THE LATEST INSTITUTION
I went to see Kwang in the afternoon, and found him in a state
of suppressed excitement--at least I could not help having that
impression. After a little time, when I had given him some brief
account of my experience at the dinner-party, he said, "I told you the
other day that I had some thoughts of returning home. I shall be off in
a fortnight."
"This is rather sudden," I said; "have you received bad news from home?"
"No," he said; "I told you I had practically completed my work. The
fact is, that things are beginning to develop rather fast here. I see
signs of preparation for a 'forward move.'"
"Oh!" I said. "Not another war?"
"Not necessarily," he replied. "Light your cigar and I will tell you
all you need know." I did so and waited.
"The next war," he said, "will be a chemical war."
"A chemical war? What on earth is that?" I said.
"They have been experimenting for thirty years and more, and they think
they have discovered what they want. It may take them several years to
perfect their arrangements; it will certainly take them a year or two,
and may take six or seven. But one never knows. I suppose you never
heard of the three days' war, did you?"
"No," I replied; "what was it?"
"The State of Lugrabia, with which the Meccanians are in permanent
alliance, refused to ratify a new treaty that seemed unfavourable
to them in some respects, and feeling ran so high that there was
some talk in Lugrabia of putting an end to the alliance. Without any
declaration of war the Meccanian Government dispatched a small fleet
of air-vessels, planted about a dozen chemical 'Distributors,' as they
are euphemistically called, and warned the Lugrabian State that, unless
their terms were complied with, the twelve chief cities would be wiped
out. The war was over in three days. And to this day the outside world
has never heard of the event."
"How can it have been kept secret?" I said.
"Ask rather how could it leak out," replied Kwang.
"Anyhow," he went on, "they think they have got something that will
enable them to defeat any combination. There is no question in dispute
with any foreign power. The political 'horizon' is perfectly clear.
But it is time for me to go home."
"Do you think this idea of theirs is really dangerous?" I asked.
"Undoubtedly."
"But can it not be counteracted in any way?"
"If it can't it will be a bad look out for the rest of us," he said.
"But do you see any means of meeting it?"
"There is, if I can get the Governments to act. But they are at a
tremendous disadvantage."
"Why?" I said.
"Because everything they do will be proclaimed from the housetops.
However, what I wanted to do immediately was to arrange with you about
leaving the country. Of course you will stay as long as you like, but I
should advise you not to stay too long. I shall not announce that I am
going away permanently, and I shall leave nearly all my things here to
avoid suspicion; but within three months they will know that I am not
likely to come back, and then they may want to look _you_ up if you are
still here."
"I shall go as soon as you think it is advisable for me to go," I
said. "The only thing I wanted to make sure of was the thing you have
apparently found out. Once or twice since I came I have felt sceptical
about the Machiavellian designs attributed to the Meccanian Government
by all these neighbours. Naturally they see a robber in every bush. I
have sometimes been inclined to think the Meccanians like organising
just for the love of it, but you are satisfied that there is more in it
than that."
"My dear child," said Kwang, "there are some people who can't see a
stone wall till they knock their heads against it, and who can't tell
that a mad bull is dangerous till he tosses them in the air; and from
what I learn you are almost as bad," he said, laughing. "You have
been here, how long? Four or five months at any rate. Well, you have
a very unsuspicious mind. But I am going to give you an interesting
experience. I am going to take you to see a friend of mine who has
been a prisoner in an asylum for the mentally afflicted for the last
fifteen years. I enjoy the privilege of talking to him alone, and I
have permission to take you. I won't stop to explain how I obtained the
privilege, but it has been very useful."
