University and PMS (1939-40)

The 1939-45 war seen from Orthez⁴²

He also regretted that he had "missed" the war, and that this could explain his wanderings in the 20 following years, from Indochina, to Australia, and then the great return by land, which at another time he explained by the search for his golden days on holiday in Carennac.

But first, let us examine the status of these two works, judging from their presence on Wikipedia: though translated into 27 languages and rewarded by the Prix des Critiques, Education Européenne does not have a wiki page of its own in English, though it has a good summary of the plot on the French version. It is the opposite with Forêts de la Nuit (no page in French but a short analysis in English) which is now perceived as a more true-to-life account, and had exposed as a myth the idea that all of France had resisted the Nazi occupant.

My own reading supports that idea. Though different in settings and plotting, they both aim to address the moral issues linked to military defeat and foreign occupation. But Gary gives a more romantic picture of the deeds of the resistors, and even the collaborators become heroic before the close of the novel. The few French characters are all resistors, except for one "Mr. Karl" whose motives are not altogether evil. There are many passages devoted to what a young man would feel about the war, but emphasis is place on its educational value (hence the title), which refers to the experience of killings, rapes and other destructions on a continental scale. Germans are portrayed as normal people, with a moral conscience temporarily blinded. The future is pictured as holding much promise once the forces of darkness will have been defeated and fraternity will unite the peoples. Gary distinguishes patriotism, a love of our co-citizens, from nationalism, which is the hate of others.]
Across Europe, the war can fairly be said to be the most important event in the lives of countless people. In Orthez, it took a special turn with the city divided by the demarcation line between the free and occupied zones.

Orthez-born novelist Jean-Louis Curtis, who was also an agrégé d'anglais, known to Guy, has portrayed the intrigues that shook the little town during that period, with the author specially delighting in depicting, with a light touch, the hypocrisy and small vices of the local bourgeoisie. This source⁴⁶ is also very useful for our memoir as the novel contains a lot of ideas that were current at the time, in a style and language, and even a sense of humour, quite similar to Guy's, giving us a satirical insight into that period and its problems.

The novel calls up several characters to depict the various social classes and their weaknesses which seem to be drawn from life, and which still strike a bell for me, among whom:

- the pretentious silly aristocrat: Guy actually knew such a family, the Champetier de Ribes, a branch of which was quite successful in Paris, another is still present in the vicinity of Orthez. They did not, however, display the same pretentiousness which is, in the book, a literary device;

- the old bourgeois widow interested mainly in Spiritism: I remember a "Tante Augusta," a relative of Louise, who had her own quirks the rest of the family viewed with affection;

- the Parisian belle finding it difficult to adjust to life in provincial Orthez: we knew such a person, the wife of a shoe-shop owner in the Rue Moncade;

- the crazy servant from the Landes who believes she is nightly visited by Satan, no doubt Aunt Louise had experience that type of housemaid;

- the elegant German commander billeted to one of the best houses of the town (none remembered in the family).
Several difficult themes are handled with sensitivity, without wasting any occasion of using their comic potential:

- the German commander whose society is sought by all the best local families, sparking discussions, behind his back, about the collaboration;

- the importance of food in that provincial town, at at time of great restrictions in other parts of the country:
"Située aux frontières du Béarn et du Pays Basque, dans une plaine riante et fertile, Saint-Clar avait été célèbre avant 39 pour ses foies gras et ses jambons dits "de Bayonne". Malgré la pompe aspirante de l'occupation, cette plantureuse Arcadie n'avait pas épuisé ses ressources."

Curtis's book is excellent in portraying the moral dilemmas faced by the local population, and the ambiguity of both Résistant and Vichy partisans. The novel contains several conversation discussing the moral dilemmas. We have to understand that after the heavy casualties of WW1, now often seen as useless, there was a good deal of cynicism around, and the question could now be asked (when it could not be in 1914) about the futility of sacrifice.

The first question that arose was whether people had a duty to resist, in spite of the dangers involved. One character (Gérard) concludes, after much soul-searching, "Il y a peut-être, malgré tout, des causes qui valent la peine qu'on meure pour elles, en manière de timide suggestion. (…) Je connais au moins un homme qui est prêt à mourir, s'il le faut, pour une certaine cause (…) et je ne crois pas que cet homme soit une dupe ou un imbécile.

