The Light of Day (7 page)

'You say you searched everywhere in the car?'

‘Yes, sir. Everywhere.'

'Did you search inside the doors?'

'Well, no, sir. They are sealed. I would have damaged…’

He said something quickly in Turkish. Suddenly, the security man locked an arm round my neck and ran his free hand over my pockets. Then he shoved me down violently on to a chair.

I stared at the Commandant dumbly.

'Inside the doors there are—' he referred to the paper in his hand—'twelve tear-gas grenades, twelve concussion grenades, twelve smoke grenades, six gas respirators, six
Parabellum
pistols, and one hundred and twenty rounds of nine-millimetre pistol ammunition.' He put the paper down and stood up. ‘You are under arrest.'

CHAPTER THREE

The post had no facilities for housing prisoners, and I was put in the lavatory under guard while the Commandant reported my arrest to headquarters and awaited orders. The lavatory was only a few yards from his office, and during the next twenty minutes the telephone there rang four times. I could hear the rumble of his voice when he answered. The tone of it became more respectful with each call.

I was uncertain whether I should allow myself to be encouraged by this or not. Police behaviour is always difficult to anticipate, even when you know a country well. Sometimes Higher Authority is more responsive to a reasonable explanation of the misunderstanding, and more disposed to accept a dignified expression of regret for inconvenience caused, than some self-important or sadistic minor official who is out to make the most of the occasion. On the other hand, the Higher Authority has more power to abuse, and, if it comes to the simple matter of a bribe, bigger ideas about his nuisance value. I must admit, though, that what I was mainly concerned about at that point was the kind of physical treatment I would receive. Of course, every police authority, high or low, considers its behaviour 'correct’ on all occasions; but in my experience (although I have only really been arrested ten or twelve times in my whole life) the word 'correct' can mean almost anything from hot meals brought in from a near-by restaurant and plenty of cigarettes, to tight-handcuffing in the cell and a knee in the groin if you dare to complain. My previous encounters with the Turkish police had been uncomfortable only in the sense that they had been inconvenient
andi
humiliating; but then the matters in dispute had been of a more or less technical nature. I had to face the fact that 'being in possession of arms, explosives and other offensive weapons, attempting to smuggle them into the Turkish Republic, carrying concealed fire-arms and illegal entry without valid identification papers' were rather more serious charges. My complete and absolute innocence of them would take time to establish, and a lot of quite unpleasant things could happen in the interim.

The possibility that my innocence might
not
be established was something that, realist though I am, I was not just then prepared to contemplate.

After the fourth telephone call, the Commandant came out of his office, gave some order to the security man, who had been waiting in the passage, and then came into the lavatory.

'You are being sent at once to the garrison jail in
Edirne,’
he said.

'And the car I was driving, sir?'

He hesitated. 'I have no orders about that yet. No doubt it will be wanted as evidence.'

Direct communication with Higher Authority seemed to have sapped a little of his earlier self-confidence. I decided to have one more shot at bluffing my way out. 'I must remind you, sir,' I said loudly, that I have already protested formally to you against my detention here. I repeat that protest. The car and its contents are within your legal jurisdiction. I am not. I was refused entry because my papers were not in order. Therefore, legally, I was not in Turkey and should have been at once returned to the Greek side of the border. In Greece, I have
a
permis de séjour
which
is
in order. I think that when your superiors learn these facts, you will find that you have a lot to answer for.'

It was quite well said. Unfortunately, it seemed to amuse him.

'So you are a lawyer, as well as a journalist, a chauffeur and an arms-smuggler.'

'I am simply warning you.'

His smile faded. Then let me give you a word of warning, too. In
Edirne
you will not be dealing with the ordinary police authorities. It is considered that there may be aspects to your case and it has been placed under jurisdiction of the Second Section, the Ikinci
Büro.'

'Political aspects? What political aspects?' I tried, not very successfully, to sound angry instead of alarmed.

That is not for me to say. I merely warn you. The
Director Second Section is General Haki. It will be his men who will interrogate you. You will certainly end by co-operating with them. You would be well advised to begin by doing so. Their patience, I hear, is quite limited. That is all.'

He went.
 
A moment or two later the security man came in.

I was driven to the garrison jail in a covered jeep with my right wrist handcuffed to a grab-rail, and an escort of two soldiers. The jail was an old stone building on the outskirts of the town. It had a walled courtyard, and there were expanded metal screens as well as bars over the windows.

One of the soldiers, an N.C.O., reported to the guard on the inner gate, and after a few moments two men in a different sort of uniform came out through a smaller side door. One of them had a paper which he handed to the NC.O. I gathered that it was a receipt for me. The N.C.O. immediately unlocked the handcuffs and waved me out of the jeep. The new escort-in-charge prodded me towards the side door.

'Girmek, girmek!'
he said sharply.

All jails seem to smell of disinfectants, urine, sweat and leather. This was no exception. I went up some wooden stairs to a steel gate which was opened from the inside by a man with a long chain of keys. Beyond it and to the right was a sort of reception-room with a man at a desk and two cubicles at the back. The guard shoved me up to the desk and rapped out an order. I said in French that I didn't understand. The man at the desk said :
'Vide
les poches.'

I did as I was told. They had taken all my papers and keys from me at the frontier post. All I had left in my pockets was my money, my watch, a packet of cigarettes and matches. The desk man gave me back the watch and the cigarettes, and put the money and the matches into an envelope. A man in a grubby white coat now arrived and went into one of the cubicles. He was carrying a thin yellow file folder. After a moment or two he called out an order and I was sent in to him.

