No Other Choice—别无选择（乔治·布莱克）（第四章~Section 3）
The major, it turned out, spoke fluent Dutch, albeit with a marked English accent, and interviewed me in that language. The questions he asked were much the same as I had already answered that morning, but he dwelt rather longer on my work for the Dutch underground.
【那位少校说一口流利的荷兰语，尽管带着明显的英国口音，他用荷兰语问我问题。他问的问题和我那天早上回答的问题差不多，但他对我在荷兰地下组织的工作内容谈得很久。】
When the interview was finished the captain took me to a small, bare room on the first floor, where I had to fill in a four-page printed form with a number of questions about my parents, my schooling, my hobbies and other personal information.
【面试结束后，上校把我带到一楼一个狭小的空房间，在那里我必须填写一个四页纸的打印表格，上面有关于我的父母、我的学校教育、我的爱好和其他个人信息等问题。】
About a week later I was summoned once more to London. I had to be in Palace Street at exactly two o'clock in the afternoon. On arrival there, I found the captain already waiting for me. He took me straight to the same building we had visited the week before. This time we went up to the fourth floor and, as soon as I stepped out of the lift, I realised that I was in a much more important part of the building than on the previous occasion. The corridor, where I was asked to wait, was covered with a thick red carpet and the captain told me to sit down in one of two Chippendale armchairs, standing at each side of a narrow mahogany table covered with copies of Tatler and Country Life.
【大约一个星期后，我再次被唤到伦敦。我被要求在下午两点准时到达皇宫街。到那里时，我发现上校已经在等我了。他直接带我去了我们一周前参观过的那栋楼。这次我们上了四楼，当我一走出电梯，我就意识到我所处的位置比上次要重要得多。他们让我在走廊里等候，走廊上铺着厚厚的红地毯，上校叫我坐在两把齐本代尔式扶手椅中的一把上，两把椅子分别放在一张狭窄的红木桌子的两边，桌上放着《闲谈者》和《乡村生活》。】
The captain left me for a while and, when he came back, invited me rather solemnly to follow him. At the end of the carpeted corridor we entered a large boardroom, the centre of which was occupied by a long polished table. At one side of this sat five men. Two of these were civilians, one wore the uniform of an air vice-marshal, and two that of a brigadier-general. The captain took a seat at one end of the table and I was invited by the air vice-marshal to take the chair facing the board. He had in front of him my biography, the form I had filled in and several minute-sheets.
【上校走了不久，他回来后很严肃地要我跟他走。在铺着地毯的走廊尽头，我们进入了一间大会议室，会议室中央放着一张锃亮的长桌子。屋子的一边坐着五个人。其中两个人是平常服装，其他三个人一个穿着空军副元帅的制服，两个穿着准将的制服。机长在桌子的一端坐了下来，副元帅邀请我坐在面向董事会的椅子上。他面前放着我的经历以及我之前填好的表格。】
For the next half hour I faced a barrage of questions about myself. They were fired at me, apparently at random, by the various members of the board. I answered them as best I could, quietly and in a straightforward way. I cannot say that I was particularly nervous, I had by now come to the conclusion that it was probably more than just a question of service in fast boats, probably something in Naval intelligence, or liaison work with Allied Navies. Certainly, the questions I was asked gave me no clue. When they had finished, the air vice-marshal, who acted as chairman, asked me to wait outside.
【在接下来的半个小时里，我不断回答着一连串关于我自己的问题。他们不断向我提问。我尽可能地回答了他们，平静且直截了当。我不能说我特别紧张，我当时得出的结论是，这可能不仅仅是在舰艇上服役的问题，可能是海军情报部门的工作，或者是与盟国海军的联络工作。当然，他们问的问题让我毫无头绪。当他们结束时，担任主官的空军副元帅请我在外面等候。】
I had sat there for about ten minutes looking at Tatler when the captain came out. He put his hand on my shoulder and said that I had been accepted and would have to report for duty at ten o'clock on the following Monday morning. On arrival I should ask for Major Seymour. I was pleased as I was getting bored with the dull existence of officer of the watch at HMS Dolphin.
