Free A House in Order by Nigel Dennis Page B

pathand left by the road as if assigned to an exercise somewhere: it was not until about 11 o’clock that my week’s dream came true and I saw the interpreter come down the steps and turn towards me. He closed the door when he was inside, and looking me up and down, as if inspecting me with a view to something, he said in a flat, correct voice:
    ‘The Camp Commandant has reported your detention here to the Commissioner of Prisoners of War. A Deputy chosen by the Commissioner will arrive here shortly to take your deposition. The Colonel has told me to tell you that he has confidence in your ability to answer the Deputy’s questions.’
    As he opened the door, he added: ‘The Deputy may ask you whether anybody here had any conversation with you about his visit. If so, you may repeat what I have just said.’
    Half an hour later, a squad led by a corporal arrived at my door in a pompous military way, and with stamping, barking, and turning, took me up the verandah steps and into the usual room. The Deputy, who looked like a stout officer in the Salvation Army, and wore a black-checked band round his cap instead of a red one, looked up as soon as I came in and spoke immediately to his own interpreter, who asked, before I was even at attention:
    Q : Have you not been issued the regulation razor?
    A : No, sir.
    Q : How long have you had that beard?
    A : Since I came.
    There was a silence. My own interpreter, who was to have brought me such happy news, sat alone at one end of the table: the rest was taken up by the Deputy andthree assistants. Not a sound came from any other part of the house, as if the whole lot of them had run away.
    After pushing certain papers forwards and backwards and glancing occasionally at me, the Deputy turned to his interpreter again:
    Q : Do you know why you are here for questioning?
    A : No, sir.
    Q : Did any officer, prior to the Deputy’s arrival, forewarn you that this would occur?
    A : The interpreter told me this morning.
    Q : That officer, do you mean? What did he tell you?
    A : That the Deputy Commissioner was coming and that the Colonel trusted me to answer all questions honestly.
    Q : Anything else?
    A : No, sir.
    Q : Give me your full attention. I am going to read the Commissioner’s authority under the Protection and Privileges of Prisoners Ordinance:
     
    ‘It shall be authorized to the Commissioner or his Deputy to take physical possession of, and carry wheresoever he will, any prisoner whom he deems to have been threatened, subdued to silence, unduly cajoled or improperly affected in speech and deposition by those in immediate physical possession of said prisoner.’
    Do you understand these words?
    A : Some of them, sir.
    Q : They mean that if your answers make the Deputy suspect that you feel threatened by your present captors, or in any sort of danger, he has the authority to order your immediate removal. Do you understand?
    A : I do.
    Q : Now, will you kindly give the Deputy your answer once more to his question: what forewarnings were you given of the Deputy’s arrival?
    A : That the Deputy was coming soon and the Colonel knew I would answer properly.
    Q : ‘Properly’? What did you understand by this word?
    A : Pardon, I have said it wrong, sir. ‘Answer honestly’, I should have said.
    Q : The Deputy takes note of the discrepancy. Have you more to say or to correct?
    A : No, sir.
    The Deputy then turned back to his papers and began to question me, beginning with who I was, what my work had been, and all the things I had answered a hundred times already. His questions got very slow and careful when he got to where I had run down the road and been stopped by the dead soldier.
    Q : Did you notice anything about this soldier’s uniform that was different …?
    Q : You say he asked advice in the dark of other soldiers. Did you notice their uniforms – if they were similar to his …?
    Q : It was your impression that he received no assistance from anyone …?
    Q : Are you