Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance, Volume One (25 page)

Editorial in the
Milwaukee Journal
, July 5, headed “A Question of Integrity”:

At first blush
the Russian offer to take the trogs appears to ease our shoulders of a great weight. Here is exactly what we have been grasping for, a solution without sacrifice, a sop to our consciences, a convenient carpet to sweep our dirt under. The man in the street, and the responsible official, suddenly are telling each other that perhaps the Russians aren’t so bad after all, that there’s a great deal of room in Siberia, that the Russians and the trogs are both barbarians and really not so much different, that the trogs were probably Russians to begin with, etc.

Let’s break the bubble of illusion, once and for all. We can’t go on forever holding our Christian integrity in one hand and our inclinations in the other…Doesn’t it seem an odd coincidence that while the Russians are desperately short of uranium miners at the murderous East German and Ural pits, the trogs, accustomed to life underground, might be expected to make a good labor force?…In effect, we would be turning over to Russia millions of slaves to be worked to death. We have rejected forced repatriation in West Europe and Korea, let’s reject forced patriation and enslavement of the trogs.

Headline in the
New York Times
, July 20:

REDS BAN U.N. SUPERVISION OF TROG COMMUNITIES

SOVEREIGNTY ENDANGERED, SAYS PUDESTOV

ANGRILY WITHDRAWS TROG OFFER

Headline in the
New York Daily News
, July 26:

BELGIUM OFFERS CONGO FOR TROG HABITATION

ASKS FUNDS TO RECLAIM JUNGLE

U.N. GIVES QUALIFIED NOD

From
The Trog Story
, July 28, by Harlan B. Temple:

“Four
million (give or take a hundred thousand) trogs now breathe surface air. The Kreuzertal camps now constitute one of the world’s largest cities, ranking under
New York, London, Tokyo. The formerly peaceful Tyrolean valley is now a vast array of tarpaulins, circus tents, Quonset
huts, water tanks, and general disorder. Trog City doesn’t smell too good either.

“Today might well mark the high tide in what the Austrians are calling ‘the invasion from hell’.
Trogs still push through a dozen gaps ten abreast, but the pressure doesn’t seem so intense. Every once in a while a space appears in the ranks, where formerly they came packed like asparagus in crates. Another difference: the first trogs were meaty and fairly well nourished. These late arrivals are thin and ravenous. Whatever strange subterranean economy they practiced, it seems to have broken down completely…”

From
The Trog Story
, August 1, by Harlan B. Temple:

“Something horrible is going on under the surface of the earth. Trogs are staggering forth with raw stumps for arms, with great wounds…”

From
The Trog Story
, August 8, by Harlan B. Temple:

“Operation Exodus got underway today. One thousand trogs
departed the Kreuzertal bound for their new home near Cabinda, at the mouth of the Congo River. Trucks and buses took them to Innsbruck, where they will board special trains to Venice and Trieste. Here
ships supplied by the U.S. Maritime Commission will take them to their new home.

“As one thousand trogs departed Trog City, twenty thousand pushed up from their underground homeland, and camp officials are privately expressing concern over conditions. Trog City has expanded double, triple, ten times over the original estimates. The machinery of supply, sanitation and housing is breaking down. From now on, any attempts to remedy the situation are at best stopgaps, like adhesive tape on a rotten hose, when what is needed is a new hose or, rather, a four-inch pipe.

“Even to maintain equilibrium, thirty thousand trogs per day will have to be siphoned out of the Kreuzertal camps, an obvious impossibility under present budgets and efforts…”

From
Newsweek
, August 14:

Camp Hope, in the bush near Cabinda, last week took on the semblance of the Guadalcanal army base during World War II. There was the old familiar sense of massive confusion, the grind of bulldozers, sweating white, beet-red, brown and black skins, the raw earth dumped against primeval vegetation, bugs, salt tablets, Atabrine…

From the U.P. wire:

Cabinda,
Belgian Congo, August 20 (UP): The first contingent of trogs landed last night under shelter of dark, and marched to temporary quarters, under the command of specially trained group captains.

Liaison officers state that the trogs are overjoyed at the prospect of a permanent home, and show an eagerness to get to work. According to present plans, they will till collective farms, and continuously clear the jungle for additional settlers.

On the other side of the ledger, it is rumored that the native tribesmen are showing unrest. Agitators, said to be Communist-inspired, are preying on the superstitious fears of a people themselves not far removed from savagery…

Headline in the
New York Times
, August 22:

CONGO WARRIORS RUN AMOK AT CAMP HOPE

KILL 800 TROG SETTLERS IN SINGLE HOUR

Military Law Established