【我在那里坐了大约十分钟，看着闲谈者（英国期刊)，这时上校走了出来。他把手放在我的肩上，说我已经被录用了，必须在下星期一上午10点报到上班。要我去找西摩少校。我很高兴，因为我已经厌倦了海豚号皇家海军舰艇值班官的枯燥生活。】
When I reported for duty at 54 Broadway Buildings, I was taken up by the ground-floor watchman to the small attic room on the eighth floor where I had been before. Major Seymour turned out to be the officer who had interviewed me in Dutch. He wore his uniform jacket now and I could see that he was not a Royal Marine, as I had thought, but in the General Service Corps. This somewhat mystified me. The first thing he did was to take me along to see Colonel Cordeaux who, he said, was the head of the department to which I had been appointed and who wanted to see me before I started. Colonel Cordeaux's office was a large room at the other end of the corridor and was guarded by three secretaries, two of them young and pretty, the third a tall, extremely thin, middle-aged woman with glasses and buck teeth. She looked like a caricature of the prim spinster, but turned out later to be very nice and to have quite a lot of life in her.
【当我到百老汇大厦54号去报到时，一楼的守夜人把我带到八楼的阁楼上，我以前到过那里。西摩少校原来就是那个用荷兰语面试过我的军官。他现在穿着制服夹克，我看得出来，他不是像我想象的那样是皇家海军陆战队的，而是在总务队服役的。这让我有些困惑。他做的第一件事就是带我去见科尔多上校，他说，他是我被任命的部门的负责人，他想在我开始工作之前见我一面。科尔多上校的办公室在走廊另一头的一个大房间里，由三个秘书侯着，其中两个年轻漂亮，第三个是一个戴眼镜、龅牙的瘦高个儿中年妇女。她看上去就像一个循规蹈矩的人，但后来发现她很好，很有活力。】
Colonel Cordeaux himself was a short thick-set man, with pale blue eyes and a bristle moustache. He spoke in a brisk, military manner and walked with a marked limp, caused by arthritis from which he suffered badly. He actually was a Royal Marine, so I thought this must be the Admiralty after all. The Colonel motioned me to sit down and began to address me. What he said, I must confess, made a deep impression on me.
【科尔多瓦上校本人身材矮胖，有一双淡蓝色的眼睛，蓄着一撮胡子。他说话轻快，像军人一样，走路明显一瘸一拐，因为他患有严重的关节炎。他实际上是一名皇家海军，所以我想这一定是海军部。上校示意我坐下，开始跟我说话。我必须承认，他的话给我留下了深刻的印象。】
He informed me that I was now an officer of the British Secret Service and that the building in which we were was its Headquarters. I would be attached to the Dutch Section, which bore the symbol P8 and was headed by Major Seymour. This section was part of a larger department called the Northern Area, of which he himself was the Controller and which, apart from Holland, covered the Scandinavian countries and the Soviet Union. My actual duties would be explained to me by the major, but before I started work I would be sent on a parachute jumping course at Ringway near Manchester. Before dismissing me, the colonel impressed on me the responsibility of my new position and what an honour it was to have been selected.
【他告诉我，我现在是英国特勤局的一名官员了，我们所在的大楼是特勤局的总部。我将被派往荷兰分部，该分部有P8标志，由西摩少校领导。这个部门隶属于一个更大的部，叫做北部地区。他本人是北部地区的总审计长，除了荷兰，北部地区还包括斯堪的那维亚国家和苏联。我的实际职责将由少校向我解释，但在我开始工作之前，我将被派到曼彻斯特附近的林威参加一个跳伞课程。在结束谈话之前，上校向我强调了我在新职位上的责任，以及被选中是多么荣幸。】
I don't know if the colonel himself meant what he said - he was an old man after all and had seen much of what went on behind the scenes - but I, a twenty-one-year-old sub-lieutenant in the RNVR, who had just been commissioned, certainly looked upon it as an honour and an extraordinary piece of good luck. In fact, I could hardly believe that it was true. I had of late suspected and hoped that the job for which I was being interviewed had something to do with 'Intelligence'. But that I would actually become an officer in the British Secret Service, this legendary centre of hidden power, commonly believed to have a decisive influence on the great events of this world, was something that far exceeded my wildest expectations.
