And if the cloth had shrunk so had the muscle of the wearer. Circumspection was required if he were to avoid the unnecessary pitfalls of winning the hostility of those who had usurped the influence that had once been Britain's. Forget the principle, take the practical way out. And why not, with these silly children to concern himself with? The Russians would want them back, the Israelis would accept almost anything other than that course. Three idiot children, and because of them he wrestled with a dilemma that should not have existed, who to offend, who to hurt – the monolith of the Soviet Union, or the massive voice of the Jewish lobby across the free world.
Damned ridiculous. And both of them, Russians and Israelis alike, would be wanting one thing in common from him that evening, a binding commitment on a course of action. Only card he held, and he'd see both went home without it.
He'd stayed in his armchair after the Russian had gone, musing, turning the problem over slowly in his mind. When he rose to greet the Israeli Ambassador it was with some awkwardness, the legacy of the wartime shrapnel embedded in his hip. It was not usual for the Foreign Secretary himself to greet ambassadors, not when the issue at stake was the future of three juveniles, killers, but then the situation was not usual; no point on an evening such as this in sticking to protocol. Another circumspect bottom sinking into the comfort of the settee's soft cushions, a moment's pleasantries, and then the starting gun.
'Our position is sensitive, Foreign Secretary, in that we do not have any direct connection with these people, we knew nothing of them before their action became public knowledge. I begin with that, but my government believes it carries a responsibility to all the Jewish peoples, not just to those who reside in the State of Israel, a responsibility that we must discharge within the boundaries of acceptable international conduct.' The Ambassador was leaning forward, and having difficulty making his point with the emphasis he strove for as his small body had sufficiently depressed the cushions that he was unable to gain the height and stature suitable for his address. 'That these young people have committed crimes we accept – serious crimes, we accept that also. In our country there have been no executions since the mass-murderer Eichmann was put to death, in Great Britain there have been none for close to fifteen years. We have both abolished the death penalty for humanitarian reasons. Neither of us believes in judicial killings.' The Foreign Secretary raised an eyebrow; an art he had, only the right eyebrow, and its intention was to signify scepticism. He did it very well. A popular vote in either Britain or Israel would, he thought, have endorsed with enthusiasm a return of capital punishment if directed against the IRA men who bombed the British cities, or the Black September gangs that assaulted the northern Israeli settlements. But the Ambassador was not to be deterred by the movement of a hair line. ' In the Soviet Union these three will face the supreme penalty…' and that would be so wr o n g?… ' I would suggest that you could assume with near certainty that these three will be put to death if they are returned to Russia. ..' and would the world be a poorer place in their absence?… 'My government could not countenance the sending of these three young people to a death they would not have faced if their crimes had been committed in your territory or in ours
…' serve the little blighters r i g h t… ' I am instructed by my Prime Minister to ask of you an immediate guarantee that these people will not be returned to Kiev.'
'What would you suggest happens to them?'
' I am instructed by my government that we would accept their appearance before British courts, and that should they be convicted then they would serve terms of imprisonment inside the United Kingdom.'
'And what charges would they face in Britain?'
'They would face the charges that would have been laid against them in Kiev."
The Foreign Secretary drew a long breath. An audacious approach, but then that was to be accepted. Same as the damned Russians, seeking the propaganda coup – that much was clear to him, even through the pain that meant tiredness and that the fragments of metal still bit at the encasing gristle deep in his body. Concern for advantage, tantamount; concern for the lives at stake, minimal. T am remindedthough I do not have the exact text at hand – of the eloquent statement made recently by your Ambassador to the United Nations General Assembly. It was a call, if I recollect, for a rule of law to combat aerial piracy, a demand that nations should band together to stamp out this contemporary evil. Are we to assume that the religious faith of these three young people excludes them from the type of justice you would wish to see exacted upon men of other creeds?'
The Ambassador did not answer him. It came as no surprise to the Foreign Secretary: diplomats seldom replied to each other's points of debate. It failed to get them anywhere if they did.
'As you know, with the co-operation of your government, we are sending a personal representative of the government of Israel to Britain. This man is a fighter, he holds a substantive rank in those units of our armed forces that deal exclusively with the terrorist threat. If you were to find it possible to commit your government not to return the young people to their deaths then we would order the officer to use his utmost influence to persuade them to surrender without further bloodshed. We have chosen this man with care. It is not accidental that he is the one who has been sent. In our society were his name and his achievements able to be published he would be a hero among us. We believe he is the man to appeal to these youngsters, to gain much from them, more than you can achieve.'
No longer audacious, damned arrogant now,
'What makes you think we need help..,? 2
'We have the experience.' sAnd no one else?'
'Not to the same degree, no. Ask the Germans who were responsible at Munich, ask your friend the President of Uganda.'
'You know, of course that the government of the United Kingdom does not have an extradition treaty with the Soviet Union.'
' I know that military aircraft can take off under cover of darkness, and that politicians can justify their actions at a future date.'
'The Ambassador of the Soviet Union has just departed after telling me his government required an immediate answer on the same question that you ask. I told him that we were considering the situation.'
'From which he would have assumed,' said the Ambassador, 'that the British require time."
' If that was his assumption then it would have been a correct one. Your officer will indeed be taken to Stansted, but whether there is any part for him to play, while conditions are attached to his presence, remains a matter of debate.'
Termination of the conversation. The need that was much more pressing was to speak with the Prime Minister. Worthless and predictable this, a mere swapping of words now that the battle-lines had been drawn.
Alone, while the PPS led the Ambassador through outer offices and empty corridors, the Foreign Secretary sat still in his chair. What if they were not his concern, what if the ministry of another country were in turmoil over the problem, what if he were exonerated of anxiety? Would his feelings on the fate of three young people be different then? How many speeches had he made in the constituency… the Russian threat – the need for vigilance-not to lower our guard – persecution – the tanks of the Warsaw pact – how many war planes, how many missiles, divisions, chemical-gas batteries of artillery.. . always went down damn well, those speeches, particularly at the mid-July garden fete. Three children had taken the System to battle, thrown a tatty, unlined glove at it, and looked for a champion to ride to their rescue. Well, they'd have to look elsewhere, wouldn't they? Silly little blighters.