XI
Nowadays, the leaders in every country, who are holding the state running power must learn the stance of their policy making depending chiefly on the peoples’ consensus. It is much different from what they had been for thousands of years. In those days, they were able to secretly plot their own policy making under the great secrecy and without known by the people. Now, they must always be alert enough what their own people think and act. If they do not frankly lender their ears to the people say, their policy will not last long under such information technology age. I think, the people at large know things better than those politicians because they are the actual life living ones on the existing society.
After many years since my death, now, on such science technology age has proceeded, many hidden facts until a few decades before are now able to be open to anyone who wants to know, and when everyone can get the fact contents of the things now prevailing, people in every country where so far as the electronic internet facilities are available, they are able to get whatever information desirable through their personal requirements. They are now able to get whatever knowledge through those compiled data served by every possible kind of information media. Willie XXIII has now realized the possibilities of talking about what he had got those historical facts once hidden are now being deplored in the public by media data information through the internet facilities.
He now tries to make accesses to the internet web-site information through his PC tablet, and he seems to have realized the fact that there are not much interesting news in them. He is now at the age of eighty-four, and he now persuades himself that he must feel himself quite satisfied with his daily life so far as he can spend time in proper routine activities and eat what he likes. He has time to meet friends a couple of days in a week and play majong together. That would give me a sense of remembrance I used to play bridge wherever I went find proper play partners to kill tedious time. He also attends tea party salon meetings once in a fortnight. His only duty of the office work in his business is to write necessary letters to their factories in Pakistan in English, and all the rest of works were done by his 2nd son and his wife. So, in his free time, he is recently tended to spend time and write such diary like non-fiction stories of his own biographical memories accumulated through his rich experience from his younger days. As a Japanese, he seems to have some interest in the politics now proceeding in this country. On January 23rd the National Congress Meeting started and the greater part of the discussions between the power-holding faction and the opposition parties have been on NHK TV or Radio broadcasting programs. The leading opposition party leader, Edano made his question speech with his powerful eloquence. The listeners, as I was so, were much encouraged by his speech so powerful in its tone and they might have felt much possibility of the new phase of movements in the political field of this country. This is the sentiment of the public opinion that I myself had felt so bitterly the situation similar to the political movements of our country at the time I lived as a novel writer and then when I was in the position of being able to make travelling all around the world under the secret service agency. I had felt much necessity of changes in the stance of politicians before and after the World War Two. Willie XXIII seems to have reached his writing theme in cultivating such theory that I myself had been under the situation in which I was able to write so many stories with the feeling to make suggestions to those big-wigs (top class politicians) in the stake holding nations, the winners of the wars.
No one else seems to have written about it in the literary field in the world with a latent intention of criticism to the power politics. Irrespective of their hope to prevail peace on this earth, the politicians still had to stick to the means of policy making schemes placing the main points on the economic prosperity. Instead of making the direct criticism to those unbecoming point of those power holding politicians, I was able to write so many stories and dramas in which I found the method of putting such grotesque scenes of those people in the politics in the style of comedy touch flow of the contents in many places. At my young age, I used to have felt such feeling of criticism through my miserable life in the sentiment of being an orphan even if I had the brilliancy of my family pedigree.
The readers of my stories, especially who have once read “Ashenden” and “Lord Mountdrago” would feel that stance of my deep intention to make such projective writings focusing those unbecoming scenes of those politician lives. I was at the age forty two, and my brother, Frederic Herbert Maugham was fifty, and he was just about the time of reaching his life career as the Lord Chancellor with his colleague figure Winston Churchill who was at the same age with me, and had already become a friendly relation which continued through our lives. Although, my brother Frederic did not favor the stance of my story writing with such scandalous contents affluently spread out, however, it is a common sense impromptu recognition in the political field in order to produce some relief of tension between the side that governs the nation and the people governed. It’s a kind of arbitrating work between the enterpriser and employee when they make labor negotiations. The work of this kind, the person who can do that requires the character of a philosopher. Humiliation, poverty, envious feeling, hatred against offender, feeling of revenge to them, and then give relief to the evil feelings from what one had done through his life. Only the one who had gone through those severe experiences could do that such arbitration work with his confident mind to do so. I think I was one of them, now I am to give the thought to that. That is the point Willie XXIII has made the insight on my life, and he is now making it for sure having myself on his side and confirming my yes, or no. on each occasion. I feel his eyes looking at me whenever he throws them against me in his daily life. I must, on each such occasion, confess with an answer somewhat obscurely. ‘Yes, it’s partly correct what you said, and I am rather glad that there exists such person of keen sense of insight that give the world very deep meaning of myself having existed in this world once and paid the roll of great revolving of the world moving direction at an age of fragility.
