The Call of the Thunder Dragon (33 page)

Zam saw the glint of interest in
Falstaff’s eyes. She tried to pull him away from the conversion
before he got engrossed.

“Let me talk for a little while.
I’ve been in bed nearly a week. I’ll come and find you shortly and
we’ll go out to get some evening air. There’ll be no mosquitoes
around this time of year, - we’ll have a pleasant walk.”

As Zam retired, Falstaff turned
back to Minami. “That is a curious question for a Japanese agen...
pardon me a correspondent to be asking a British officer on the run
from the
authorities
in China?”

Minami looked down, avoiding the
leading question. Then his eyes alighted on the tray of drinks in
the corner.

“Perhaps you are right
Falstaff-San, it is a curious question. If I could offer you a
drink? I’m afraid this house has a prohibition on alcohol. We are
limited to krauterlikor, this German herbal drink which I think
tastes of cough medicine? Or Pink gin perhaps?”

Falstaff sat down suspiciously
taking a glass of the herbal drink from the man he was convinced
was a spy, an enemy he potentially should loath or have
tomorrow.

“Here’s mud in your eye!”
Falstaff knocked back the herbal liquor, which put heat in his
belly straight away.

Minami poured himself a large
Pink Gin, itself steeped herbs, like the Angostura bitters
containing the essential Quinine to relieve or protect against
Malaria.

Minami refilled Falstaff’s glass
without asking.

“Good health!” They said
together.

“So what are you doing in Burma
or this place? I can’t imagine the readers in Tokyo are in the
least bit interested?” Falstaff asked slyly.

“You would be wrong the Japanese
people are very interested in the Burma. Firstly there are those of
us who admire the exceptional rice production and there are those
who are concerned that the British are driving down the price and
dominating the business of freight and shipment as well. I think it
would be of great benefit to Japan to buy directly, with no need to
buy via the British.” Minami smiled.

“I travel all over Burma. Of
course, I could stay in Rangoon and report on the occasional unrest
at the university, but I prefer to see more than just the inside of
a hotel room or local bar. I like to travel, that his how I met
Pastor Robbins or Maung over there.”

Falstaff nodded impressed. “I
understand but are you not here to report on matters occurring in
Myitkyina? My companion said you’d been here a few days asking many
questions?”

“Yes, I did, but not about
Myitkyina... or any event that may or may not have taken place here
a few days past. I was interested to know more about Bhutan.”
Minami smiled pleasantly.

Falstaff smiled back, although he
did not mean it. He felt like they were skirting around the issue
of the dead Japanese soldiers as if their corpses were in the room,
lying between them on the floor. It was dangerous ground.

Minami seemed happy to let the
matter be and was very good at hiding what he knew Falstaff
thought. Then again, he might know nothing and his arrival in
Myitkyina were simply opportunistic hoping to get an angle on the
missionary work for the Tokyo readers.

“You avoided our earlier
question,” Minami prompted Falstaff. “Do you know of Saya San?”

U Chit Maung joined them, his
wife bringing a bag, pulling out pens and notes books. Each had a
pad and paper, as if they could not be separated from their work
any longer.

“Yes, please tell us,” Chit Maung
asked politely. “I would be interested to the know the opinion of a
traveller like yourself, although British you have much experience
in the east I hear?”

Falstaff rubbed his chin. Heard
from whom and why thought Falstaff? It sounded like a trap and not
just to test his political awareness.

“Yes, I heard of Saya San when I
was in India a few years ago. Service men tend to talk; gossip I
mean. We discuss politics occasionally...” While waiting for the
bar to open Falstaff recalled with a stifled chuckle. “If only to
guess where we would be posted next. As it happens, I went to
Kabul.”

Chit Maung nodded. “What did you
hear, Mr Falstaff, were the army talking about coming to
Burma?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that! I was
in the Air force, by the way. When we’ve nothing to do, we put our
feet up or try to second guess the next situation. There was no
question of coming to Burma! Don’t know anyone who was posted there
come to think of it. Just comparing one thing with another. There
was a lot of flooding in several regions, so we’d talk about the
weather! A lot! A bunch of our boys on the ground and the army,
were digging levees and rebuilding roads for months at a time
sometimes.”