In another quarter of an hour we were rolling along in Kwang's
motor-car to a place about forty miles outside Mecco. The roads were
as smooth as glass and the car made no noise, so we could converse
without raising our voices. Kwang observed that if I wished to stay in
Meccania there was only one way of getting behind the screen, and that
was to become a convert. The rôle of a convert, however, was becoming
more difficult to play. He had lately begun to suspect that he was
being watched, or at any rate that one or two people at the Foreign
Office were jealous of his privileges. Some years ago, the Head of
the Foreign Office had given him practically the free run of the
country, and had utilised him as a sort of missionary of Meccania. His
books on the _Triumphs of Meccanian Culture_ and on _Meccania's World
Mission_ had been given the widest possible publicity, both in Meccania
and abroad. He still enjoyed all his privileges, for Count Krafft
was a powerful friend at the Foreign Office. Consequently the Police
Department had orders not to interfere with him, and he had free passes
for almost everything. But another Under-Secretary had lately begun to
question the wisdom of his colleague, not openly but secretly, and was
trying to get hold of evidence.
"They lie so wonderfully and so systematically themselves," said
Kwang, "that they naturally suspect everybody else of lying too. But
this suspicion very often defeats its own object. Still, they can't
expect to have a monopoly of lying. I have seen official pamphlets for
circulation in the departments, on the methods of testing the _bona
fides_ of foreigners; and elaborate rules for finding out whether
foreign Governments are trying to deceive them."
"And you have satisfied all their tests?" I said.
"Absolutely," replied Kwang, with a smile; "but I am not yet out of the
country, and I don't propose to risk it much longer, or I may not be
able to get out. However," he added, "there is not the slightest risk
in taking you to visit the Asylum for _Znednettlapseiwz_. I have made
a special study of these asylums, of which there are only about half a
dozen in the whole country. I got permission some years ago. I had been
discussing with Count Krafft the difficulty of dealing with a certain
class of persons, to be found in every modern State, who act as a focus
for all opposition. They cling obstinately to certain ethical and
political doctrines quite out of harmony with those of the Super-State,
and profess to regard Bureaucracy and Militarism as inconsistent
with liberty. He told me a good deal about the methods employed, and
suggested that I should visit one of these asylums. I did so and asked
permission to make a study of a few individual cases. Eventually I
wrote a monograph on the case of the very man we are going to see, and
although it was never published Count Krafft was much pleased with
it. The man we shall see, Mr. Stillman, represents a type that has
almost entirely disappeared from Meccania. He has had a remarkable
history. At one time, for two or three years, he was the chief
political opponent of the great Prince Mechow. He belongs to an older
generation altogether, a generation older than his contemporaries, if
you understand what I mean. Nearly all his contemporaries are 'Good
Meccanians,' but there are still the remnants of the opposition left.
When Stillman was a boy there were left alive only a handful of men
who had stood up to Prince Bludiron. Most of these former opponents
had emigrated, some to Transatlantica, some to Luniland and elsewhere.
The rest ultimately died out. Stillman attempted to create a new
opposition, but it was a hopeless task. If you want to understand the
political history of Meccania you cannot do better than get him to talk
to you if he is in the mood."
We approached the asylum, which stood upon a lonely moorland, far away
from any village. The gates were guarded by a single sentinel. As we
walked along the path, after leaving our car in a yard near the lodge,
we passed little groups of men working upon patches of garden. They
looked up eagerly as we passed, and then turned back to their tasks. I
noticed they were dressed in ordinary black clothes. It struck me at
once, because I had become so used to seeing everybody in the familiar
colours of one of the classes. On my mentioning this to Kwang, he said,
"That is perfectly in accordance with the Meccanian system. These men
now belong to no class; they are shut off from the rest of the world,
and their only chance of returning to it is for them to renounce,
formally and absolutely, all the errors of which they have been guilty."
"And do many of them 'recant'?" I asked.
"Very few. Most of them do not want to return to the ordinary life of
Meccania, but occasionally the desire to be with some member of their
family proves too strong for them. They are nearly all old people here
now. None of the younger generation are attacked by the disease, and
the authorities hope"--he smiled sardonically--"that in a few years the
disease will have disappeared entirely."