His interlocutor, a young cynical bourgeois, answers in a manner where I recognise the cynical side of the author Curtis, which would have held some attraction for Guy:

By the end of the war, a major change had over-run the town and its inhabitants, which would somehow have a lasting influence on Guy's outlook on life: "Et cette minuscule Arcadie assoupie depuis des siècles le long du Gave ne sortirait pas intacte de la guerre. Déjà des changements étaient perceptibles. En quatre ans, la ville avait évolué plus vite qu'au cours des quatre derniers lustres. Elle était enfin mêlée directement à l'histoire universelle. Des étrangers sans nombre la traversaient, (…) la radio, le cinéma (la) faisaient palpiter au rythme du monde. Désormais elle ne pourrait plus se replier sur elle-même, son destin était lié à celui de la planète entière, et elle en avait obscurément conscience. L'extérieur, avec toutes ses nouveautés et toutes ses folies, déferlait sur la ville. On voyageait beaucoup. La notion de 'province' était périmée." (p. 306)

Curtis also describes the hidden drama that the German occupation had temporarily buried under its artificial rule based on terror. Confusion, moral and material chaos had supervened, and elementary, instinctive forces hitherto hidden had surfaced, cracking the varnish of social conventions. Everyone would be shown up for exactly what they were. "dans le chaos obscur de ces années, chacun devait rencontrer face à face sa propre vérité fulgurante, et se mesurer à elle." (p.308)

The "liberation" of Orthez by the Résistant forces (an absurd claim since the Germans left without firing a gun), in late August 1944, offers some unforgettable tableaux, and again faces the population with its own contradictions. "Ils étaient tous là, au grand complet, les petits profiteurs honnêtes de la guerre; ils étaient là, hilares, rutilants de graisse et d'âpreté, les paysans des environs, ceux qui avaient exploité avec science et discernement la mine d'or allemande."

Auguste did not seem to be very involved in all those events. These were the last years of his life, and he was gravely ill several times. In his letter to his son⁴⁷, he only says about it: "Nous avons été très heureux, les boches ont quitté Orthez une nuit sans casser une vitre, mais quelle joie d'en être débarrassés, pendant huit jours les drapeaux sont restés au fenêtres et personne n'a travaillé."

In Curtis's novel, to assuage their feeling of guilt and shame, the people took it out on the few women who had slept (or been suspected of consorting) with the foreign soldiers, by organising public ceremonies in which they were shorn, their hair roughly cut of, and then paraded through the town. Those who had never done anything against the enemy were now self-appointed judges meting out punishments to weaker victims. This is known to have occurred in most French cities⁴⁸. Curtis draws a parallel between those events and the atrocities committed by the Nazis in Eastern Europe against the Jews. The feelings of the character closest to the author are intense shame: "J'ai honte, j'ai honte devant tous ceux qui sont morts pour sauver ces larves." It seems as though the world had suddenly regressed, and the dawn of a new era had ushered in a medieval twilight.

But the author closes his grim description of post-war Orthez on a note of hope, with the notion that perhaps the idea of nation, which had played a major part in firing up the war, was now totally discredited and defunct, and that new wider transcendent ideas, more practical, more generous, would emerge.

We know that Guy paid a brief visit to Orthez in November 1945, as soon as he got back to France. He saw Hélène, who had made the trip specially to meet him, and was apparently unsuccessfully in trying to get him to come back to civilian life and seek a proper "situation" for himself. He may have just had time to get a whiff of what had been going on in his home town, and deciding he did not want to have any part in it from then on. He once told me of a meeting with the mother of one of his contemporaries killed in operation, and of her hidden hatred at the injustice of destiny he had guessed she harboured. This anecdote struck at the time and I have not forgotten.

I have dwelt at length on that period because it may have had some importance in the following years. This is the Orthez to which Guy did not wish to return, that perhaps he guessed in November 1945, and would take all steps to avoid. Even when finally, disappointed with Australia, he brought his family home there, and the wounds of the war had mainly healed in Orthez, he was never fully at ease there. He did not discuss the reasons for such a position, and did not broach any of the dilemmas I have described above, which were already been forgotten.

A short spell in Paris wondering what to do next

While the ministry decided what to do with his class of servicemen, he had a happy time in Paris, a guest at several homes of family friends, chasing the young Parisian ladies, as he candidly explains to his confidante, his aunt Hélène.

