Andre Malraux - Man's Fate

“The Red Guards are workers,” said Possoz in Chinese.

Silence.

“If they are guards, it’s for the Revolution, not for themselves.”

“And to eat,” said one of the stevedores.

“It’s right that the rations should go to those who fight. What do you want to do with them? Gamble for them at ‘thirty-six’?"

“Give them to everyone."

“Already there isn’t enough for a few. The government is determined to use the greatest leniency towards the proletarians, even when they are mistaken. If the Red Guard were everywhere killed off, the generals and foreigners would seize the power again as before-come, now, you know that perfectly weU. Well, then? Is that what you want?"

“Before, we used to eat."

“No," said Kyo to the workers: “before, we didn’t eat. I know-l’ve been a docker. And to die just for the sake of dying-weU, it might as well be in order to become men."

The whites of all those eyes which caught the feeble light grew imperceptibly larger; they tried to get a better look at this fellow in the sweater who had a Japanese air, who spoke with the accent of the Northern provinces, and who claimed to have been a coolie.

“Promises," answered one of them in a muffled voice.

“Yes," said another. ‘We have especially the right to go on strike and to die of starvation. My brother is in the army. Why did they kick out of his division all those who demanded the formation of soldiers’ Unions?"

He was raising his voice.

“Do you think the Russian Revolution was accomplished in a day?" asked Possoz.

“The Russians did what they wanted."

Useless to argue: al they could do was to to determine the depth of the revolt.

“The attack on the Red Guard is a counter-revolutionary act, punishable by death. You know it."

A pause.

“If we put you at liberty, what would you do?”

They looked at each other; the darkness made it impossible to see the expressions on their faces. In spite of the revolvers and the handcuffs Kyo sensed the atmosphere preparing for one of those Chinese bargainings which he had so often encountered in the Revolution.

“If we get work?” asked one of the prisoners.

“When there is any.”

“Then, in tbe meantime, if the Red Guard prevents us from eating, we shall attack the Red Guard. I hadn’t eaten for three days. Nothing at all.”

“Is it true that they eat in prison?”

“You’ll see for yourselves.”

Possoz rang without saying anything further, and the soldiers led the prisoners away.

“That’s the worst part of it,” he went on, in French this time: “they’re beginning to think that they’re fed in prison like roosters who are being fattened.”

“Why didn’t you try harder to convince them, since you had them brought up?”

Possoz shrugged his shoulders in utter discouragement.

“My dear chap, I had them brought up because I always hope they will tell me something else. And yet there are the others, the chaps who work fifteen, sixteen hours a day without coming forward with a single demand, and who’ll keep right on until we’re quiet, come what may. ”

He had just used a Swiss expression, which surprised Kyo. Possoz smiled and his teeth, like the eyes of the stevedores a minute before, glistened in the dim light, under the obscure streak of his mustache.

“You’re lucky to have kept your teeth like that, with the life one leads in the country.”

“No, my dear chap, not at all: it’s a set I got in Changsha. Dentists don’t seem to have been affected by the Revolution. And you? You’re a delegate? What in the world are you doing here?”

Kyo explained to him, without speaking of Ch’en. Possoz was listening to him, more and more uneasy.

“All that, my dear chap, is very possible, and all the more pity. Listen-I have worked with watches for fifteen years: I know what gears are, the way they depend on one another. If you don’t have confidence in the International, mustn’t belong to the Party.”

“Half the International believes we should create the soviets.”

“There is a general line that directs us-must follow it.”

“And give up our arms! A line that leads us to fire on the proletariat is necessarily bad. When the peasants take the lands, the generals now arrange to involve a few Communist troops in the repression. Would you be willing to fire on the peasants, yes or no?”

“My dear chap, one isn’t perfect: I’d fire in the air, and that’s probably what the fellows are doing. I’d prefer it not to happen. But that’s not the main thing.” “Try to understand, old man: it’s as if I saw a fellow aiming at you, there, and we should be discussing the danger of revolver bullets. Chiang Kai-shek cannot do otherwise than massacre us. And afterwards it’ll be the same thing with the generals out here, our ‘allies’! And they will be logical. We’ll all be massacred, without even maintaining the dignity of the Party, which we lead every day to the whorehouse with a gang of generals, as if it were the place where it belonged. ”

“If each one is going to act according to his taste, it’s aU up with us. If the International succeeds everyone will shout: Hurrah! and at that we won’t be wrong. But if we fire at its legs it will certainly fail, and the essential is that it should succeed. … I know they say Communists have been made to fire on peasants; but are you sure of it, what I call sure? You haven’t seen it yourself, and after all-1 know of course you don’t do it on purpose, but just the same-it suits your theory to believe it. …”

“The mere fact that it’s being said among us would be enough. It’s not the moment to undertake a six months’ investigation.”

Why argue? It wasn’t Possoz that Kyo wanted to convince, but those in Shanghai; and no doubt they were already convinced now, just as he had been confirmed in his decision by Hankow itself, by the scene he had just wimessed. He now had only one desire: to leave.

A Chinese non-commissioned officer entered, all his features elongated and his body slightly stooped, like one of those ivory figures carved into the concave buttresses of battlements.

“We’ve just caught a man in a boat who was secretly trying to get away.”

Kyo held his breath.

“He claims to have received authorization from you to leave Hankow. He’s a merchant.”

Kyo recovered his breath.

“Have given no authorization,” said Possoz. “Doesn’t concern me. Send to the police.”

The rich who were arrested would claim a relation to some official: they sometimes managed to see him alone, and would offer him money. It was wiser than to let oneself be shot without trying to do something. “Wait!”

Possoz drew out a list from his folder, muttered some names.

“All right. The fellow’s even on here. We were looking for him. Let the police take care of ^m!”

The officer went out. The list, a sheet from a notebook, remained on the blotter. Kyo was still thinking of Ch’en.

“It’s the list of people we’re looking for," said Possoz, who saw that Kyo’s eyes remained fixed on the paper. “We get descriptions of the last ones by phone, before the ships leave-when ships do leave. ”

“May I see it?"

Possoz handed it to him: fourteen names. Ch’en’s was not on it. It was impossible that Vologin should not have understood that he would attempt to leave Hankow as soon as possible. And, even on a chance, to have him watched in case he tried to leave would have been no more than common precaution. “The International does not want to take the responsibility for Chiang Kai-shek’s death," thought Kyo; “but perhaps it would accept such a misfortune without despair. Is that why Volo- gin’s answers were so vague?. " He gave back the list.