We first went to call upon Hospital-Governor Canting. He was in
his office, which was comfortably furnished in very characteristic
Meccanian taste. The chairs were all adjustable, and covered with 'Art'
tapestry. The large table had huge legs like swollen pillars--they
were really made of thin cast-iron. There were the usual large
portraits of the Emperor and Empress, and busts of Prince Mechow and
Prince Bludiron. There was the usual large bookcase, full of volumes
of reports bound in leather-substitute, and stamped with the arms of
Meccania. Governor Canting wore the green uniform of the Fourth Class,
with various silver facings and buttons, and a collar of the special
kind worn by all the clergy of the Meccanian Church. He was writing at
his table when we were shown in. He greeted Kwang almost effusively and
bowed to me, with the usual Meccanian attitudes, as I was introduced.
"So you have brought your friend to see our system of treatment,"
he said, smiling. "It is very unusual for us to receive visits at
all,"--here he turned to me,--"but Mr. Kwang is quite a privileged
person in Meccania. If only there were more people like Mr. Kwang we
should not be so much misunderstood, and the victims of so much envy,
malice and uncharitableness. Still, it is a sad experience for you."
"Do many of the patients suffer acutely?" I asked, hardly knowing what
was the right cue.
"Oh, I did not mean that. No, no, _they_ don't suffer much. But it is
sad to think that men who might have been worthy citizens, some of
them as writers, some as teachers, some even as doctors--men who might
have served the State in a hundred ways--are wasting their talents and
hindering the spread of our Culture."
"It must be a terrible affliction," I said. "Do they not sometimes feel
it themselves in their moments of clearness of mind?"
He looked at me, a little in doubt as to my meaning, but my face must
have reassured him. "The strange thing about this disease," he said,
"is that the patients suffer no pain directly from it; and you must
remember that in practically all cases--just as in alcoholism--it is
self-induced. There may be some little hereditary tendency, but the
disease itself is certainly not inherited, and can be counteracted
in its early stages by prophylactic treatment, as we have now fully
demonstrated. As I say, it is self-induced, and it is therefore very
difficult, even for a Christian minister who realises his duties to the
State as well as to the Church, always to feel charitably towards these
patients. We cannot shut our eyes to the fact of moral responsibility,
and when I think of the obstinacy of these men I am tempted to lose
patience. And their conceit! To presume that they--a few hundreds of
them at most--know better than all the wise and loyal statesmen of
Meccania, better than all the experts, better than all the millions of
loyal citizens. But it is when I see what a poor miserable handful of
men they are after all that I can find in my heart to pity them."
"And how is my special case?" asked Kwang, when he could get a word in.
"Just the same," said Canting--"just the same. You will find him
perhaps a little weaker. I will not go with you. You seem to succeed
best with him by yourself; and no doubt you have instructed your friend
as to the peculiar nature of his malady."
"Yes," said Kwang; "my friend has read my little monograph, and he
thought the case so remarkable that with the consent and approval of
Dr. Narrowman I brought him to see Patient Stillman in the flesh. I
shall get him to talk a little."
"Good," replied Canting; "but you will never cure him. You were quite
right in what you once said--Prevention is the only cure. If we had
developed our prophylactic system earlier it might have saved him, but
he is too old now."
After some preliminary formalities we were taken by one of the warders,
who was evidently acquainted with Kwang through his many previous
visits, to a room at the end of a long corridor, where we found Mr.
Stillman, who greeted us cordially but with old-fashioned dignity.
His manner struck me as being very different from that of the modern
Meccanians. Clearly he belonged to another generation. The room, which
was about twenty feet by ten, was a bed-sitting-room, furnished with
one of those contrivances which becomes a bed by night and a false
cupboard by day. There was an easy chair with the usual mechanical
adjustments, a table, two bedroom chairs, a small sideboard and
cupboard, a few other articles of necessity and a shelf of books.