He wrote to his confidante, his aunt⁵⁰ Hélène, giving her, and us, a crucial indication about of his frame of mind at the time, where it is clear he was not contemplating a return to the fold:

Suis encore à Paris, pour un certain nombre de jours. J'éprouve pour le retour à la terre l'appréhension et l'instinctif recul du croissant pour le café-crème. Je me demande même si, pris d'un beau désespoir, je ne vais pas reprendre le large. Ne va pas, cependant, t'émouvoir outre mesure. Pourtant, je ne me vois pas du tout bouquinant du droit avec l'exaltante perspective d'un avenir de notaire. Brr. Tu sais, je suppose que si je reste si longtemps à Paris, ce n'est pas uniquement pour jouir plus longtemps des charmes de Gisèle ou du métro, mais parce que j'attends du ministre de l'Air veuille bien accoucher l'une de ses nombreuses dactylographes d'une note concernant les conditions de mise en activité des aspirants de réserve.
There is not quite enough in the letters to do justice to Guy's rejection of the bourgeois world which was waiting to reclaim him, and which he rejects with horror in that passage. To supplement the analysis, I am borrowing from Mauriac, who handled this theme of the young bourgeois revolting against his priviledged prospects: In Les Chemins de la Mer, the main character, Pierre, reflects on his choices, toe the line and become a bourgeois, or, for moral reasons, side with the working class. There is even an inkling of Guy's attitude towards the political system in general:

« Sa conscience savait ce qu’il aurait dû accomplir : apprendre un métier manuel, entrer en apprentissage. Il lui était interdit de se persuader que c’était utopique et irréalisable : un garçon américain qu’il connaissait, avait renoncé à sa très riche famille, et travaillait à l’usine, maintenant. ‘Et je n’ai pas le droit, songeait Pierrot, même s’ils étaient fondés en raison, d’avoir recours aux arguments tels : le premier devoir est d’utiliser au mieux nos dons naturels’, ou encore : ‘ je peux rendre de plus grands services à la classe ouvrière, en demeurant moi-même.’ Il m’est interdit des arguments de tels arguments, même s’ils sont justes, puisque ce n’est pas eux que je cède, mais à mes habitudes d’esprit, à mon goût du confort (dans la mesure où il me permet et favorise l’exercice de la pensée), à mon esprit d’indépendance’ […] Un seul devoir, se répétait-il, une seule obligation : frayer à travers lui une route à cette montée obscure du chant souterrain […] Cela n’empêche pas d’être du côté des pauvres… Pensée idiote : il n’existe pas de ‘côté des pauvres’, mais deux méthodes pour exploiter les pauvres, à droite et à gauche. Devenir soi-même un exploité pour être sûr de ne pas prendre rang parmi les exploiteurs ? Au-dessus de ses forces… Reste, pour ceux qui ont la foi, de revêtir la soutane, ou une robe blanche ou brune… Existe-t-il un seul Ordre qui soit mendiant, à la lettre ? Que signifie le vœu de pauvreté individuel, si l’on s’agrège à une collectivité puissante ?"⁵¹

In January 1946, Hélène visited him in Paris and, as his only living blood relative, tried to exert some influence over him to make plans for the future. She was completely unsuccessful. Guy would later explain that he had had the impression of "missing" the war, and that is why he welcomed the appointment to Indochina, which came as a coup de théâtre. In the meantime, he refused to explain anything, and we will have to wait until he is in Australia to be given some explanations about this unexpected exile:

Ça y est, je quitte enfin la Babylone moderne qui t'inspirait tant de craintes pour mon salut temporel et spirituel. Je ne vais pas à Cazeaux⁵², mais à Orange⁵³, patrie de Daladier. Arc du premier siècle a. JC, 11090 habitants d'après le Larousse de Lucienne.

Ne te tourmentes pas en conjectures, tu tomberais sûrement à côté, je ne puis encore te dire ce qui motive mon départ pour Orange. Si cela peut te rassurer il n'y a pas de locaux disciplinaires ni de prison à Orange.

Cela n'empêche que ce départ pour Orange est un coup de théâtre "c'est le cas de le dire": théâtre du IIème siècle très bien conservé) qui pourrait en préparer un autre, tout à fait dans le genre de mes coups habituels.⁵⁴

Strangely, he did not mention in this letter that this departure may be for a much farther destination, which will turn out to be Saigon. In later years, the move would be presented as "volunteering against Japan" in newspaper articles that did not check the chronology. From Orange, Guy reported to his aunt Louise, (we have the copy she made out for Hélène), this new military experience, tiring but healthy, where he had a much more gratifying position as a junior officer than in his previous experiences in North Africa. He is the head of the 16^th section of the Far-East Detachment, leading four non-commissioned officers and 29 men, "at least until Saigon". Though he should be pleased that as an aspirant, he is well above the fray, and entitled officer privileges such as sleeping in town (at the Hotel Royal Astoria⁵⁵), he makes gentle fun of the mechanical side of military life and does not take himself seriously personally in this new persona. The main activity of his section seems to be the verification of the colonial clothes, equipment and undergoing vaccinations.