I said, an arbitration work, and that is what Willie XXIII tried to give a little deeper consideration to that facet among my writings. He now again takes up the points that I wrote in the Preface of the Complete Short Stories, Volume III. This preface was also placed on the Collected Short Stories, Volume IV which was published from Penguin Books. He gives out his insight about what I wrote as “They were written long before the Second World War, and I should tell the reader that the sort of life with which they deal no longer exists.” Also I wrote, “The countries of which I wrote were then at peace. It may be that some of those peoples, Malays, Dyaks, Chinese, were restive under the British rule, but there was no outward sign of it. The British gave them justice, provided them with hospitals and schools, and encouraged their industries. There was no more crime than anywhere else. An unarmed man could wander through the length of the Federated Malay States in perfect safety.” Here he throws a doubt of his feeling. He is right. I had to travel through the countries with some safety protection with a person or persons accompanied with me always for safety maintenance. Haxton was one of them. I had to splash out some perfume with a narcotic medicine in the contents to give readers a relief in reading them as they were the stories happened long ago and the present situation were much changed, more relaxed environments being prevailed. These publications planned as the reprints in the titles, Complete Short Stories, or Collected Short Stories, were the result of myself being much encouraged to proceed compilation after the World War II, in the years 1950. Those stories were full of the contents in the style of deploring the actual lives of the people dispatched or emmigrated from our countries. Those books were full of the scandalous contents. When I first published them, as many biographers have written them about, my position in the British literary society as the writer was very delicate, with severe criticism from those literary authorities. Fortunately the act, the works I did were counted as ones partly necessary to be known by the people including all the classes, from top to bottom as they might have read in the newspaper articles. It was like the photo reportage work that everyone can see the real facts happening in those areas. I thought, then, that the works of this nature could be done only by the person like myself who was able to write in the style of novel stories, not like reportage works, and thus I had to go through the scrutinizing of the top position people in the politics of our country including my brother who was in that position then. Severe criticism, but had to be known as facts and I was able to write in the style of novels. I thought that only I could do that. If those facts were told in the style the bitter medicine was packed by the oblate paper, the listeners or the readers of those stories may feel it without much repercussion. On the contrary, they feel much interest and amusement through which they have had time of learning a good lesson through them. Not only the people in our country but also, the people all over the world read them with much interest. That was what I became famous all over the world. These stories are medicine to all human being and especially in the time when the world is divided into two sectors, under the Cold War mood, one the Communist nations and the other the Freedom countries after the World War II ended. There are not many critics in the history who are able to do such acrobatic work in the midst of social instability age. Fortunately, I had experience of such secret service works through which I was able to learn the fact that world is becoming all the more dull and tedious compared with the time half a century ago, that I mean, the time when I was alive and active myself being a writer on the spot of fame and was able to earn a little money with which I could do what I wanted to do. Being on the ball, my creative idea flourished. The more the world movements became tedious and dull, the harder my willingness increased to throw stones to the pond water to make waves. I think I did a lot to create the works that was a tremendous benefaction to the human beings. Now I feel I was rather a great philosopher than a story writer because the medicine I presented to those politicians of the world have resulted to give them such philosophy that they could not ever solve the problems facing all the human beings by creating wars what they used to do before. As a prime minister or a president of a nation, on their given stages, they are now obliged to create some hurdles through secret intention against their opposite powers so that they are able to cut in and show their power to skillfully solve them like the actors or actresses do their roll of performances on the given stages before their audiences. You know, at any age, those better acting actors or actresses earn larger amount of money. The world audiences have now come to realize that they were not anything more than farce. Those farce creators working for their owners earn much money, perhaps. Who pays for that? The people who live under those power holders pay for the farce-like politics in the form of tax payment.