There were no bolts or bars or chains--the room suggested a hospital
rather than a prison. Mr. Stillman was a fine old man, and, although
growing feeble in body, was still vigorous in mind. When seated he held
his head erect, and looked us frankly in the face, but with a wistful
expression. He had evidently been a good-looking man, but his face
bore traces of long suffering. Except that he did not pace about his
cell, he reminded me of a caged lion. One of the orderlies brought in a
tray of tea for the three of us. Mr. Stillman said what a pleasure it
was to see a human being now and then, and, turning to me, explained
that, except to Mr. Kwang and the officials and the doctors, he had
not spoken to anyone for five years. "Until five years ago," he said,
"I was able to do a little work in the gardens, and could converse
with my fellow-prisoners--patients, I mean--but only about our work,
and in the presence of a warder. Still, that was some relief. Indeed,
it was a great relief, for every one of the patients is a kind of
brother--otherwise he would not be here. There are only a few hundreds
of us left--perhaps a couple of thousands altogether--I don't know. We
have about two hundred here, and this is one of the largest hospitals,
or prisons, in the country--so at least I was told."
"But why is conversation not permitted?" I said. "To be deprived of
conversation must surely aggravate any tendency to mental instability."
"The theory is that communication with our fellow-patients would hinder
our recovery," he replied, with a significant smile.
"But what are you supposed to be suffering from?" I said.
"A mental disease known only to the Government of Meccania," he
answered. "You must have heard of it. Mr. Kwang knows all about it.
The real name for it is 'heresy,' but they call it _Znednettlapseiwz_.
I suffer very badly from it and am incurable--at least I hope so," he
added bitterly.
At this point Kwang announced that he wished to visit another patient,
and that he would leave us together so that I might have a long talk
undisturbed. It was evident that he occupied a privileged position, or
he would never have been able to have such access to these patients.
When he had left the room I did my best to get Mr. Stillman to talk,
but I hardly knew how to induce him to tell me his story. I said, "I
suppose you are not treated badly, apart from this prohibition about
conversing with your fellow-sufferers?"
"We are fed with the exact amount of food we require," he replied; "we
are clothed--and thank God we do not wear any of the seven uniforms;
and we are decently warm, except sometimes in winter when, I suppose,
something goes wrong with the apparatus."
"What?" I said. "Can any apparatus go wrong in Meccania?"
"Well," he said, "perhaps the fact is that I want to be warmer than the
experts think is necessary. Yes; that is probably the explanation."
"And for the rest," I said. "Have you no occupation? How do you spend
the time?"
"In trying to preserve the last remains of my sanity," he answered.
"And by what means?" I asked gently.
"Chiefly by prayer and meditation," he replied after a short pause.
He used the old-fashioned expressions which I had not heard from the
lips of any Meccanian before. "But it is difficult," he went on, "to
keep one's faith, cut off from one's fellow-believers."
"But they allow you to attend religious services surely?" I said.
"The Meccanian State Church keeps a chaplain here, and holds a service
every day which is attended by all the officials and a few of the
patients; but you have heard the maxim _Cujus regio ejus religio_,
have you not?" I nodded. "It has acquired a new significance during the
last fifty years. I have not attended any of the services since they
ceased to be compulsory about ten years ago."
"That sounds very remarkable," I said.
"What does?"
"It is the first time I have heard of anything _ceasing_ to be
compulsory in Meccania," I said.
"The fact was that they discovered it had a very bad effect upon the
disease. My chief relief now is reading, which is permitted for three
hours a day."
"And you are allowed to choose your own books?"
"As a concession to our mental infirmity," he said, "we have been
granted the privilege of reading some of the old authors. It came about
in this way. Dr. Weakling, who is in charge of this hospital, is the
son of one of my oldest friends--a man who spent several years in this
place as a patient. He came in about the same time as I did, but his
health gave way and he 'recanted,' or, as they say, he 'recovered.'
But while he was here he begged to have a few of the old books to save
him from going mad. The authorities refused to let him have any books
except those specially provided, and I believe it was this that made
him give way. Anyhow he used his influence with his son afterwards,
for his son had become one of the leading medical specialists, to
obtain for the older patients at any rate a number of the books of
the old literature which nobody else wanted to read. He only got
the concession through on the ground that it was a psychological
experiment. He has had to write a report on the experiment every year
since its introduction. That is our greatest positive privilege, but we
have a few negative privileges."
