“And that was?”
“They were Negro-haters — all of them. Real extremists, always stirring up trouble, trying to have a complete stop put on all Coloured immigration, trying to twist the law and keep Coloured families off all housing lists by any possible loop-holes — you’ll know the kind of thing. The steelworker was against the Coloureds on principles of racial purity, but was more outspoken than most of his fascist friends — we believe he was most probably behind the recent rioting in Cardiff, Liverpool, Birmingham and other places — rioting, as you know, on a scale that hasn’t been seen for years. Well, now those five people have all gone.” He paused. “I’m not being partisan in this, Commander. I know both sides have their legitimate grievances and anxieties and it’s not for me to judge them. But those people were extremists — bloody-minded lunatics who made everything far worse for both Black and White. So I’m not mourning them especially — but it does happen to be my job to find out what’s happened to them. And as it now turns out, I may be getting somewhere.”
“Well?”
Fellowes said quietly, “Reports have come in during the last twenty-four hours that the bodies of Britons have been seen in China. Americans too. These reports came in via Hong Kong. They indicate that the dead bodies have been degraded and publicly paraded before the Red mobs in Peking, and that inscribed banners or placards have told a story of Negro-baiting in every case. Now, this seems—”
“Just a moment,” Shaw broke in, frowning. “I take it you’re assuming those bodies are the bodies of the missing persons, but they were British — and they weren’t scientists or anything like, so what you said earlier about defected Russians isn’t paralleled here. And anyway, why the degrading and parading?”
“Agreed they aren’t scientists,” Fellowes said. “All I can say is that they had that common link of Negro-baiting — that may have some bearing on why Peking wanted them. As to the parading of the bodies before the mobs… I can’t explain that either. I can only suggest they were being used as a symbol for something or other — or possibly it was just a gimmick to inflame the masses.”
“Do they need inflaming?” Shaw asked sceptically. “I thought the Chinese were already ragged enough at the edges about the West, Mr Fellowes.”
“Obviously — as regards their leaders! We don’t know if the masses are really so keen to make trouble. Possibly they have to be… pepped up now and again!”
“Maybe,” Shaw admitted in partial agreement. “But I’d have thought China was a shade too sophisticated for that sort of thing. The Peking boys aren’t an African tribe, living in the bush.”
“Quite.” The Home Office man’s lips thinned irritably. “But again I say, we can’t assume the masses are necessarily in line with their leaders, or as sophisticated. I consider it safe to say the peasants from the remoter provinces are still pretty primitive. However — to go back to what I was saying, Commander. The facts as I’ve outlined them indicate certain things to me: that the bodies were moved through the Dead Line, that as I’ve said already the Dead Line now operates into China as well as into Russia, and that the operators of the line in these particular cases are very probably communistic Negro elements in this country, almost certainly assisted by White Communist sympathizers — indeed if China is involved I would say that this whole thing has a basis of Communist intrigue rather than one of race hostility pure and simple on the part of the Negroes. You agree?”
Shaw glanced across at Latymer. “Q.E.D.,” he said. “Yes, I’d say it’s a fair thesis to work on. The Black v. White situation is one the Communists love to exploit! But how come the Chinese Reds are permitted to use a Russian network?”
Fellowes said, “I don’t suggest they do use the same network. I fancy they’ve cribbed a Russian idea and are operating their own route, with the help of British nationals. I make that last point because clearly it’s harder for the Chinese to establish agents of their own nationality in Western countries than it is for the Russians to do so. A Russian, trained for years at a Soviet spy school, can pass himself off as British comparatively easily — and many have done so, as you know, Commander. The same scarcely applies to the Chinese.”
“Quite.” Shaw ran a hand along his jaw, broodingly. “Well — where do we fit, Mr Fellowes?”
That was where Latymer came back in. He said, “Right, I’ll take it from here, Fellowes” He lifted a heavy ebony ruler and rolled it in massive hands “I don’t know exactly where we fit at the moment, Shaw. Agreed the people who’ve disappeared aren’t quite our line and on the face of it there’s no security leak or national issue — in our special sense — involved. Nevertheless, we seem to be on common ground when we say that Communism is behind this — and that comes pretty close to us for a start. And there’s one glaring aspect of all this that I don’t like at all.”
“The fact China’s involved?”
“Involved with British domiciled Coloureds — exactly! The Negroes and Indians and Pakistanis are becoming a very strong group in this country, Shaw — we now have around four million coloured immigrants… I want to make it perfectly plain that, like Fellowes, I’m strictly impartial — if with a decided bias against Whites who behave as irresponsibly as it seems our vanished friends have behaved. All the same, I’m worried by the recent outbreaks of rioting. As Fellowes said, for years there’s been nothing like that.”
“It hasn’t been all peace and goodwill, sir.”
Latymer waved the ruler irritably. “I know there’ve been rumblings below the surface, Shaw. Secretly-organized petitions have called for a ban on immigration, somewhat along the lines of our vanished friends’ diatribes. People have paid into funds to buy up property coming on the market, so as to keep their streets white. Some estate agents have been ‘persuaded’ to deal only with Whites. Pubs have refused service to Blacks on various pretexts. There’s the long-wait treatment in restaurants. Clubs blackball them — especially working men’s clubs. Schoolchildren are taught race hatred by their parents.” He shrugged heavily. “I’m not prepared to say who’s right. Are you?”
Shaw said, “No, sir, but since you’ve put one point of view it’s up to me to put the other. In areas where the Whites are being crowded out of hospitals, where they’ve become minorities living in what one might call immigrated streets, where different standards of behaviour, language and sanitation make the Whites feel strangers in their own country, where White children are held back at school because of large numbers of Coloured children in the classes, where diseases spread from immigrant sources, or where White workers fear for their jobs… well, I’m bound to see the White point of view, aren’t I?”
Latymer gave a mirthless grin. “You’d be pretty odd if you didn’t, of course, because the complaints are quite genuine grievances in what is, after all, a White country that’s going to take two or three generations at least to integrate fully. There’s still a hell of a lot of difference between the British worker and, say, a peasant from the Punjab. No-one’s fault — it’s just a fact, that’s all.”
Shaw nodded. “And the riots?”
“Well, as you know, hardly a day passes now without half a dozen more or less serious incidents being reported. There’s been widespread outbreaks of burning crosses — the same sort of pseudo-Ku Klux Klan activity that once hit Birmingham. There’s a new… call it a new anti-spirit at work, fomented more by Whites than Coloureds, I believe. I can’t quite place the origins — I wish I could. Let’s just say it’s the explosion of built-up pressures. The point is, it’s with us, it’s a fact… and if the Chinese Communists are in any sense co-operating with disaffected Negro elements over here, then by heaven we’re in for trouble. And I’m the more perturbed because of the fact that the Chinese have never been Negro-lovers — not basically, that is. The Chinese regard themselves as the master race to a very much deeper degree than the Nazis ever did and they despise anyone who doesn’t wear a yellow skin. As a matter of fact, they have a neat little fairy story on the subject. It’s this: all babies in this world are produced by a sort of master baker who bakes us Whites too little and the Blacks a damn sight too much — only the Chinese turn out just right.”