Evening star., 1939-01-09
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A& WORLD DICTATOR

he said. almost as II he complained
of them.
Bodisham elaborated his argu-
ments. He and Rud were not
Reds" he explained, and added
under his breath, Whatever Reds
may be-" -.
Suggest Trip of = Week.
Rud suggested that Bellacourt
should 60 away for week and dis
cuss his problem with everybody he
met, the more anti-Red the better.
You will find world peace is only
single problem If you deal with it
as whole" he said. Then it be-
comes one and ultimately indivisible.
But you cannot deal with any part
of it-air union or what not-as
thing in itself. If other things are
not also going on at the same time,
you will never get anywhere with
that. There is no reason, of course,
why you personally should not spe-
cialize absolutely upon the question
Of the air. But in cooperation. We
want you with us. We want a man
like you badly. We want an Or
ganizer of common sense and COM
mon humanity in the air. Just as
we want some one to create paral-
lei organization in the shipping and
in the war material industries. For
any service or industry or function,
the real necessity Is the same.
I'm each case you have to saturate
the personnel with identical clear
ideas of their individual responsible
ity. You have to free their minds
from blind obedience. We want
world-minded airmen. There is no
need for any politics at all for you,
and no need for any one to advocate
their aid solidarity of yours outside
the air forces-and the schools and
technical schools and factories that
lead to the air. But all the same it
will be in line with everything else
we are doing"
Simple and Direct.
Bellacourt came back at the end
Of his week.
II believe you are right" said Bel
lacourt compactly. Il have thought
it out. This air business is not to
be done by itself. 1t has to be done.
I will join you for the sake of that"
Rud took a curious interest in Bel
lacourt's simplicity and directness.
1t was something he had never met
before to quite the same extent. He
talked to Chiffan about it. DO you
think machines make men honest?"
he said.
"They never take refuge in senti-
ment or rhetoric" said Chiffan, land
if you try and cheat them they pay
you back right away. Whenever
machine goe wrong-it's you"
"Bellacourt seems to me a ma
chine-made man."
Il never saw any one less like a
robot"
But robots said Rud. were
man-made machines. never felt so
sure I could trust any one in my
life-as Bellacourt."
This to your oldest friend!"
"Bellacourt has no sense Of
humor," said Rud.
Propaganda and Police.
Another interesting addition to
the group was Thirp, originally q
philanthropic prison reformer, q
man Of some wealth, whose polit-
ical ideas 1t seemed were broadening
with experience. and who was spe-
cially interested in the police side
of life. He teed with ideas about
class and type psychology. He was
a small man with thin, fine face
and feminine voice, and his long,
lean, restless hands seemed always
to be handling details too subtle
for words. He had nothing of the
conventional revolutionary in his
appearance; he was always very
carefully dressed, with large, COL
ored neckties and delicately pat
termed silk shirts. He liked what
he called investigation, and some
times his investigations about pub
lie characters had the quality of
personal gossip. Into that, indeed,
in more stable age, he might have
relapsed, but for a time at least the
movement picked him up and ex-
allied and nourished his mind. It
gave his curiosities purposive
quality. He was capable of handling
big affairs and at a pinch he would
do SO, but he preferred the Sec
ondary aspects of life.
He, too became separate process
in the party, most closely in contact
with Rud. He liked Rud and was
curious about him. He was at great
pains to please him. He avoided the
others, he cut the group meetings
whenever he could, but he talked
to Rud alone whenever he had a
chance. His brilliant little pamph-
let, "The Man Inside the Uniform"
had had circulation of over 2O00,-
600 copies in England and America
before the British authorities con-
demned 1t as a seditious document.
On the whole that stimulated its
circulation.
Born Propagandist.
Norvel again began as a loosely
attached associate of the group, who
gradually assumed a central position
only second to the nuclear, inde-
fatigable Bodisham. He was a differ
ent kind of tentacle altogether, who
specialized in the publication and
distribution of cheap books on both
sides of the Atlantic. He was a born
educator and propagandist. His dis
tinctive excitement lay in that. For
that he lived. He it was who brought
down the price of paper covered
popular books in America to a dime.
To most people in those days q
change in the price of books seemed
trivial commercialism, but he had q
better imagination than that. It
meant a vast inflltration of rational
ideas into previously inert social
masses. 1t meant heightened social
awareness, step forward in the
awakening and release of the COM