"What do you mean exactly?" I said.
"We have no compulsory attendances; we have no forms to fill up; we are
not required to keep a diary; we are not required to read the _Monthly
Gazette of Instructions_, nor play any part in State ceremonies.
Indeed, if I could talk to my friends who are here I should have little
to complain of on the score of personal comfort."
"Then why do you speak of the difficulty of preserving your sanity?" I
said, rather thoughtlessly, I am afraid.
"Why do you think I am here at all?" he replied, for the first time
speaking fiercely. "I could have my liberty to-day if I chose, could
I not?" Then he went on, not angrily but more bitterly, "Did I say I
could have my liberty? No; that is not true. I could go out of here
tomorrow, but I should not be at liberty. I stay here, because here I
am only a prisoner--outside I should be a slave. How long have you been
in Meccania did you say?"
"About five months," I said.
"And you are free to go back to your own country?"
"Certainly," I said--"at least, I hope so."
"Then go as soon as you can. This is no fit place for human beings.
It is a community of slaves, who do not even know they are slaves
because they have never tasted liberty, ruled over by a caste of
super-criminals who have turned crime into a science."
"I have not heard the ruling classes called criminals before," I said.
"I am not sure that I understand what you mean."
"Then you must have been woefully taken in by all this hocus-pocus of
law and constitution and patriotism. The whole place is one gigantic
prison, and either the people themselves are criminals, or those who
put them there must be. There is such a thing as legalised crime. Crime
is not merely the breaking of a statute. Murder and rape are crimes,
statute or no statute."
"But what are the crimes these rulers of Meccania have committed?" I
said.
"In all civilised countries," he replied passionately, "if you steal
from a man, if you violate his wife or his daughters, if you kidnap
his children, you are a criminal and outlawed from all decent society.
These rulers of ours have done worse than that. They have robbed us of
everything; we have nothing of our own. They feed us, clothe us, house
us--oh no, there is no poverty--every beast of burden in the country is
provided with stall and fodder--ay, and harness too; they measure us,
weigh us, doctor us, instruct us, drill us, breed from us, experiment
on us, protect us, pension us and bury us. Nay, that is not the end;
they dissect us and analyse us and use our carcasses for the benefit
of Science and the Super-State. I called them a nation. They are not
a nation; they are an 'organism.' You have been here five months,
you say. You have seen a lot of spectacles, no doubt. You have seen
buildings, institutions, organisations, systems, machinery for this and
machinery for that, but you have not seen a single human being--unless
you have visited our prisons and asylums. You have not been allowed to
talk to anybody except 'authorised persons.' You have been instructed
by officials. You have read books selected by the Super-State, and
written by the Super-State. You have seen plays selected by the
Super-State, and heard music selected by the Super-State, and seen
pictures selected by the Super-State, and no doubt heard sermons
preached by the Super-State."
"Your friend tells me other nations are still free. What drives me
to the verge of madness is to think that we, who once were free, are
enslaved by bonds of our own making. Can you wonder, after what you
have seen--a whole nation consenting to be slaves if only they may make
other nations slaves too--that I ask myself sometimes whether this is
a real lunatic asylum; whether I am here because I have these terrible
hallucinations; whether all that I think has happened this last fifty
years is just a figment of my brain, and that really, if I could only
see it, the world is just as it used to be when I was a boy?"
Presently he became calmer and began to tell me something of his life
story.
"Until I was about twelve," he said, "I lived with my parents in one
of the old-fashioned parts of Meccania. My father was a well-to-do
merchant who had travelled a good deal. He was something of a scholar
too, and took interest in art and archæology, and as I, who was his
youngest son, gave signs of similar tastes, he took me abroad with
him several times. This made a break in my schooling, and although
I probably learnt more from these travels, especially as I had the
companionship of my father, it was not easy to fit me into the regular
system again. So my father decided to send me to some relatives who had
settled in Luniland, and a few years after, when I was ready to go to
the University of Bridgeford, he and my mother came to live for a few
years in Luniland."
