He talked calmly and informatively and in a strictly businesslike manner. He said, among other things: “I’ve identified myself wholly with the Citizens’ Guard and if you’d lived here as I have for thirty years, or perhaps for only ten, you’d understand why. I’m telling you this at the start to clarify my position.”
“Your organization has issued me a death sentence. One of its members threatened my life only today.”
“I must point out that this organization can in no way, nor should it, be called mine. But I know the Citizens’ Guard sometimes resorts to very stern measures. However, there is one thing that deserves noting. All the members, except a few schoolboys, are hard-working people, people who have families and positions to defend, who live here and who in manycases have lived here all their lives, and who as a result base their whole existence on this part of the country and this town. Do you think such people would resort to violence without very good reasons? Without feeling that they are forced to? Do you know that during the last fourteen months more than eight hundred of the best people in this province have lost their lives? You can imagine what that means, can’t you? They are dead—gone. They don’t exist any longer. They were farmers, teachers, technical men—all sorts—they are dead, but in many cases their murderers are still alive. And what kind of people are these murderers? Yes—half-crazy whining cretins who sleep in caves and creep about in the mountains—wild people with guns and knives and ammunition belts.”
“It’s horrible, but even so, I can’t really see that it is sufficient reason to take my life.”
“In point of principle, I can say that we don’t know you. You might, from want of judgment, make sudden concessions to the pueblos which would give this so-called Liberation Front a free hand. Only a month ago such a concession would have been disastrous, would have lead to the whole province, yes, even this town, within a few days, yes, even hours, being flooded by plundering, murderous mobs. They’d have raped our women, tortured us and our children, everything that has been built up with tremendous sacrifices and infinite pains would have collapsed, mines, farms, factories, and workshops. Before the army could intervene, thousands of lives would have been lost and the greater part of all the invested capital would have been irretrievably lost. Finally it would have perhaps involved the whole country in a meaningless war.”
Dalgren smiled in a friendly way and lowered his voice.
“Now fortunately the situation is no longer the same. So you needn’t think that the Citizens’ Guard’s sentence cannot be revoked. Within this organization, as in most others, thereare some wilder ones, youngsters who want to play dangerous games, just as you and I did at that age. The threat against you today almost certainly came from that direction. I can assure you that the Citizens’ Guard is a well-organized movement. Of course it can’t control what every individual member says and thinks, but it has their activities under complete control. I think that you, just by waiting and not doing anything too hastily, can feel secure as far as the Citizens’ Guard is concerned. The real danger comes from another direction, as the case of Larrinaga clearly shows.”
He beckoned to a waiter in a striped waistcoat and they both took a Martini from the tray. Dalgren raised his glass and said: “In a way, I admire your courage.”
“I haven’t come here to be brave. I’ve come here to be sensible and practical and to be of some use.”
“Then you’ve got a good basis for a start. The new political situation smooths the way for common sense. What happened in our neighboring country to the south three weeks ago has saved us and perhaps the whole of the Federal Republic from a serious crisis. When the Socialist regime down there eventually fell after two years of misrule,
“Your organization has issued me a death sentence. One of its members threatened my life only today.”
“I must point out that this organization can in no way, nor should it, be called mine. But I know the Citizens’ Guard sometimes resorts to very stern measures. However, there is one thing that deserves noting. All the members, except a few schoolboys, are hard-working people, people who have families and positions to defend, who live here and who in manycases have lived here all their lives, and who as a result base their whole existence on this part of the country and this town. Do you think such people would resort to violence without very good reasons? Without feeling that they are forced to? Do you know that during the last fourteen months more than eight hundred of the best people in this province have lost their lives? You can imagine what that means, can’t you? They are dead—gone. They don’t exist any longer. They were farmers, teachers, technical men—all sorts—they are dead, but in many cases their murderers are still alive. And what kind of people are these murderers? Yes—half-crazy whining cretins who sleep in caves and creep about in the mountains—wild people with guns and knives and ammunition belts.”
“It’s horrible, but even so, I can’t really see that it is sufficient reason to take my life.”
“In point of principle, I can say that we don’t know you. You might, from want of judgment, make sudden concessions to the pueblos which would give this so-called Liberation Front a free hand. Only a month ago such a concession would have been disastrous, would have lead to the whole province, yes, even this town, within a few days, yes, even hours, being flooded by plundering, murderous mobs. They’d have raped our women, tortured us and our children, everything that has been built up with tremendous sacrifices and infinite pains would have collapsed, mines, farms, factories, and workshops. Before the army could intervene, thousands of lives would have been lost and the greater part of all the invested capital would have been irretrievably lost. Finally it would have perhaps involved the whole country in a meaningless war.”
Dalgren smiled in a friendly way and lowered his voice.
“Now fortunately the situation is no longer the same. So you needn’t think that the Citizens’ Guard’s sentence cannot be revoked. Within this organization, as in most others, thereare some wilder ones, youngsters who want to play dangerous games, just as you and I did at that age. The threat against you today almost certainly came from that direction. I can assure you that the Citizens’ Guard is a well-organized movement. Of course it can’t control what every individual member says and thinks, but it has their activities under complete control. I think that you, just by waiting and not doing anything too hastily, can feel secure as far as the Citizens’ Guard is concerned. The real danger comes from another direction, as the case of Larrinaga clearly shows.”
He beckoned to a waiter in a striped waistcoat and they both took a Martini from the tray. Dalgren raised his glass and said: “In a way, I admire your courage.”
“I haven’t come here to be brave. I’ve come here to be sensible and practical and to be of some use.”
“Then you’ve got a good basis for a start. The new political situation smooths the way for common sense. What happened in our neighboring country to the south three weeks ago has saved us and perhaps the whole of the Federal Republic from a serious crisis. When the Socialist regime down there eventually fell after two years of misrule,
Similar Books
