Christopher and His Kind (32 page)

Christopher to Stephen, August 11:

About Spain, you can imagine how I feel; if they win this time, it's the end. The end, even, of the British Empire, you'd think; and yet the majority of the British colony here are screaming against the Spanish government and praying for the rebels.

The other evening, we had a picnic with Mr. and Mrs. T. and Mrs. Y. and a really violent and embarrassing argument started, Mrs. T. pro-govt and Mrs. Y. pro-reb. Mrs. Y. kept exclaiming, “But I tell you, they're just a lot of dirty Communists and they murder women and burn churches; and the others are our
sort,
I mean, I can't argue, but one feels they're
clean
and they've kind of been to a sort of decent school, if you know what I mean.”

I like both of them very much as women and they've both been decent to Heinz since all this wretched business with the Consulate, but all the same I find I avoid going to see Mrs. Y. now. The papers here are hundred percent pro-reb, so we get no reliable news. I feel awfully depressed.

THIRTEEN

Kathleen's diary reference to “necessarily expensive news” from Gerald Hamilton suggests that Christopher had prepared her, while she was still in Portugal, for a financial shock. Christopher later joked to his friends that he had done this by gradual stages, in the manner of a Victorian announcing someone's death to a relative: “There's been an accident. Yes, he's hurt. Rather badly, I'm afraid. No, he's in no pain. Not now … You must try to be brave.” What Kathleen had to try to be brave about was that Heinz's change of nationality was going to cost, approximately, one thousand pounds.

It is possible that Christopher had been too tactful in breaking this news and that Kathleen had returned to England supposing that he had exaggerated or that the crisis wasn't immediate. But now came the outbreak of war in Spain. The mails from Portugal were held up. Instead of vaguely worded letters from Christopher, Kathleen got a peremptory cable in which he told her to write directly to Hamilton's lawyer in Brussels and arrange to send him the money. The lawyer answered Kathleen in a tone which she describes as “pretty cool,” by which she means insolently casual. He would accept Heinz as a client on receipt of the money. But he refused to guarantee that any naturalization papers could be obtained with it or that such papers, if obtained, would prove to be valid.

Kathleen turned for help to her cousin and adviser, Sir William Graham Greene. “Cousin Graham” held an important post at the Admiralty. He was a friend of Winston Churchill and an uncle of Graham Greene the novelist.

Through the clear eyeglasses of this honorable worldly-wise man, Kathleen began to see the situation in an even more sinister light:

I feel more and more that there is something very shady behind it all. The lawyer might even in the end double-cross us.

This gangsterish expression sounds comic, coming from Kathleen. She must have felt that she already had one foot in the underworld.

August 13.
A cable came from Christopher who, following my suggestion, is coming back. It is impossible to get anything settled at this distance, specially with the posts taking so long.

August 18.
Letter from Christopher. They have left Portugal and are now in Belgium, at Ostende. I'm sorry, as Christopher will now see Gerald Hamilton before coming home. I also have suspicions about the lawyer.

August 21.
Christopher arrived in time for lunch, having spent last night at Dover with William Plomer; he had also seen E. M. Forster, who is down there with his mother. In the afternoon, Cousin Graham came to talk over the Belgium, Ecuador, Brazil possibilities with Christopher.

I have forgotten the technicalities involved in becoming a citizen of these countries, but I am fairly sure that, in Heinz's case, certain documents could only be obtained by bribery. For example, you might have to have a certificate declaring that you had been a resident of the country for a large number of years, or that you had served in its armed forces—when, in fact, you hadn't. Such certificates could of course be proved false if a hostile official chose to investigate your past, at any time in the future.

Belgium was too near Nazi Germany. In the event of a German invasion, Heinz might find himself in worse danger with a Belgian passport than without one. Under the new Nazi laws, the penalty for attempting to change your nationality was a long term of imprisonment; it could even be death. So Christopher was now making up his mind to emigrate with Heinz to some country in Latin America. From there, he said to himself, they would perhaps later be able to make a second emigration—to the United States.