"Up to that time I had taken no interest in politics, but I can
distinctly recall now how my father used to lament over the way things
were tending. He said it was becoming almost impossible to remain a
good citizen. He had always thought himself a sane and sober person,
not given to quarrelling, but he found it impossible to attach himself
to any of the political parties or cliques in Meccania. He was not a
follower of Spotts, who, he said, was a kind of inverted Bludiron,
but he disliked still more the politicians and so-called statesmen
who were preaching the Meccanian spirit as a new gospel. I think it
was his growing uneasiness with politics that caused him to drift
gradually into the position of a voluntary exile. But we were very
happy. Every year or so I used to go over to Meccania, and in spite
of my cosmopolitan education I retained a strong affection for the
land of my birth. I was full of its old traditions, and not even the
peaceful charms of Bridgeford--an island that seemed like a vision of
Utopia--could stifle my passion for the pine forests of Bergerland, our
old home in Meccania. When I had finished my course at Bridgeford I had
to decide whether I would return to serve my two years in the army. It
was a great worry to my mother that I had not, like my brothers, passed
the Meccanian examination which reduced the time of service to one
year, but I made light of the matter; and although, after my life in
Luniland, it was very distasteful to me, I went through my two years as
cheerfully as I could. I learnt a great deal from it. I was nicknamed
'the Lunilander,' and was unpopular because I did not share the silly
enthusiasm and boasting which at that time was prevalent. I had got out
of touch with the youthful life of Meccania, and these two years opened
my eyes. But I will not dwell on that time. At the end of it I joined
my father, who had remained in Luniland when he was not travelling. It
was time to choose a career. I had little taste for business and I was
determined that I would not become an official of any kind, and when I
proposed to devote some years to following up the work that my father
had planned for himself, but had never been able to carry out, he gave
his consent. We had just planned a long archæological tour in Francaria
when the great war broke out."
"I shall never forget the state of agitation into which this
catastrophe threw him. I was about to return to Meccania in obedience
to the instruction I had received, when he begged me not to go back
at any cost. He had spent two sleepless nights, and his agony of mind
was terrible. What he had feared for years had come to pass. He had
thought it would be somehow avoided. He had been watching events very
closely for the few weeks before the crisis. The day that war was
declared between Luniland and Meccania, he declared his intention of
going back to Meccania; but not to join in the madness of his country.
He could not do much; probably he would not be allowed to do anything,
but at any rate he would fight for sanity and right. My mother was
eager to go back, but for other reasons. She burst out into a frenzy
of abuse of Luniland. She repeated all the lies that I had heard in
Meccania about the country in which she had been perfectly happy for
years. She called me a coward for not being with my brothers. She said
she had always been against my having come to Luniland. I knew she
was hysterical, but I could hardly believe my ears. My father stood
firm. He insisted on my staying. He said he should regard himself as
a murderer if he consented to my going to fight for what he knew to
be a monstrous crime. What my mother had said, although of course
it pained me, did more to convince me that my father was right than
anything he could have said. I had seen already the accounts of the
Meccanian crowds shouting for war in a frenzy of martial pride. I had
seen also the streets of Lunopolis, full of serious faces, awed by the
thought of war and yet never wavering a moment. I had heard my own
countrymen jeering at the craven spirit of the Lunilanders. It was a
cruel position to be in, and in the years that followed I was tempted
sometimes to regret that I had not gone back and sought peace of mind
in a soldier's grave. But in my heart I was so revolted by the thought
that all this horror was the work of my countrymen that I grew ashamed
of being a Meccanian. For the first two years my father wrote to me
constantly, and if I had had any doubts of the rightness of my conduct,
what he said would have sustained me.
"But that is a long story. All I need say is that it was in those years
of suffering and horror that I discovered where my duty lay, and took
a vow to follow it. When the war ended I would go back, and if I were
the only man left in Meccania I would fight for truth and liberty. It
was a quixotic vow, but I was a young man of thirty."
