Atdtda33: Fair play, 935-939 #1

[Paul Nightingale]

The reintroduction of a minor character, Coombs De Bottle, who last appeared
at the end of Part 3. On 691, as seen by Lew, he is "a bit more tattered and
fretful than last time". Previously, on 234-235, he is "[s]uave,
cosmopolitan ... not a hair on his face allowed anywhere it should not be
..." etc. On 235 he bemoans the loss of Anarchist lives in bomb-making and
must "suppress the missionary urge to go out among them". A page later he
points out that the Gentleman Bomber of Headingly throws "poison-gas
grenade[s]" rather than bombs, "[a]nd he does usually wait for tea". Here,
on 936, he has after all tried "to reach out to the community of bombers and
instruct them in Bomb-Building Safety", leading to "a certain conflict of
interest" and the end of his career at the War Office. In mitigation he has
insisted he is concerned for "British Anarchists ... not as if they were
Italian, or Spanish", which he calls an "appeal to British racialism". It is
of course to put the emphasis on national rather than political identity, to
opt for one kind of mapping, or discursive formation, over another. Cf
Ratty's speech on 938: the self-interest of the nation state, its identity
dependent on war, "just the ticket to wipe Anarchism off the political map".
Regarding Coombs himself, his belief is that knowledge ("Bomb-Building
Safety") should be used irrespective of political context: the disinterested
scientist, like the Anarchist, doesn't recognise such arbitrary limits.