Minami seemed impressed. “So not
only are the ranks and officers politically aware, they openly
discuss policy?”

Falstaff grinned. “No, no, you
make it sound like derision. The chaps are all keen when it comes
to a new deployment; even when it’s only digging the roads.”

If only to find out where the bar
was and when it to opened Falstaff recalled again. He covered his
mouth as he smiled and nodded.

Minami nodded, grunting approval,
then he gave Falstaff the same question again. “So tell me about
Saya San? Please I am curious; it was seven or eight years ago
before I was a correspondent. I was not here.”

Fine, thought Falstaff, I’ll tell
him. “As far as I was told Saya San was a former monk, the leader
of a Tax rebellion, in 1930 or 32? There was a series of
disturbances that spread and have been remembered, - by the people
as the 'Saya San rebellion'. Wasn’t Saya San arrested after the
British Authority eventually declared martial law? I remember
something about him being made the Galon king? Am I right?” His
eyes flicked from Minami to Maung looking for a reaction.

U Chit Maung nodded. “For someone
who was not there and has never been in Burma before you have a
good, basic, grasp of the situation. As you say, it is easy to
misunderstand something you have not seen.”

Minami nodded. “Indeed until I
left Rangoon to see the country I could not understand prospective
developments as to rebellion. You either have to live through it or
been able to talk someone directly involved. Listening to your
source is most important don’t you agree Falstaff-San?”

‘Sources my eye’ thought
Falstaff, there was definitely something else going on.

“I went to Rangoon University
once, not to study, it was business… I was collecting a passenger,
a history professor as it happens. Have you spent much time there?”
Falstaff asked emphatically. “I like history, but not recent
history.”

“Yes, I have. I usually like to
be surrounded by intellect.” Minami’s eyes lit up catching
Falstaff’s. “Perhaps you can give your opinion on something both I
and Maung find puzzling. Did you know all the men who represented
Saya San during his trail, lawyers like Ba Maw, the former Chief
Minister, or Saw who owns the newspaper ‘The Sun’. They were able
to study law at Rangoon because the British built the university!
Without the university, there would have been no legal case to
argue for the rebellion? Does the Colonial Government not wish to
sanction the university for providing the means to legitimise the
revolt?”

Rangoon
University
³⁸
established in 1878
as an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta and was
managed by the education syndicate of British colonial
administration. Many of the students there went on to practise law
and to be leaders of the country.

“I don’t suppose they do.
Learning is a privilege that isn’t easily governed or shouldn’t be
governed.” Falstaff felt pleased with himself for the last comment.
“Besides, while we might seem to like red tape, no one likes the
idea of it limiting education when the intention is to
improve!”

“That is a most rational
argument, Mr Falstaff.” Maung smiled and held his gaze a
moment.

“Perhaps, if you would be so
kind, if you could answer another thing that puzzles me? The
British have always wished that the American mission goes away. A
British man once told me, a man’s own religion is his own business,
every man must be left to find heaven in his own way. Is this
true?” Maung asked Falstaff.

Falstaff shrugged. “I guess,
pretty much. It’s a very British thing to say ‘mind your own
business’. If you’re thinking about the missionary’s, these
Baptists... I’d go tell them that right away! Present company
excepted of course! They have been most kind!”

The small unobtrusive Burmese
Editor continued. “In a way you are correct Mr. Falstaff, but for
the readers of my journal ‘The Weekly Thunderer’, if you’ll pardon
me? I am not officially its editor at all! It would present
difficulties with the other newspapers I work for. I wish only to
write the truth and to write about the direction our country is
moving in, - without the assistance of the Baptists our people
would never have found access to the fine University of Rangoon;
they would not have had access to the law of this country, which
happens, at this time, to be in English!”

Falstaff frowned. “How have the
Baptists helped you do that?”