During these conferences with Kathleen and Cousin Graham, Christopher had mixed feelings. He was suspicious of Gerald, on this as on so many occasions, and of the lawyer also because he was Gerald's ally. Yet, after all, it was the lawyer who was taking the risks. How could he be expected to send written guarantees which might one day be used as evidence against him? Christopher didn't want Kathleen to be swindled; but he felt out of place siding with her against Gerald and the lawyer. If they were lawbreakers, well, so was he. He liked and respected Cousin Graham. But, whenever Heinz's name was mentioned, Christopher was all too aware of Graham's self-restraint. He was making an effort not to show his disapproval of this imprudent and costly relationship in which Christopher had got himself involved. As for Kathleen, her exaggerated concern about the money
as
money irritated Christopher. Whatever happened, he fully intended to pay it back to her. So, if he was prepared to risk losing it for nothing, what right had she to make such a fuss? Deep down, his attitude toward her was sadistic. Let her suffer a bit of anxiety and embarrassment, as a punishment for her condescending attitude to Heinz.

Christopher finally prevailed upon Kathleen to send the money to a bank in Brussels, through which it could be paid to the lawyer. Having done this, he left to rejoin Heinz at Ostende. Early in September, he wrote to tell Kathleen that the lawyer had now established connections with some officials at the Mexican legation in Brussels. Getting Mexican nationality for Heinz through them would be “absolutely legal, foolproof, and aboveboard” and it could be done in about two and a half months. (Christopher was merely repeating the lawyer's assurances. He knew nothing at first hand.)

In the middle of September, Christopher and Heinz moved from Ostende back to Brussels. At the end of the month, Christopher went over to England for six days. Richard supplies a glimpse of him at the station as he was leaving again for Belgium, giving a performance as a left-wing prig—probably to entertain Richard:

You asked the young man at the bookstall if he had a copy of the Daily Worker. He said decidedly, No, he didn't stock it. You said, You should, you're a worker. To which he replied virtuously, It's people who don't like work who read that paper.

Christopher had now returned to work on an earlier project of his: the story of his life from the end of his schooldays to his departure for Berlin. At that time he planned to call it
The Northwest Passage
—a title which is explained in its fifth chapter:

The truly strong man, calm, balanced, aware of his strength, sits drinking quietly in the bar; it is not necessary for him to try and prove to himself that he is not afraid, by joining the Foreign Legion … leaving his comfortable home in a snowstorm to climb the impossible glacier … [He] travels straight across the broad America of normal life. But “America” is just what the truly weak man, the neurotic hero, dreads. And so … he prefers to attempt the huge northern circuit, the laborious terrible northwest passage …

From Christopher's and Wystan's point of view, the Truly Weak Man was represented by Lawrence of Arabia, and hence by their character Michael Ransom in
F6.

In 1937, the American author Kenneth Roberts published a best-selling adventure novel,
Northwest Passage.
So Christopher had to call his book by a different name, and decided on
Lions and Shadows.

*   *   *

At the end of October, Christopher reports to Kathleen that an official of the Mexican legation in Brussels has left for Mexico City, taking with him the necessary documents on Heinz's case and seven hundred pounds, for which the lawyer has a receipt. Heinz will receive his naturalization papers before the end of November, at the Mexican consulate in Antwerp. “In the meantime,” Christopher adds, “we are taking steps to get an actual letter from the Legation, acknowledging the whole transaction officially and promising specific time-limits.” (This letter was never forthcoming.)

On November 8, Christopher writes that the lawyer has told him that the official has arrived in Mexico City and is attending to their business; a telegram can be expected in five or six days, confirming this. Then the naturalization papers will be sent by airmail. The lawyer now promises that the total cost, including his expenses, will be
under
one thousand. Meanwhile, a gentleman has been introduced by the lawyer to Christopher as a representative of the Mexican legation—the only one he has met (or would ever meet). This gentleman has a distinguished appearance and speaks fluent American English with a slight Spanish accent. He assures Christopher that their business is going well and will soon be terminated satisfactorily. Christopher finds him charming. (Their meeting didn't take place at the legation.)

