“Well, I’m going tomorrow morning. If the Chief wants anything he’ll have to come to the hotel.” He never did.
Once more we were off, this time on a British liner. The sea was smooth, the air cool. It was the ideal ocean voyage I had always longed for. I was relaxed and enervated but it was good to be so. I had nothing to do all day but sit in the glorious breezes on deck and watch the romping children, about fifty of whom were on board. Many had been born in the Orient and were accompanying “pater” who was going home on leave. One little boy might come tearing by pursued by another, both followed by anxious Chinese amahs, thin, dark, slick-haired, wearing glossy, black trousers and coats buttoned down the side. They seemed in constant distress over the antics of their energetic charges.
When we dropped anchor at Singapore, agitation and excitement were again manifest among the inspectors at the sight of my passport. I was politely asked to stand by while they consulted, and then was ushered off the ship to an upstairs office where I was questioned by a pleasant young Englishman as to my intentions in going to India.
“But I’m not planning to stop in India.”
“Lectures by you are announced in Bombay and Calcutta.”
“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” I assured him. “But if I were to go, would there be any objection?”
“That would depend on the subject of your lectures.”
“I’m interested in only one subject.”
He pressed a button. Miraculously, almost like a scene from a mystery play, and as though everything had been rehearsed in advance, an attendant entered and placed on the desk a large, closely typewritten paper.
“Am I on the blacklist?”