“I’ll tell you what we’ve done
for them!” The missionary Herman Gustav appeared at Falstaff's
shoulder. “Besides the word of the lord! That is first and foremost
of course! Then there’s this!” He thumped a hefty volume into
Falstaff’s hands.

Falstaff opened the book and
looked at the title page. “Birds?” Falstaff said, “A book of
birds?”

The page read the ‘Birds of
Burma’, Rangoon by Smythies, Baptist mission press 1940 First
Edition.

“Not the birds! You simple minded
child! The press! Falstaff, is that your name? As slanderous as
Satan! Poor as Job and wicked as his wife!” Gustav bellowed on.
“If, then, the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the
tree and then peremptorily I speak it there is virtue in that
Falstaff! Him keep with; the rest banish!
³⁹
”

Falstaff could have groaned, he
blandly smiled and gave a nod. He could have thought of a comeback
with a line or two himself, but given present company, ‘Tempt not
too much the hatred of my spirit, for I am sick when I do look on
thee’, they might take a little offence.

“Henry the third, right? I’ve
heard that line about fruit on the tree before; normally in
connection with the tree casting a greater shadow than the fruit!
My headmaster was fond of Shakespeare as well!”

“From what I hear of you now, you
did not listen to your master? And so your father is still nobler
and you are not known by him, mmm?” Herman Gustav sat down.

Falstaff looked back at the book.
Flicked past the Cuckoo’s song, briefly read of the ‘Raffles’
Malcoha, skipped the ducks, raised an eye brow at the paradise
flycatchers and snapped the book shut on the Japanese Blue
flycatchers, invading the territory of the common Burmese grey.

“I’m not really so interested in
these kind of birds, as a pilot I try to avoid them; unless you
know the one about the pilot on Honolulu who met a hoofer with a
nice set of hooters?” Falstaff grinned at the three men and then
looked at the bottom of his glass, this wasn’t his type of crowd he
decided.

“The press, Mr Falstaff, language
that is what the Baptists have given Burma! Access to the word of
the Lord our God in Burmese and they now have access to the word of
the law, in our language, Mr Falstaff, in English!”

Maung, humble and discreet like
many Burma introduced himself further.

“I am the editor in chief of The
New Light of Burma, I married my wife Ma, she is a columnist for
the paper I sleep only three hours a night. I write, read and work
for my readers. Since I started to read, I spend most of my time
reading books, with the exception of time spent eating and
sleeping. Through this practice, I collect knowledge with the hope
of one day curing my country’s pain.” Maung looked at Falstaff for
reaction.

“At this time, the war has begun
in Europe, so the British take more interest in the newspapers. The
government requested newspapers adhere to
their
facts. That
is to change the news, I believe this is to make it false.”

“I’m not sure I follow. War has
been declared between German and Britain and her allies.” Falstaff
added. “What news have they got to change?”

“Viceroy
Linlithgow
⁴⁰
declared war on
India’s behalf. He did not consult any of the provincial
governments! By his word, Burma is at war with Germany!” Maung
tapped the table with his pencil. Hammering home the point, with
heavy, black dots on the paper.

“Burma is not consulted; it is
not our business? I will not change the news, - the problem must be
carried by word. Even if my editors will not accept it, I will not
change the word!
⁴¹
”

Herman started grandly rambling.
“He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also and
greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my
Father.
⁴²
" His main emphasis
was on the words, ‘Greater works’.

“Our bibles, our dictionaries,
the law! They are all connected, as is the University or these
journalists and their newspapers! Even the news that Minami would
carry to Japan!”

Falstaff cleared his throat. He
really wanted another drink, but the glasses had been replaced by
cups of tea now. He slid towards the drinks tray making small talk.
“Do you not think Burma is a happy country? I hear the south is
very fertile?”

Minami smiled a knowing, very
Japanese smiled. “Yes, yes, so productive they say that the farmer
tickles the soil and it laughs forth an abundant harvest! After the
years of famine in Japan, this is good news.”