Who is Clifton Brown, George Morrison, Ethyl from Pao: A Novel and what is their importance?

Clifton Brown, George Morrison, and Ethyl are Pao's recruits. Brown is a black, homosexually oriented police officer who would lose his job (and possibly his life) if his sexual desires became publicly known. Pao discovers this, and uses the power he gains over Brown as a result to his own advantage.

Morrison is a physician and gambler, whose life would be ruined if all the debts he owes were to be collected. Pao takes over those debts, and in return Morrison offers free medical service to Pao, his family, and those he protects.

Ethyl is one of the servants in the home of Henry and Cicely Wong. Pao, knowing of her ambitions to leave service, funds her education in return for her providing information on what goes on in that house. The relationships between Pao and all three characters serve as evidence that Pao, blind for many years to what he is actually doing to these people, is as much of an oppressor and/or exploiter as the people he claims so consistently to be fighting.