*   *   *

Heinz must have spent a depressing autumn. In Brussels he had no daily occupation. He missed his dog Teddy and his chickens and rabbits. Moreover, he had had so much trouble with his nose and throat that the doctor had recommended two operations: removal of his tonsils and repair of his squashed nose. Having had the first of these, he dreaded the second. It was postponed again and again and not performed until December 7. Christopher was shocked by the sight of him after it: “Just a mouth wide open groaning, surrounded with bandages.” When the scars had healed, everybody agreed that Heinz looked much handsomer. His perfect profile even reminded Christopher of the beautiful Pharaoh Akhnaton's. But Christopher still privately regretted the old one.

*   *   *

Late in November, Stephen wrote to tell Christopher that he was going to marry a girl named Inez Pearn, whom he had only recently met, at an Aid to Spain meeting. Stephen attempted to win Christopher's sympathy for what he had done. He pointed out that he and Jimmy Younger were already living apart and independent of each other at the time of his engagement but admitted that Jimmy was nevertheless very much upset. Referring to his feelings for Inez, Stephen continued:

I am sure you will understand this necessity for a permanent and established relationship, because I know that you have always felt it so strongly yourself.

This was clever pleading but it didn't placate the implacable Christopher. However, he gave Stephen no hint of his reactions—until much later—and only showed them by an increased warmth toward Jimmy. Stephen and Jimmy had planned to come to Brussels for Christmas. Now Stephen wouldn't be coming. Christopher wrote to Jimmy, urging him to come anyway. This pleased Stephen, who was worried that Jimmy might begin losing contact with their mutual friends.

*   *   *

On December 10, while Hitler and Mussolini were threatening Europe's peace by intervening openly in the Spanish war, Edward VIII performed the relatively minor drama of his abdication. Christopher listened to the abdication speech with John Lehmann, who was briefly visiting Brussels. John and he were in a bar and they insisted on having the radio on and the record player off until Edward had finished, despite the protests of non-English-speaking customers. I remember the strangeness of hearing Edward's voice for the first time, with its unkingly twang.

Later, Christopher wrote to Kathleen:

It is generally believed on the Continent that Edward was really kicked out because of Nazi influence in his entourage; in that case, why can't the slimy old hypocrite have the courage to say so, instead of trying to make it a moral issue?

Aside from feeling mildly sentimental about Edward as a faded but once great beauty, Christopher took little interest in him. Nevertheless, he had negatively supported Edward's cause during the crisis by detesting his enemies and quarreling with Kathleen about him when they had last met. By “the slimy old hypocrite” Christopher meant Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had opposed Edward's intended marriage to Mrs. Simpson on the grounds that she was a divorced woman. Christopher was utterly unable to believe in moral attitudes other than his own; he refused to admit that the Others sincerely hated adultery, homosexuality, or any of the sins they denounced. Kathleen he regarded as a mere snob. If Mrs. Simpson had been royal like Marina, he said, instead of being an American commoner, her previous life would never have been held against her. Kathleen, who enjoyed baiting Christopher, though she was quite unaware that she did, had written to him that one of her friends had been much moved by the Archbishop's statement. Hence Christopher's out-burst.

*   *   *

At about this time, Christopher heard a rumor that Auden was planning to go to Spain. Then came a letter from Olive Mangeot which might be interpreted as hinting at the same news. Rightly or wrongly, Olive now believed that she was a target of police informers, telephone tappers, steamers-open of letters, and other agents of Fascism; she therefore tended to use phrases so cryptic that even her friends couldn't understand them. The rumor was soon confirmed, however, by Wystan himself:

I'm going to Spain in early January, either ambulance-driving or fighting. I hope the former. Is there any chance of seeing you in Paris on my way through? In case of accidents, remember that you and Edward are executors.

Meanwhile, Stephen wrote that Jimmy had enlisted in the International Brigade. He was still coming to Brussels for Christmas but he would be on his way to Spain, and another enlistee, Giles Romilly, would be with him. Giles had left Oxford in the middle of term to join the Brigade, in which his brother Esmond was already fighting. They were nephews of Winston Churchill.