Chapter Eleven 

 I MUST SPEAK TO HIM 



Malan; Malan ! Was it to be the same thing as before? This 

 was infinitely worse, for it was Boxing Day, when he would 

 not be in harness, not in his office, but resting, and as this could 

 happen very seldom he was sure to be surrounded by extra con- 

 crete and steel walls to guard his privacy. Not only was it pretty 

 certain that those would take some penetrating, but to justify the 

 tremendous request I had to make I could not even say This is 

 a Coelacanth', only 'I believe it is very likely to be a Coelacanth'. 



Dinner was another phantom meal where attractively served 

 and tasty food passed my unresponsive palate and tumbled into a 

 contorted stomach, which pushed it on through a writhing duo- 

 denal tunnel. After dinner Frank Evans and I went off and were 

 welcomed at the Shearer home at 8.15 p.m. Shearer is a dentist 

 by profession as well as a Member of Parliament, and is an able 

 and forceful personality as well as a realist. 



George Symons, Daily News photographer, was there, and we 

 were soon deep in discussion. Shearer knew the main outlines of 

 events, and I gave him a brief account of my attempts to get air 

 transport. I said that I had all along been opposed to approaching 

 the Prime Minister, mainly because he was resting, but that now 

 it seemed the only way. It added to my depression to find Shearer 

 dubious of the wisdom of approaching Malan before it was quite 

 certain that all else had been absolutely exhausted. He said that 

 it would at least be very difficult, for at a time like this there would 

 be a series of extra barriers around the Prime Minister's privacy 

 that only the highest in the Government party would be able to 

 pass, and as an Opposition member, well. ... It might be best to 

 have one more try for Erasmus, Minister of Defence. So off^ he 

 went and had a long session on the telephone while we sat dumbly 

 round a table. 



My mind was never off that fish in far-away Comores. Time 