"Well, I came back. I had to wait three years, even after the war was
over, until there was an amnesty for such as I. And when I did set foot
here again, the cause I had come to fight for was already lost. But I
did not know it."
"My father had already spent two years in prison, and was only released
in time to die. But through him I knew that there were still some
left who felt as we did. The idea of Liberty had been lost. Although
the war had been over three years, everybody was still under martial
law. The military professed that the country was in danger of a
revolution. The newspapers preached the necessity for everybody to
be organised to repair the ravages of the war. The socialists said
the economic revolution, so long predicted, was accomplishing itself.
For a few years we could make no headway. Then things began to settle
down a little. The fever seemed to be spending itself. That was the
moment when Prince Mechow became Chief Minister of the Interior. Some
semblance of constitutional government was restored, and we began
to hope for better things. We started a newspaper, and established
societies in all the big towns. What we were out for was, first and
foremost, political liberty. We had three or four brilliant writers
and speakers. But the only papers that would take our articles were a
few of the socialist papers which wrote leaders criticising our ideas
as 'unscientific,' and the only people who came to our meetings were
socialists who used them to speechify about the economic revolution.
Then Mechow's reforms began. All education was completely controlled.
The Press was bought up, and gradually suppressed. The right of public
meeting was curtailed, till it disappeared altogether. The censorship
of printing was made complete. New regulations accumulated year by
year, and month by month. The seven classes were established. And all
the time the socialists went on prating about the economic revolution.
Prince Mechow was doing their work, they said. All they would have to
do would be to step into his place when he had completed it. A few
hundreds of us, scattered in various parts of the country, tried to
keep up the struggle. We got into prison several times, but nobody
cared a straw for our 'Luniland' party, as they called it. I fell
ill, and then I tried to go abroad for a rest. I was arrested for an
alleged plot, and sentenced to a term of imprisonment and degradation
to the Fifth Class! After that I was forbidden to communicate with my
children, for fear of infecting them. As they grew up in their teens,
even they grew to look on me as an eccentric. Need I say more? The
time came when I had either to recant from all my convictions, or be
treated as a person of unsound mind. I came here determined to hold
out to the last. What I feared--and I think I feared nothing else--was
that some of their diabolical medical experiments would undermine my
will. Fortunately I was sent here, where after a time Dr. Weakling--who
is at any rate not a scoundrel--has done his best to protect me. He
represents a type we have in Meccania--perhaps the most common type of
all--a man who conforms to the system because he finds himself in it
and part of it, but who is not actively wicked, and who has some good
nature left. He regards me and those like me as simple-minded fanatics
who are harmless so long as we are only few in number."
"So you think your cause is lost?" I said.
"No," he said quickly, "our cause is not lost. It is Meccania that is
lost."
"But is there no hope even for Meccania?"
"There is no hope from within: hope can only come from without."
"That is a hard saying. How can it come from without?"
"Fifty years ago our neighbours--not our enemies, our neighbours--fought
for liberty: they set themselves free, but they did not set us free.
They said they would make the world safe for democracy."
"Well, did they not do so?" I asked.
He was quiet for a minute. "I wonder if they did," he said. "I wonder
if either Liberty or Democracy can be safe so long as there is a
Super-State. If a tragedy like this can happen to one nation it can
happen to the whole world. Meccania will never become free whilst the
Meccanian Spirit remains alive; and Liberty will never be secure until
the whole world is free."
He sank back in his chair looking very tired after the excitement of
our interview. At this moment a gong sounded. It was the signal for
supper, and he got up mechanically to wash his hands in a bowl by the
side of his bed-cupboard. Kwang then knocked at the door and came to
bid good-bye. We left our 'patient' preparing to cross the quadrangle.