He finally sails on 4 March 1946 from Marseilles, for a 21 day passage, via Suez, Djibouti, Colombo and Singapore, on what was a rather new and comfortable boat (perhaps compared with those in which he had crossed the Atlantic). It is not sure he had warned Hélène before his last minute short note⁵⁶, perhaps because he thought she may try a last attempt to stop him.

Again, as there are insufficient explanations, I will draw from a purple passage from Mauriac some indication, in heavily novelised form, about the thought processes of a young bourgeois just before he enlists in the army:⁵⁷

"Mammon ne serait qu’un médiocre monstre s’il n’était au service d’un autre plus puissant. A quoi bon parler de réformes, de révolutions ? Tout échouera toujours : la faim et la soif de justice se heurtent à une autre soif, à une autre faim, à cet appétit abominable (…) L’enfer éternel commence ici-bas, dès leur naissance pour ceux que les théologiens damnent, et dès avant leur naissance. Le chemin que l’enfant-poète avait suivi débouchait tout à coup sur la destinée de Landin, sur cette mer Morte.

(…) Pierre découvrait à la fois cette puissance irrésistible de tout le créé sur son être, et sa propre impuissance à s’y conformer sans désespoir. Les autres, autour de lui, suivaient leur loi et il n’existait rien de tragique pour eux dans l’assouvissement. La sensation de la chute leur était épargnée, l’excès de leurs délices ne les dégradait pas. Mais lui, il se sentait couler. Aucun raisonnement ne prévalait contre cette certitude que sa joie tendait à la mort… Il ne pouvait supporter de vivre, et pourtant il n’était pas question de mourir. La joie d’être vivant l’étouffait… Mais il avait peur de ce qui est au-delà de la mort. Il croyait à tout ce qu’on lui avait fait croire. Les autres s’en étaient déchargés d’un mouvement d’épaules, mais la moindre graine avait germé en lui…. La mort au monde n’en faisait pas moins horreur à cet adolescent païen. Il avait toujours fui les prêtres, bien qu’il les aimât. Il redoutait ces rabatteurs de Dieu et leurs filets où se prennent les belles âmes… Vinrent les jours où il lut par hasard un livre récemment paru⁵⁸, du petit-fils de Renan, Le Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d’Arc, de Péguy.

Au déclin, nous avons peine à croire que notre destinée ait pu être infléchie par un livre. Cela est vrai pourtant, d’une vérité quotidienne. Pierre se persuada qu’il recevait du dehors cette croix et cette épée confondues, alors qu’il les portait en lui à son insu, comme presque tous les garçons de son temps et de sa race : il n’eut pas à creuser beaucoup…

Il allait au plus simple. A cet âge, il est enivrant de résoudre les conflits de la vie avec une signature. Il signait et c’était fini, - fini de Paris, de sa maîtresse, de cette existence, fini de sa famille (il partirait sans dire adieu à personne, pas même à sa mère). Il signait, et rien ne dépendait plus que des autres et que de l’Autre – de Celui qui l’avait poussé au hasard, une nuit, dans le promenoir de l’Olympia, qui ne l’avait pas sans dessein posté au dernier tournant sur la route de ce condamné à mort. [il s’agit de la dernière rencontre avec Landin]. […] Quelle paix de se dire qu’il n’avait plus qu’à se laisser faire ! Oui, jusqu’à la fin de l’épreuve… jusqu’à ce printemps de 1915 où il aurait 23 ans et où, libéré, il détiendrait enfin, croyait-il, l’ayant chèrement acheté, le secret de la joie en ce monde.

French Indochina⁵⁹

The words "rêve d'Asie" already feature in a poem by V. Hugo⁶³: "Devant le sombre hiver de Paris qui bourdonne,/ Ton soleil d'Orient s'éclipse et t'abandonne./ Ton beau rêve d'Asie avorte, et tu ne vois/ Sous tes yeux que la rue au bruit accoutumée,/Brouillard à ta fenêtre et longs flots de fumée/ Qui baignent en fuyant l'angle noirci des toits." This was a famous poem, judging by the number of times it was published or quoted in the press, and could be opposed to "intelligence d'Europe." In the thirties, it summed up the discovery that the Orient too had a long history and civilisation that could teach us westerners much philosophy and art of living. There is no doubt that appealed to Guy, especially after his disappointment with the Arab world.

