Beneath Gray Skies (17 page)

Gatt opened the meeting. “You were most mysterious in your letter, Mr. Dowling. You referred to a state of possible danger to the United States of America, involving our brethren to the south and the new government in Germany.”

“Yes, sir. I felt it inadvisable to put everything in writing at this early stage. Briefly, sir, we are of the opinion that the Confederacy and the new National Socialist government in Germany are about to conclude a trade agreement, or may even have done so already.”

“What implications do you see, there, Mr. Dowling?” asked Summers.

“Our first thought is that the raw materials from the Confederacy will prove of immense value to Germany in building up her industry. We fear the rise of a strong Germany could once again threaten the peace of Europe.”

“Come on, now,” replied Summers. “You can’t conquer the world on cotton and tobacco.”

“No, sir, you cannot,” replied Dowling. “But you can make a fairly good stab at it when you have oil, wouldn’t you chaps agree? Pole, you have some details.” He turned to Christopher, who started reading from his papers.

“ ‘Our considered opinion is that the oil fields in North Texas and Oklahoma are probably much bigger than those in, for example, California, and much more accessible to the Germans than those in the Caucasus, currently under occupation by the Bolshevik forces, to whose ideals the current German government is implacably opposed in any case. Current estimates put the easily extractable reserves from North Texas and Oklahoma at several thousand million barrels; providing a developed country of the size of the United States with sufficient oil for at least ten years at current rates of consumption.’ That’s from an estimate produced recently by His Majesty’s Government.” Christopher noticed puzzled looks around the table as he read the report in his Georgia accent. They were obviously trying to figure out exactly where he fitted in on all of this. He grinned to himself inwardly. Let them wonder.

“So you see, gentlemen,” Dowling taking up the ball, “Germany has a potential supply of oil.”

“And what makes you so sure that the Seceshers will play with the Germans?” asked Gatt. “Jeff Davis and his good old boys don’t exactly welcome foreigners, you know.”

“There are two points that make me sure, sir,” replied Dowling. “First, I am sure you gentlemen—” he stopped short, feeling Virginia’s eyes on him, and coughed, embarrassedly. “I am sure you people,” starting again, “are well aware of the dismal state of the Confederate economy. We feel that the Davis administration is desperately in need of some valuable hard currency. Now, we all know that the United States of America forms the center of the world’s car and lorry industry—”

“Automobiles and trucks, sir,” corrected Christopher, noticing the slightly puzzled looks on the others’ faces.

“Thank you, Pole. Yes, automobiles and trucks are definitely the USA’s great contribution to the world. Just as airplanes are that of the French and armored tanks and the like are that of the British. But imagine, if you will, a Confederacy with its vast pool of currently idle cheap labor, together with German skills and expertise, and non-native raw materials such as iron ore or even finished steel, turning out large numbers of cheap high-quality weapons of the latest types, with half going to the Confederacy forces, and half to the new German army.”

“Absolutely preposterous!” burst out Summers. Gatt held out a hand of protest.

“Not so fast, Summers. I, for one, do not regard Mr. Dowling’s idea as totally ridiculous. Fanciful, but plausible. I think, John,” Gatt said to Summers, “that if you think about it a little more, it’s not that preposterous. The problems of moving the raw materials and the finished goods across the Atlantic may be great, but they’re not insurmountable.”

“Excellent point, sir,” said Dowling. “In fact … Pole, would you pass the papers around, please? Thank you,” as Christopher got up and handed folders to the three Americans and then returned to his place. “These figures represent our best guesses as to the German and Confederate merchant shipping capacity over the next ten years, assuming a trade agreement of the type I have just outlined, and assuming an initial investment in shipping as one of the first priorities.”

Gatt whistled through his teeth as he scanned the figures. “Where did these figures come from?”

“We know to the ton how much German shipping is available. As to the Confederate tonnage, that’s what you might call educated guesswork. The projections for the future are chiefly based on Swedish iron ore mining figures, the capacity of the Blohm and Voss yards and so on, the assumption that at least one Confederate shipyard will be upgraded to German standards, and the like. It also assumes, as you will see from the footnote, that about one quarter of ship construction over this time will be dedicated to warships.”

“How does that compare with our shipping figures?” Gatt asked the room at large.

Surprisingly, it was Virginia who answered him, after a short pause and some scribbled calculations. “According to these figures, the merchant fleet of the Germans alone will overtake ours in just over seven years, assuming our current rate of growth. Using the same methods, it will only take three to four years from now before our merchant fleet is outnumbered by the joint German-CSA fleet.”

“Thank you, Virginia,” said Gatt. To Dowling, “Miss Wasserstein here comes from a fine old family taking a keen interest in these things.”

“Miss Wasserstein?” said Dowling. “As in the Wasserstein—? excuse me.”

“No offense taken, Mr. Dowling.” The name still didn’t mean anything to Christopher, but the smile directed towards the British delegation weakened his knees.

“Assuming that these figures are right, and we’ll obviously do our own checking on them,” said Summers, clearly not yet altogether convinced, “where does that leave the question of war
matériel
?”

“Two answers for one question,” replied Dowling. “Firstly, you people aren’t really warlike, from our perspective, anyway.”

“If you mean we didn’t get our hands bloody in the Great European War, you’re damned right, begging your pardon for the language, Virginia,” snorted Summers. “We’ve no wish to go around conquering the world.”

“That’s true,” conceded Dowling. “By our standards, the wars you’ve fought have been fairly minor. Some revolts by your natives, some little revolts against European masters in the islands nearby, but nothing on the European scale, for the which, I may say, you may be profoundly thankful. It’s nothing to be proud of to have fought a major war. And my second point is that it is extremely difficult to come up with precise figures on future armament levels.”

