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The obsession of Morris West
New book and film dwell on
the subject of terrorism
From BRYAN GLENNON, who recently visited Morris West in London
Morris West Help
Morris West
TERROR, legal and illegal,
has become a compelling ob-
session with Morris West —
possibly the most commercially
successful Australian novelist
of the past two decades.
This should be yet another good
year for West. His book, with
world terror as its core, is due out
in England soon: a film of one
of his earlier novels. 'The Devil's
Advocate' with his friend and
nearby neighbour John Mills re-
cently premiered in Australia.
He has no fear that the book, its
title yet a secret, or the film will
fail but he is afraid that Britain's
rabbit plague will annihilate his
vegetable garden.
West, on his knees carefully ex-
amining nibbled cabbages in the
garden of his tranquil home in
Surrey, is untypical of the interna-
tional author, energetic commuter
between London, New York,
Rome, and, less often, his home-
land, Australia.
The distant whisper of jets at
Heathrow hint at his easy ac-
cessibility, although they whisk
him rarely to his homeland. Last
month, when he arrived to promote
his film, was an exception.
He tells me he is off to Switzer-
land the next day. The tending of
a Swiss bank account suggest itself
and another sort of cabbage, safe
from rabbits and the UK tax man.
For Morris West has made some
very profitable deals since selling
his radio production unit in Mel-
bourne 26 years ago.
He does not care to discuss those
days, although as a former Chris-
tian Brother he built a good busi-
ness as a writer and producer of
radio plays and serials.
The money he made from the
sale of this company probably gave
him the financial security he
needed to devote himself to serious
writing.
'Dick Barton, Special Agent' —
one of his long-running Australian
productions using BBC scripts —
almost certainly made such a use
ful contribution to the birth of
Morris West the novelist.
West prefers not to reminisce
about those early days — although
behind the bright green door of his
studio at 504 Spencer Street, Mel-
bourne, he provided an entertain-
ment eagerly devoured by Aus-
tralians in the pre-TV era.
Today, he regards it all as old
history and "I like to live in the
present".
The present is his book about
terror and this he is eager to talk
about. He leans across a desk,
upstairs in his garden studio:
"How would you and I act or
react to terror in a world in which
we are constantly under threat?"
he asks. "On this side of the world
this is commonplace.
"What do you do in an aeroplane
hijack? How do you react to the
urban guerilla? Is there such a
thing as a just killing? How would
I react if my son is shot in the
street?
"These are questions that bring
us into close confrontation with the
depth and validity, of our beliefs.
We are being tested at every stage
and our answers are often inade-
quate. Yet we cannot avoid the
choice. What do you do when you
are looking down the barrel of a
gun belonging to an enemy? Is he
truly an enemy, should he be? The
fact is he is there and he is threat-
ening you.
"In today's world this situation
is becoming a dreadful com-
monplace and it is closing in on all
of us in all societies.
"We are constantly having to
inquire into the moral and
pragmatic basis of our actions".
West says he is trying in his book
to explore the motivations of those
engaged in terror, the possible de-
velopments of terrorist activity,
both so-called legal terror on the
part of police and governments —
and so-called illegal terror on the
part of guerillas or revolutionaries
whose cause may be just and who
have chosen a terrorist activity as
the means of achieving it.
This was a highly complex ques-
tion. Terror itself had become a
trade — a profession. Military bod-
ies were trained not merely as
counter insurgents but as inflictors
of terror.
Society had to be aware of the
price it paid for training people to
be anti-terrorists, exorcising terror.
"We can have peace in the
streets but we have to ask ourselves
at what price do we get it; at what
sacrifice of liberty or the rights of
the individual — because the rights
of the individual in a situation of
conflict are diminished. Are they
going to be permanently
diminished? Is there going to be a
permanent excuse for something
approaching a totalitarian State
even in our present democracy?
"What does confrontation do to
society, what does it do to the
individual, how is it motivated on
either side.
"One thing you hear very little
about, except at international con-
ferences, is the arms traffic. Coun-
tries and individuals and com-
panies arc making huge fortunes
peddling weapons of death.
Morris West's dissection of ter-
ror is meant as a warning.
His previous novel, 'Harlequin',
an indictmcnt on the use of com-
puters, was also meant as a warn-
ing. Had there been any such feed
back from 'Harlequin'?
"Yes, there was. People are
more aware of the enormous poten-
tial of invasion of their private lives
by storage and retrieval mecha-
nisms. Your sins never can be for-
gotten, your virtues are not re-
corded. The mechanisms are such
that errors and lies can be fed in
but can never be retrieved.
"I became very much aware of
the power of these storage and
retrieval mechanisms when I took
issue with a company over what
may appear a very small matter. A
putative $5 debt. I said unless I
have evidence that this has been
erased from the computer and a
statement to this effect issued, I
will sue for a very large sum of
money because that piece of in-
formation could damn me wher-
ever I go and I live on credit
throughout the world. My credit is
that important to me. People said
'You are making a big fuss over
nothing". My reply was that the
principle was much, much more
important".
West admits to a great interest
in business. "The world of business
is the world or human commerce
and that world is becoming more
and more complex for the individ-
ual who is increasingly dependent
on it.
"Everybody in England and
Australia are talking about infla-
tion and unemployment, which are
both tragic factors of life today.
"However, what they point up
and what people do not fully recog-
nise is that they arc fully depen-
dent on others — someone else to
grow their potatoes, someome else
to cart the potatoes. They depend
on everybody but themselves sim-
ply because in urban concentra-
tions there are no gardens, they are
covered by asphalt; the water
comes in pipes from unknown
sources. There are no wells, any
more. The wells can be polluted by
waste from industry. People are
more dependent, in a highly com-
plex society, for the simplest of
services. And being more depen-
dent, they are forced to conform
with the demands of that society,
right or wrong".
How does West, who has lived
so long now away from Australia,
react to the suggestion that he is
an expatriate.
Identity
"I'm an Australian by origin, by
identity, in manners. I have never
felt any destruction or diminution
of my identity by having a Europe
an education, or by acquiring a
fluency in three languages and liv-
ing abroad".
He says he "flowers" in Latin
speaking countries but the seed is
as undeniably Australian as the
Wattle.
"I just happen to find myself at
home where I hang my hat".
The hat of Morris West hangs
frequently in Italy, where he has a
home and in New York and Lon-
don.
A pity he is hatless when he
comes to Australia.
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