The Other Side of Paradise (8 page)

‘Rifles are damned accurate too, I’ll have you know.’

‘True. But they’re chiefly a long-range weapon and there are not many extended fields of fire in somewhere like Malaya. In warfare the key to success is attack, and the jungle is far more conducive to attack than defence. An enemy can infiltrate unseen, especially if well camouflaged. It’s very hard to stop him.’

‘Sounds as though you’re on their bloody side, Trent.’

‘I’m not, I assure you. Anything but.’

Her father said, ‘I take it you’ve been on the peninsula, Lawrence?’

‘I’ve been everywhere they’ll let me go, had a good snoop around and asked a lot of questions that nobody wants to answer. I’ve picked up some pretty shocking information in the process. Do you know that we haven’t one single tank in Malaya? Not one.’

‘Surely tanks wouldn’t be much good in this sort of country?’

‘Why not? They’re designed to go anywhere. I’m pretty sure the Japs will use them and we’ve no defences against them. If you think about it, there’s plenty of room for a tank to go between rows of rubber trees.’

Mr Forster was off again. ‘I’m telling you, Trent, the Nips aren’t going to get near Singapore. The navy has five fifteen-inch guns covering the sea approaches. Nothing and nobody’s going to get past those.’

‘I agree – so long as the Japs only try an attack by sea. But the guns are fixed in concrete, pointing seawards, and can’t be turned. If the enemy should come from another direction, they’d be quite useless. Just like the French Maginot Line against the Germans in 1940.’

‘What other direction? There isn’t another one.’

‘Unfortunately, there is. People refer to Singapore as an island but, strictly speaking, it isn’t an island at all.’

‘There’s water all the bloody way round it. I call that an island.’ Mr Forster’s face must be puce by now, his eyes bulging like the bullfrogs in the swamps.

‘In fact, it’s really just a continuation of the mainland, connected by a causeway across a very narrow strip of water. It’s by no means the impregnable fortress it’s cracked up to be. What if the Japs got ashore somewhere on the north of the peninsula, from Siam?’

‘What if they did? Our chaps would soon mop ’em up. Chuck ’em back in the sea.’

‘But supposing they managed to get a foothold and started to make their way down towards Singapore?’

‘Most of it’s jungle. They’d never get through. It’s bloody impassable.’

‘So everyone says, but, as I said, the Japs will learn how to deal with jungle and use it to their advantage. Nobody seems to understand the terrible danger Singapore is in – least of all our military. Officers put on their finery in the evenings and dance the night away with ladies in ballgowns, as though there were nothing whatever to worry about. It’s quite extraordinary to an outside observer like myself.’

There was a snort of rage. ‘You sound like that damned Yank on the wireless who keeps saying we’ve got it coming to us. I suppose you’ll be spinning the same story back in England – except they won’t put up with that sort of bloody defeatist talk. I can’t stand listening to this rubbish another minute, Tom. I’m off.’

‘I’ll see you out, Bill.’

She heard Mr Forster blundering off and the sound of his car starting up, engine roaring, tyres spinning. After a moment, her father came back.

‘Sorry about that, Lawrence. Poor old Bill can get rather steamed up about things, especially when he’s had a few.’

‘
I’m
sorry if I upset him. My apologies. Do you want me to leave too?’

‘Not at all. I’d like to talk some more. Were you serious about what you were saying?’

‘Deadly serious, Tom. The Japs aren’t fools. When they look at their maps they can see how strategically important Singapore Island is. Whoever holds it controls the main shipping route between Europe and Asia – the main link between the Indian and Pacific oceans: between East and West. It’s the pivot at the junction of trade routes. There
are
other routes but they’re either much longer or more difficult. And whoever holds Singapore also enjoys all the rich resources of Malaya and the Indies. Oil, tin, rubber, tea, coal, iron … with cheap labour thrown in for good measure. The Japs are desperate for raw materials, especially oil. Added to that, the Johore Straits form one of the best natural harbours in the south-west Pacific. They
have
to take Singapore away from us if they want to realize their dreams of expansion in Asia. Their aim and ambition is to be rid of white colonial races in South East Asia. To wipe them out.’

‘Not quite so simple for them, surely. We’re well defended here.’