The cubicle contained a small table and a chair and a covered bucket. In one corner there was a wash basin, and on the wall a white metal cabinet. The white-coated man was at the table preparing an inking plate of the kind used for fingerprinting. He glanced up at me and said in French: 'Take your clothes off.'

People who run jails are all the same. When I was naked, he searched the inside of the clothes and the shoes. Next, he looked in my mouth and ears with a flashlight. Then he took a rubber glove and a jar of petroleum jelly from the wall cabinet and searched my rectum. I have always deeply resented that indignity. Finally, he took my fingerprints. He was very businesslike about it all; he even gave me a piece of toilet paper to wipe the ink off my hands before he told me to dress and go into the next cubicle. In there, was a camera, set up with photofloods and a fixed focus bar. When I had been photographed, I was taken along some corridors to a green wooden door with the word ISTIFHAM lettered on it in white paint.
Istifham
is a Turkish word I know; it means 'interrogation'.

There was only one small screened and barred window in the room; the sun was beginning to set and it was already quite dark in there. As I went in, one of the guards followed me and switched on the light. His friend shut and locked the door from the outside. The guard who was to stay with me sat down on a bench against the wall and yawned noisily.

The room was about eighteen feet square. Off one corner there was a washroom with no door on it. Apart from the bench, the furniture consisted of a solid-looking table bolted to the floor and half a dozen chairs. On the wall was a telephone and a framed lithograph of Kemal Ataturk. The floor was covered with worn brown linoleum.

I got out my cigarettes and offered one to the guard. He shook his head and looked contemptuous as if I had offered him an inadequate bribe. I shrugged and, putting the cigarette in my own mouth, made signs that I wanted a light. He shook his head again. I put the cigarette away and sat down at the table. I had to assume that at any moment now a representative of the Second Section would arrive and start questioning me. What I needed, very badly, was something to tell him.

It is always the same with interrogation. I remember my father trying to explain it to Mum one night just before he was killed. It's no good for a soldier who is up on a charge before his CO. just telling the truth; he has to have something more, something fancy to go with it. If he got back to barracks half an hour after lights-out just because he'd had too much beer and missed the last bus, who cares about him? He's simply a careless bloody fool—seven days confined to barracks, next case. But if, when he's asked if he has anything to say, he can tell the tale so that the C.O. gets a bit of fun out of hearing it, things are different, he may be only admonished. My father said that there was a corporal in his old regiment who was so good at making up yarns for the orderly room that he used to
sell
them for half a crown apiece. They were known as "well-sirs”. My father bought a well-sir once when he was 'crimed' for overstaying an evening pass. It went like this:

'Well, sir, I was proceeding back along Cantonment Road towards the barracks in good time for lights-out and in a soldierly manner. Then, sir, just as I was passing the shopping arcade by Ordnance Avenue, I heard a woman scream.'
 
Pause.
'Well, sir, I stopped to listen and heard her scream again. There were also some confused cries. The sound was coming from one of the shops in the arcade, so I
went to investigate.'
 
Pause again, then go on slowly. ‘
Well,
sir, what I found was one of these Wogs
—
beg pardon, sir,
a native
—
molesting a white woman in a doorway. I could see she was a lady, sir.'
Let that sink in a bit.
'Well, sir, the moment this lady saw me she appealed to me for help. She said she'd been on her way home to her mother's house, which was over on the other side of Artillery Park, when this native had attempted to
—
well, interfere with her. I told him to clear out. In reply, sir, he became abusive, calling me some very dirty names
m
his own lingo and using insulting language about the Regiment.'
 
Take a deep breath.
'Well, sir, for the lady's sake I managed to hold on to my temper. As a matter of fact, sir, I think the man
must have been drunk or under the influence of drugs. He had sense enough to keep his distance, but the moment I escorted the lady out of the arcade 1 realized that he was following us. Just waiting for a chance to molest her again, sir. She knew it, too.
I’ve
never seen a lady more frightened, sir. When she appealed to me to escort her to her mother's house, sir, I realized that it would make me late. But if I'd just gone on my way and something terrible had happened to her, I'd never have forgiven myself, sir.'
Stiffen up and look without blinking at the wall space over the C.O.'s
head.
'No excuse to offer sir, I'll take my medicine.'
C.O.
can't think of anything to say except 'Don't let it happen again.' Charge dismissed.

The only trouble is that in the Army, unless you are always making a damned nuisance of yourself, they would sooner give you the benefit of the doubt than not, because it's easier for them that way. Besides, they know that even if you
have
made the whole thing up, at least they've had you sweating over it. The police are much more difficult. They don't
want
you to have the benefit of any doubt. They want to start checking and double-checking your story, and getting witnesses and evidence, so that there
is
no doubt. What was the lady's name? Describe her. Exactly where was the house to which you escorted her? Was her mother in fact there? Did you see her? It takes twenty-two minutes to walk from the shopping arcade to the other side of Artillery Park, and a further thirty minutes to walk from there to the barracks. That makes fifty-two minutes. But you were two hours late getting in. Where did you spend the other hour and eight minutes? We have a witness who says that he saw you...' And so on. You can't buy well-sirs good enough for the police for half a crown. Intelligence people are even worse. Nine times out of ten they don't even have to worry about building up a case against you to go into court.
They
are the court—judge, jury and prosecutor, all in one.