“With us, the situation is completely different. The Daventry Message clearly transfers authority and legitimate government away from London and places it in the hands of the Dominions and Colonies under the authority of their Governor-General. That is our interpretation of it, at least. Therefore, the ownership of the British aircraft goes with the legitimacy of the government and that means they are ours. How we divide them up between us is theoretically up to us, although I would suggest the Americans might have something to say about that.
“However, there is another complicating factor. The aircraft have not been delivered or paid for in full. Technically, both the British and French governments are in default on their payments for those aircraft and their actual owner is remains the companies that built them Primarily, that is Curtiss with the Model 75 and Model 81 fighters, Douglas with the DB-7 light bombers and Lockheed with the Hudson patrol aircraft. Not to mention Consolidated with the Catalina flying boats and the LB-30 long-range bombers. If any one of those companies went to war with us today, they’d win.
“Finally, there is the question of the interest on the funds held in escrow. Who does that belong to?”
“There needs to be a conference.” Lord Linlithgow shook his head.
“These things need to be resolved face-to-face. The question is where? Whoever hosts that conference will be in a good position to claim leadership of the Commonwealth, pro-tem at least.”
“We’d better make sure it is either us or on neutral ground then. The Canadians and Australians will be locking horns over just that issue and the last thing we want is either of them lording it over us.”
“With respect, Sir, these aren’t our aircraft.”
Squadron Leader Joseph Alleyne looked at the line of twelve Sunderland Mark I flying boats. They were brand new, pristine and shining. A year earlier, Number 10 Squadron’s Sunderlands had looked just like that, but a year of hard service patrolling around Great Britain had taken the gloss off their paint and the smell of newness from their cabin.
“They are now. Ruling from the Air Ministry. The Australian Government paid for a squadron of brand new Sunderlands, not a squadron that have already seen extensive service. So, you are to swap your used aircraft for an equivalent number of new-manufacture Sunderlands intended for 95 Squadron and then leave the country before anybody says otherwise. There’ll be some passengers coming down for you to take with you.”
Air Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill frowned mightily at the young Australian officer. In his opinion, the Commonwealth forces left much to be desired where conventional standards of discipline were concerned. On the other hand, if it hadn’t been for their streak of rebelliousness, the whole Empire might have caved in when Halifax pulled the blanket out.
“Where do we go? What do we do?” Alleyne was bewildered and felt frighteningly lost. Suddenly, he remembered an event long ago, when a lost dog had attached itself to him and followed him home. The look in the dog’s eyes all those years ago had been an eerie foreshadowing of how Alleyne felt at this moment. Lonely, dazed, disorientated, abandoned and vulnerable. When they had reached home, he’d seen a hopeless, forlorn look in the animal’s eyes; the expectation that he would, once again, be chased away. That was what Alleyne had expected his mother to do. But she took one look at the poor hound, took him in and fed him. Alleyne also remembered how the expression in the dog’s eyes had changed to joy at the realization he was, at long last, somebody’s dog again. Will we be that lucky? Or will we end up wandering lost and homeless?
“Away from here, as soon as possible. We have telegraphed the Australian Government, telling them that you and your aircraft have been
ordered to leave Great Britain with immediate effect. If you receive no orders to the contrary, I would suggest you head for Gibraltar first, refuel there and then make your way to Alexandria. You can find a home there, for a while at least. General Wavell has repudiated the Armistice Agreement in view of Italian attacks on Egypt and the Sudan.
“As for what you do, you will have to consult your Government on that. As far as we are concerned, they have gone their own way.”
“Refuel, sir?”
“These aircraft are still technically assigned to 95 Squadron. All their paperwork refers to 95 Squadron. When you arrive in Gibraltar, you will be, as far as anybody knows, 95 Squadron. Any fuel you requisition will be charged to 95 Squadron. By the time the real 95 Squadron gets here, which will be 48 hours after we get word from Gibraltar that they have apparently arrived there, you should be well clear.”
Alleyne had a hard job stopping himself laughing. This was a deception worthy of anything he and his men had pulled off over the years.
“Very good, Sir. Gibraltar and then Alexandria it is.”
“Good man. One other thing. Three G-class Empire flying boats will be going along with you. As far as anybody is concerned, they are route testing for the resumption of Imperial Airways flying boat services. When do you plan to leave?”
“Tomorrow morning, Sir. At dawn.”
“They’ll be here. Look after them, Squadron Leader.”
“The next item on the agenda is raising monies needed for the operation of the Government and investment in our national infrastructure.”
Lord Linlithgow looked around the room. “I need hardly add that this is a most pressing problem and one that is critical for our success as an independent nation.”
“If I might make a proposal to the Cabinet, I believe that it might go some small way towards addressing this grave problem, while also righting an injustice that afflicts so many of our fellow countrymen.” Nehru spoke gravely; his eyes flickered around the Cabinet. With the departure of Sir Richard Cardew, the most outspoken opposition to the presence of the Indian Congress Party in Cabinet had gone, but there were other, less overt opponents. “I refer, of course to the activities of money-lenders in every small village and town across India. Their depredations bring poverty and hunger wherever they go. They drain away the lifeblood of our farmers and keep them in perpetual debt bondage. They are an evil that we must remove from our midst.”
“Surely you overstate the harm these people do?” George Edward Parkes was responsible for agriculture in the Indian Central Legislative Assembly. In Nehru’s eyes, the very fact that he could say that showed how out-of-touch he was with the sector of the economy he was supposed to oversee.
“I think not,” Nehru was speaking slowly and carefully. This was, after all, his first substantive contribution to a Cabinet meeting. “In the farming villages, the money lenders advance the cost of the seed to the farmers. They take payment of that loan in the form of a share of the crops grown from that seed. That share is never less than half and is often two-thirds or three-quarters of the total crop.
“What is left is barely enough to keep the farmers and their families alive through the rest of the year until the next crop comes in. They are unable to save money or seed for their next crop. So, once again, they must return to the money lenders. And where do the money lenders get the seed they sell to the farmers with the funds they so expensively loan? Why, from the share of the crop that they took the year before! These men do nothing but live off the labors of others. It is time we ended their activities, once and for all.”