‘You only
think
you are. There are endless official propaganda bulletins put out about army manoeuvres, naval exercises, troops arriving – all to make everyone feel nice and secure. Yes, there are some fixed defences on the mainland east-coast beaches where the Japanese army might be expected to attempt a landing – Kota Bahru, Kuantan and Mersing – and the big naval-base guns are covering the sea approaches to Singapore, but there are no fixed defences along the Malayan
west
coast, and Penang has precisely two six-inch guns. Incidentally, Singapore Island’s north shore has nothing at all to fend off any attack coming from across the Straits. No barricades, barbed wire, ditches, pillboxes, gun emplacements. Nothing. A contact of mine on General Percival’s staff tells me the general’s view is that to construct anything like that might have a bad effect on public morale.’

‘But that’s ridiculous.’

‘It’s more than ridiculous, it’s utter folly. Do you realize that the Royal Navy hasn’t a single battleship in this area, not one aircraft carrier and no heavy cruisers or submarines? All we have is a handful of destroyers and about a hundred RAF planes that are mostly obsolete – old Wildebeestes and Buffaloes and the like. Our army and the navy need good air cover and they simply haven’t got it. We’re dangerously vulnerable to attack. The Japs will know all this, of course. Their intelligence is bound to be excellent – after all, there are plenty of them living and working in Singapore. They’ll know all about the poor defences. They’ll know that there are almost no public shelters in the city, that practising air raid drills or blackouts or local defence isn’t taken very seriously, that most civilians are only thinking about the next party or the next cricket match or the next picnic on the beach. A lot of the whites have come out here to get rich quick and enjoy the life, never mind any other considerations. Nobody, including our military commanders, believes the Japs are capable of causing any serious trouble for us. The Nips are generally held in contempt, and that could prove fatal.’

There was a silence. Susan waited.

‘Surely the top brass must be aware of the situation.’

‘The consensus of top-brass opinion seems to be that the Japs are more concerned with fighting Russia, that they’d never attempt a landing in Malaya during the monsoon and that, even if they did, they’d never get through the jungle. None of those things is necessarily true. What
is
true is that when they took Indo-China in July the Japs gained an ideal base for launching attacks in all directions – the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies, Thailand and Malaya. But all the warning signals are being ignored: Jap submarines in Malayan coastal waters, increased Jap military activity in Indo-China … nobody seems very worried. Heads are firmly stuck in the sand. I’ve heard a rumour that two Royal Navy battleships are being sent out here but without an aircraft carrier to protect them, and one of them, the
Repulse
, is an old lady built in 1916. Too little has been done and it’s getting much too late.’

There was another silence before her father spoke again. ‘I’ve offered my services to the civil defence here but I must say it’s been something of a let-down. I speak the native languages pretty fluently and I hoped they’d put me to some good use but, so far, all I’ve done is fill in forms. The sort of thing any fool could do.’

‘There’s been a lot of that, I’m afraid: valuable men being wasted. And there’s another problem: Singapore’s a polyglot hotchpotch of races who don’t seem to mix with each other or have any special allegiance to the British Crown. I can’t see them pulling together under attack.’

‘Even so, Lawrence, I still can’t believe the Japs capable of taking Singapore.’

‘Let’s hope you’re proved right. But if you want my advice, Tom, you’ll send your wife and daughter away. Get them a passage on a ship sailing for Australia – they’d be reasonably safe there.’

‘They wouldn’t think much of the idea.’

‘Better than falling into Jap hands. They have a very uncivilized way of dealing with prisoners. And if they treat Europeans anything like the way they treated the Chinese in Nanking, it’s going to be very unpleasant indeed. Jap soldiers have been conditioned not to value any life except for that of the Emperor. They’re not troubled by a conscience and they’ll have no mercy.’

Another silence.

Her father said, ‘Well, thanks for the warning, Lawrence … I’ll certainly bear it in mind. How about another
stengah
?’

Susan stopped listening and went back to her room. The
amah
had put the mosquito netting in place and sprayed round with the Flit gun. She undressed and lay down on the bed, limbs draped over the bolster to keep cool. Lawrence Trent had seemed rather nice at first but he wasn’t. He was one of those people who took a delight in scare-mongering, and there were quite a few of them in Singapore. Her father would take no notice, so there was no need for panic. The idea of sailing off to Australia, of all places, was ridiculous. She’d say so at breakfast if it wouldn’t give away the fact that she’d eavesdropped.

