Passage of Arms

For the medieval war game, see pas d'armes.

Passage of Arms

First edition cover
Author	Eric Ambler
Language	English
Genre	Spy novel
Publisher	Heinemann
Publication date	1959
Publication place	United Kingdom
OCLC	4081070
Preceded by	The Night-Comers
Followed by	The Light of Day

Passage of Arms is a 1959 novel by Eric Ambler.

Plot

Girija Krishnan is a bookkeeper at a rubber plantation in Malaya who has one ambition in life: to found and establish a local bus company and transport system. The local authorities kill a gang of Communist terrorists near the plantation, and Girija realizes from the condition of their guns that their cache of weapons must be somewhere nearby. By slow, hard work and good luck he succeeds in finding it.

He waits several years until he can safely sell the weapons to a Chinese family of entrepreneurs centered in Singapore. Members of the family include the respectable businessman Tan Siow Mong, who runs the transport company which regularly exports the rubber plantation's crop; also the labor racketeer and compulsive gambler Tan Yam Heng, who always needs money; and the streetwise Tan Tak Chee.

When Girija sells the weapons to the Tan family, they realize that in order to re-sell them safely for profit, they need to find a respectable European or American foreigner take legal responsibility for the transfer of funds from the eventual buyer. They find Greg Nilsen and his wife Dorothy, a pair of naive American tourists from Delaware, who are taking a round-the-world cruise. A taxi-driver in Singapore called Khoo Ah Au ("Jimmy" to English-speaking tourists) recruits the Nilsens with a promise of a handsome fee for singing the transfers of inventory and money. Greg is happy to do so when Khoo tells him that the weapons will be used to arm anti-Communist insurgents in Communist Sumatra, but his enthusiasm wanes when he learns that in order to complete the transaction, he must travel to Sumatra in person. He finds that his fears are justified, when he and his party get arrested by the Communist government and held in a Sumatran prison. The prison is run by a brutal officer who hates Europeans and employs a sadistic, manipulative aide. Greg and Dorothy face the terrifying prospect of being interrogated under torture by this aide; however, the insurgents attack the prison, and Greg and Dorothy manage to escape, with the help of a high-ranking English diplomat. The diplomat explains to Greg and Dorothy that they have made asses of themselves, as Americans trying to do business in a culture they do not understand often do. Humbled but relieved, Greg and Dorothy return to Delaware.

Girija uses the money he got for the weapons to buy the vehicles and equipment he needs for his new bus line, and celebrates quietly at home.

Context

The title is a double reference to the novel's plot and the expression a "passage of arms".

The Nilsens are an example of the recurrent "innocents abroad" theme that characterizes Ambler's novels.

Reception

New York Times reviewer James M. Cain, also a thriller-writer in his own right, described the book as "... a picture of Southeast Asia, in all its color and the savagery of its current turmoil ... this is tops, and gets down to bedrock."

The book won the 1959 Gold Dagger award (then known as the "Crossed Red Herring Award").

External sources

• Ambler, Eric (2000), Passage of Arms, London: Pan, ISBN 0-330-39620-X
• "Passage of Arms" Review in Things Asian. Retrieved 25 Jan 2009.
• "Eric Ambler" Bastulli Mystery Library. Retrieved 25 Jan 2009.
• Panek, Leroy L. (1981), The Special Branch: The British Spy Novel, 1890–1980, Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, ISBN 0-87972-178-2