During that time, Guy held three jobs, aerial controller at the national airport, then commercial investigator at the US consulate, and finally at Landis Brothers. But on the whole, he would conclude that "he had had a rather rotten time there.⁶⁴"

He never mentioned, as far as I can remember, any military activities, though there was already some opposition to the French presence.

When he set foot on land in Saigon, Guy was appointed as air traffic controller on the military airport of Tan Son Nhat⁶⁵, which became famous later during the Viet-Nam war, and is still the site of the Ho Chi Minh international airport, renovated in 2010.

There is little information about the 18 months. I remember my father speaking about having been struck by the utter misery of the living conditions of the Annamite population, how he could never have lived like them.

More informative is the "fiche de demobilisation" dated 8 September 1947, which gives his address as Villa des Bergeronnettes, Rue De Gaule prolongée, Saïgon, Cochinchine. The last unit he belonged to was "BP 191 (et CAA 217)". His grade: aspirant; his speciality: pilot. He had been in the forces for 4 years and 9 months.

He does look like the Air Force did not like him too much. No promotion to lieutenant in two years, and no operational responsibility.

His dream of Asia was already dead, and he particularly disliked the French expatriate/colonial milieu which must have reproduced the class distinctions of the metropolis, as we see in all the films about that period.

It is a pity that we do not know why Guy left this job, which was a permanent, full-time position, where according to the end-of-contract certificate, he performed very well: "worked diligently and well to the complete satisfaction of his supervisors. He is now leaving this position entirely at his own volition⁶⁶" It may be because he discovered that the job would not get him an immigration visa to the U.S. within a reasonable timeframe, or because the next job paid more.

At Landis Brothers (according to his calling card), he must have been involved in trading activities.

Quand je suis parti de Saïgon, j'étais depuis trois mois dans une maison américaine dont le directeur américain m'avait engagé à cause de mes bonnes notes au consulat pour la somme de 6.000 piastres par mois, soit 102.000 fr. Ce n'était pas mal, mais le directeur local qui ne gagnait que 1000 piastres de plus que moi, qui ne parlait pas anglais et il avait peur que je ne lui prenne la place dans quelque temps a fait tout ce qu'il a pu pour m'empêcher de me mettre au courant des affaires de la maison. Comme j'étais très fatigué par le climat et que j'aurais dû rester 3 ou 4 ans avant de pouvoir aller en Amérique, j'ai décidé de quitter tout de suite l'Indochine et l'aller recommencer dans un pays sans dévaluation continuelle et sans marché noir ni fricotage qui fait le fond du commerce indochinois.

Guy had now been for three years in an uncongenial, and at times dangerous country, without finding anything to keep him there. Years later, he told a journalist in Dehli⁶⁷ that "he was beginning to get disgusted with things", unfortunately no details given. All in all, it was time to move on. This is how he told the story of his new departure.

He was granted a three-month visa for New Zealand on 14 October 1948, with transit by Australia. The French administration allowed him to take out of Indochina two cheques for respectively 20 Australian pounds and 23,700 CFP francs. He left Saigon on 20 October 1948.

Our friend Maud was appointed to Saigon as an English teacher.

Having had the opportunity of visiting Hanoi, I could realise that much time had passed, and there were no signs left from the French colonial days. The country, now on the path to economic growth, was still very poor. Unfortunately, I could not travel to Saigon.

On his way to Australia, Guy was able to stop for five days in New Caledonia, and visit the island, where again the local French community did not rise to his expectations. That is where, according to family tradition, he bought his first typewriter, an Hermes, which would follow us forever, and on which Guy would write his correspondence and later his book.

J'ai passé cinq jours à Nouméa où la vie est beaucoup moins chère qu'à Saigon. J'ai visité toute la partie sud de l'ile en compagnie de touristes australiens venus s'installer en Nouvelle Calédonie pour passer leur retraite. Le pays est très beau et très sain mais il est très difficile d'y trouver quelque chose à faire parce que les vieilles familles français empêchent tout développement du pays pour pouvoir conserver leurs avantages. Le pays sera tôt ou tard absorbé par les Américains. C'est d'ailleurs ce que les jeunes veulent.