It was growing dark, and we could see the lights in the great hall
of the hospital. We were just about to walk back to the lodge when
Kwang suddenly said, "Come with me." I followed him through a long
corridor, and he led the way to a door which opened into the great
dining-hall. There we saw, seated at long tables, nearly two hundred
old men. They had just begun their evening meal. There was a strange
silence, oppressive and almost sinister. There were no servants to wait
on them, but some of the more active men handed the dishes, while a
couple of warders in green uniforms seemed to be patrolling the room
for the purpose of checking all attempts at conversation. But there
was not even a whisper. The men did not look sullen or rebellious.
Perhaps they had got past that. I could see them interchanging looks
of friendly greeting across the room, and no doubt from long practice
they had learnt to convey some simple messages by a glance or a smile;
but there was an air of quiet courtesy about them, so different from
what I had learnt to know as the typical Meccanian manner. I looked
at the faces of those nearest me. Many of them might have sat for the
portraits of senators, or have served as models for some of those
old-fashioned paintings of assemblies of statesmen and ambassadors
of bygone centuries. The surroundings were not altogether wanting in
dignity. The hall was large and lofty, and although bare--save for
the inevitable Imperial portraits which greet one everywhere--was
not unsightly. Indeed, the absence of ornament was a relief from the
perpetual reminders of the latest phases of Meccanian Art. Governor
Canting had apparently been present at the beginning of the meal and
was going off to his own dinner. He joined us for a moment. "Do you
notice," he said, "how ungracious their expression is? One would think
they had never come under the influence of the Meccanian spirit.
Their whole bearing is characteristic of their attitude of studied
disloyalty. They never even give the salute. It has not been insisted
upon because--you know ..." and he tapped his forehead. "They would not
meet with such consideration in many countries, but we have respect
for age and infirmity, no matter what provocation we receive."
We left the hall and took our leave of Hospital Governor Canting. As
we started on our journey it was dark, and a cool wind was blowing. We
could see before us the dull glow of light from the great city in the
distance. The road was perfect, and we passed few vehicles of any kind;
but we were stopped three times by the police, to whom Kwang showed his
pass. As we entered the outer ring we slowed down. Although we were
passing along the main roadway only a few persons were to be seen.
Here and there near the outer ring in the Business Quarter we passed
a few groups of workmen marching in step on their way home. The trams
were running, but there was no bustle and no excitement. No boisterous
groups of young people filled the streets. No sound of laughter or
merry-making fell on our ears. Where were the people? Where were those
crowds that make the streets of all cities in the world a spectacle to
move the heart of man? This might have been a plague-stricken town, a
city of the dead. We passed the great station with its lofty dome, and
the towering pile of the Time Department with the great clock above
it. As we slowly swung through the great square, the colossal statue
of Prince Mechow looked down on us like the grim and menacing image of
this city of Power. Was he some evil Genius that had slain the souls of
men, leaving their bodies only to inhabit the vast prison-house he had
built for them with their own labour?
Kwang put me down at the hotel and drove on to his rooms. I found a
letter awaiting me. It was from my father, and contained painful news.
My mother was seriously ill and he urged me to return at once. Early
next morning I hastened to visit Kwang--first obtaining permission from
the manager of the hotel--and found him busy with his preparations
also. "Don't be alarmed," he said, when I told him my news. "Your
mother is not ill. At any rate we do not know that she is. I thought
it was time for you to be getting ready to leave this country and I
had that letter sent. It will be a good reason in the eyes of the
'Authorities.' I go the day after to-morrow. I have a secret mission
for the Government to the Chinese Embassy at Prisa" (the capital of
Francaria). "I may not return. I may fall suddenly ill."
I expressed some surprise that Kwang, the most privileged stranger in
Meccania, the _persona grata_ with all the official world, should think
it necessary to slip out of the country by a back door, and provide for
my sudden departure as well.
"You have been here five months," he said. "I have been here fifteen
years. It is always best in this country to take as little risk as
possible--consistent with your objectives. A word to the wise.... If
you have anything that you wish to take out with you, you had better
let me have it. You will be examined when you go out as you were when
you came in. I do not propose to be examined when I leave. That is why
I am going via Prisa on a special mission."