that what benefits us, benefits them … To which I reply … “Not necessarily so!” To which you reply …’
‘Wait a moment,’ came Dr Brownley’s voice faintly to Walter on the darkened verandah, interrupting Matthew who had been gripped by such a frenzy of abstractions that he had been obliged to commandeer both sides of the argument. ‘Let me make quite sure that I’ve got the embalming fluid down properly … I repeat … Liquor formaldehyde, 13.5cc. Sodium borate, 5 grammes … and water to make up to 100cc. Is that correct? Yes, I see … And with what? A bicycle pump?’
‘A bicycle pump!’ thought Walter giddily.
Meanwhile, as a descant to Dr Brownley’s rather anxious elucidations (the good doctor, though for years he had been medical officer to Langfield and Bowser Limited, had never been faced with such a problem before … And just think of it! The Chairman himself! A heavy responsibility indeed!) there came Ehrendorf’s reasonable tones, gently chiding Matthew for being selective in his view of railways in the colonies, for conveniently forgetting their positive aspects …
‘What we are doing is subsidizing the white man’s business operations at the expense of native welfare … Now, I agree with you, this would not matter if the profits stayed where they were produced, but they don’t … they’re whipped off back to Britain, or France, or Belgium or Holland or wherever …’
‘A three-gallon bottle with two glass tubes passing through the rubber stopper, yes, I’ve got that … One tube reaches the bottom of the bottle to take up the liquid and pass it out to a rubber tube and then to the injection canula. I see. The other glass tube through the stopper you attach to the bicycle pump … Oh, I see, a foot pump … I thought you might mean …’
‘Let’s not forget that railways act as an instrument of civilization,’ said Ehrendorf vaguely, his eyes probing the darkness for some sign of hope, ‘bringing isolated people into contact with the modern world.’
‘Slavery used to be defended in those very words! Besides, in Africa natives died by the hundreds of thousands just in building the damn things. Look at the Belgian Congo under Leopold! You see, what I’m trying to explain is how everything in a colony, even beneficial-sounding things like railways and experimental rice-growing stations, are set up in one way or another to the commercial advantage