“Why?” asked Gatt.

“Too many unknowns, sir. Will the Germans concentrate on building tanks? Or will they concentrate on what we call “dual use” products, that can be used for peace or war, such as lorries—sorry, I mean trucks? Some of these modern weapons demand special capabilities, such as face-hardened armor, or specialist alloys, such as duralumin or other specialist lightweight strengthened metals. Rest assured, though, that we are certain that a significant proportion of the newly industrialized Confederacy’s economy and that of the revitalized Germany will go into armaments.”

“Do you really think that the Germans will join forces with the Confederacy?” asked Summers. “I really do find it hard to believe that a country with so much history and culture could find something in common with that—” he struggled for a word and could come up with nothing better than “trash down there?”

“Mr. Summers,” replied Dowling. “My colleague, Mr. Pole here, resided until very recently in the Confederacy.” All eyes turned to Christopher, who wished he had suddenly developed the power of turning invisible. “In fact, he was a slave there.” The eyes grew wider. Christopher thought he saw a look of admiration on Virginia’s face. “He has told me things about life in that part of the world that quite frankly make my hair stand on end. When you describe some of the people down there as ‘trash’, Mr. Summers, I feel you are understating the case.” The voice was steely. “I have recently come back from Germany. In fact I was in Berlin when the current German government came to power at gunpoint. At Confederate gunpoint at that.”

“What the heck do you mean by that last part?” exclaimed Gatt in bewilderment.

“You mean that you don’t know?” asked Dowling in genuine amazement. “You, Mr. Summers, are you unaware as well?” Summers nodded. “Miss Wasserstein?”

“I had heard something about it,” she admitted. “I read about it in the
Manchester Guardian
. I sent the clipping upstairs for comment.”

“Well, it never reached me,” grumbled Gatt. “Probably some damned fool—sorry, Virginia—who thinks Germany’s just a foreign country that we have nothing to do with, because it’s on the other side of the Atlantic. John, remind me to bang some heads together when I get back. Go on, Mr. Dowling.”

“It wasn’t very well publicized,” admitted Dowling. “Only a few of the German papers printed anything about it. The National Socialists wanted to keep it quiet that they’d had help from outside. Anyway, the Confederates packed between two and three thousand men—that’s two of their regiments, and the signals company from another—into a steamer to Germany to provide the muscle for the National Socialists to detain key members of the old government. About two hundred of the old government were then summarily shot without trial and buried in mass graves. As far as we know, the Confederates weren’t involved in the actual shooting, but we’re not completely sure about that last.”

“This sounds terrible,” said Gatt.

“And furthermore, you may rest assured that this new German government is against Jews, Socialism, Communism, and anyone who is not what they call ‘Aryan’. And what they call ‘Aryan’ is very close to what the Confederates seem to want to call ‘white’, according to my sources,” looking at Christopher. “These Nazis and the Confederates have too many things in common for comfort, to my mind.”

“What do you want to see happen?” asked Gatt. “I mean, where’s your stake in all of this?”

“Mine personally, or Great Britain’s?” asked Dowling. “I explained to you that one of my jobs in London is as a German specialist. My task, given to me by London, is to stop the Nazis and the Confederacy from becoming too powerful. The Germans are born bureaucrats, though, and the Nazis have made it difficult to work inside Germany on account of an extremely efficient political police, so we want to work, with your invaluable assistance, at the periphery of their powers.” He took a deep breath. “Speaking for myself, I find the idea of slavery abhorrent. As do many of your countrymen, I know. If I may speak freely, I find it incredible that the United States of America has not crushed the Confederacy and abolished slavery.”

“As you pointed out, we Yankees are not very warlike,” confessed Gatt. “Most of the martial spirit in North America seems to be down in the South. And since we’re speaking freely, far too many of us here in the North also suffer from a prejudice against the colored folk. We may not keep slaves here in the North, but I think you’d find that our noisy Abolitionists don’t make up the majority opinion. With all due respect to your colleague here,” he nodded towards Christopher, “we’d find it very hard to start a war on the grounds of abolishing slavery. And just to put your minds at rest, I think I can safely say that everyone at this table feels the same way as you, no there’s no call for you to be worrying yourselves on that account.” There were emphatic nods from the other two Americans. “As you know, our two governments have not always seen eye to eye in the past on the subject of the Confederacy. So I’m mighty grateful to you for letting us have all this information. I guess you British know much more right now than we do about all this, and I do agree with you that this does sound as though the United States is somewhat at risk. Where do you want us to take it from here?”

“Pole?” replied Dowling to Christopher, who reached in his folder and pulled out two sheets of paper, handing one to Gatt.

“ ‘Memorandum of Understanding,’ ” read Gatt. He read swiftly down the paper. “It seems as though you want to be able to run your agents in and out of the Confederacy from Washington, and use some of our guys to help you.”

“An excellent summary,” agreed Dowling.

“If you want me to sign it, I’ll gladly do so. But you must first let us do a little checking, as this is all rather sudden. I do believe you, but I do want some independent confirmation.” He pulled out his watch. “Excuse us. We must go, as we’re all expected elsewhere. Quite frankly, I hadn’t expected this meeting to go on for so long. We must meet again soon. Tomorrow at 10 o’clock, here?” consulting a black notebook. “OK for you, John? Virginia? If it’s not, make sure it is.” He stood up and extended his hand. Hands were shaken all round, and Christopher moved to open the door. As she passed, Virginia smiled directly at him, and it seemed to him that she deliberately moved to brush surreptitiously against his arm. He felt his face growing hot with embarrassment, but no-one else seemed to have noticed anything.