【我不知道这些意味着什么，他上校说:他是一个老人,见过很多幕后发生了什么。但是我,一个21岁的海军中尉,刚刚被委任,肯定把它看作是一个非凡的荣誉和好运。事实上，我几乎不敢相信这是真的。最近，我怀疑并希望我接受面试的工作与“智力”有关，我真的会成为英国特勤局的一名官员，这个传说中的隐藏权力中心，通常被认为对世界上的重大事件具有决定性的影响力，是远远超出我最疯狂的预想。】
Before the war each controller had under him a number of Production or T' sections, as they were called. These were not large. They were usually staffed by one or at most two officers and a number of secretaries. Each P section was denoted by a number indicating the country in which it operated. Thus P8 was Holland, P1 France and P4 Germany
【战前，每个长官手下都有一些情报部门，也就是所谓的T部门。这些都不大。他们通常由一名或至多两名官员和若干名秘书组成。每个P科都用一个数字表示，表示它在哪个国家开展业务。因此，P8是荷兰，P1是法国，P4是德国】
The 'P' sections were the London desks of the SIS stations abroad, which carried out the actual work of recruiting and running agents.
【“P”部分是特勤局分部的伦敦分部，负责招募和运营代理商的实际工作。】
The war and the rapid occupation of most European countries changed all this. The SIS stations in the countries overrun by the enemy had to be closed down and their personnel withdrawn. With operations now being mounted from England the 'P' sections took over their functions and from the very start developed a particularly effective way of operating, made possible by the very triumphs of the Germans. Hatred for the occupying power had turned the populations of Western and Northern Europe into a vast reservoir of potential agents and, what is more, agents working for one of the most powerful of motives, patriotism.
【世界大战和德国对大多数欧洲国家的迅速占领改变了这一切。在被敌人占领的国家中的特勤局工作站不得不关闭，其人员也不得不撤出。随着英军开始执行任务，“P”部队接管了他们的职能，并从一开始就发展出一种特别有效的作战方式，这得益于德国人的胜利。对占领国的仇恨使西欧和北欧的人口成为一个潜在代理人的巨大储藏库，更重要的是，这些代理人为一个最强大的动机工作，即爱国主义。】
Rather than trying to recruit and run agents in the occupied countries themselves, the chief policy-makers in the Secret Service decided that the most effective way of doing this was through their governments in exile in England. This step was not only imposed by logical reasoning and correct psychology, but even more by the catastrophic situation which faced the Secret Service as a result of the German victories in the first years of the war. The state of muddle and unpreparedness in which England found herself after Dunkirk in the military field was faithfully reflected in the intelligence field. It was surmounted with the same resourcefulness and pragmatism and, here too, victory was snatched from the teeth of defeat.
【特勤局的主要决策者决定，与其自己在被占领国家招募和运营特工，最有效的方法是通过他们在英国的流亡政府。这一步骤不仅是由逻辑推理和正确的心理强加的，更重要的是，由于德国在战争的头几年取得了胜利，特勤局面临着灾难性的局面。敦刻尔克之后，英国在军事领域的混乱和毫无准备的状态在情报领域得到了切实的反映。他们以不少的努力以及应用智谋和实用主义克服了它，在这里也从失败的边缘走向了胜利。】
The pre-war principle was to operate against a target country from an adjoining country. Thus the SIS station in The Hague had been working against Germany, not against Holland. On the further principle that every war is fought on the pattern of the previous one, the station in The Hague had not organised any agent networks inHolland. Therefore, when the Germans invaded Holland and The Hague station was hastily withdrawn, SIS found itself without a single agent in occupied Holland itself.
【战前的原则是针对毗邻国家的目标国。因此，位于海牙的特勤局工作站一直在对抗德国，而不是荷兰。根据进一步的原则，每一场战争都是按照前一场战争的模式进行的，海牙站没有在荷兰组织有任何的特工网络。因此，当德国人入侵荷兰，海牙站被匆忙撤出时，特勤局发现自己在被占领的荷兰没有一个特工。】