Better than falling into Jap hands … they’ll have no mercy
. No need to think about that because it would never happen.

A mosquito must have somehow escaped the Flit gun. She could hear it whining and dive-bombing the netting again and again, keeping her awake. She rearranged her legs round the bolster to get cooler and tried to ignore the maddening sound.

Four

ROGER CLARK WAS
very sweet but it had been a mistake to encourage him. He took her to the cinema in the Cathay Building to see a rather boring film and to dinner afterwards at the restaurant above, which he probably couldn’t afford. During dinner he talked about Esher and his home in Esher Park Avenue. Apparently there was a pub called the Star on the green and another called the Bear in the High Street. There was also an Odeon cinema and a place called the Moor Place Hotel which was rather good for dinner. And a racecourse.

‘Sandown Park,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I expect you’ve heard of it. It’s rather well known.’

She stifled a yawn. ‘Sorry, no.’

‘Of course, you’ve got a marvellous racecourse here. And Esher’s nothing like Singapore – not nearly as exciting. But, actually, I find I miss it rather a lot. There’s still a lot to be said for dear old England, isn’t there?’

She thought of the grey skies and the bone-chilling cold, of foggy London and the grandparents’ tall and silent house in Kensington.

‘I wouldn’t really know. I’ve never spent much time there. I’ve always lived in Malaya.’

‘Gosh, that must be rather odd. I mean, you’re English but you don’t know England.’

‘It doesn’t worry me. I love Malaya.’

‘Yes … it’s an amazing place. But I don’t think I’d want to stay here for ever. I’ll probably be jolly glad to get home in the end.’

‘And I expect your parents will be jolly glad when you do.’

She could picture the scene: a motherly mother at the doorway of the house in Esher – mock-Tudor perhaps, like some of the black and white colonial ones in Singapore. She would be wiping away her tears, and there’d be a gruff father standing behind her, hiding his emotion. Both so proud of their returning soldier son.

‘They don’t fuss, thank goodness,’ Roger was saying. ‘The trouble is I’m an only child, which makes it a bit tricky. Bit of a burden sometimes – being the one egg in the basket.’

‘I am, too,’ she pointed out.

‘Different for a girl. You don’t get sent off to war like us chaps.’

She looked at his nice, eager face. ‘How old are you, Roger?’

‘I was twenty last month, actually.’

‘Well I hope you’ll be home in time for your twenty-first.’

‘So do I. Looks like we’ll be going across on to the mainland at any moment, though, so it doesn’t seem too likely. I’m not supposed to mention that, of course.’

Later on, he asked if she would mind awfully going out with him again. It would be absolutely marvellous if she would, he said. She could see that he was badly smitten, which was a nuisance because she didn’t want to hurt him.

She dodged the issue. ‘But you said you’d probably be leaving the island soon. You’ll be away on the peninsula.’

He sighed. ‘That’s true. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.’

Milly was standing on the steps at the entrance to the Tanglin Club, looking worried.

‘Geoff and Vin aren’t here yet, Susie. They must have got held up at the hospital.’

They sat down in the hall and watched people coming and going. Milly kept jumping up to go and see if the Australians had arrived and Susan was just beginning to hope they never would, when she reappeared arm in arm with Geoff who had brought along, not the expected Vin but the one called Ray: Mr Know-All himself.

‘I’m really sorry,’ Milly whispered as they walked over to the courts. ‘Vin had to go on duty. But Geoff says Ray’s a good player so you’ll probably win.’

They won easily because he turned out to be an
extremely
good player and because Milly was pretty hopeless. He had a serve like a cannonball and a forehand to match but he didn’t poach like Clive, or shout ‘mine’ when it wasn’t. Afterwards they cooled off with drinks beside the pool and she felt inclined to be gracious towards him.

‘Do you play a lot of tennis in Australia?’

‘A fair amount. We’ve got the climate for it.’

‘You’re rather good.’

‘You’re not so bad yourself, Miss Roper.’