Franklin ran his eyes down it. Then he said, and there was awe in his voice, ‘I’ve got it! I do believe I’ve got it!’ He sat back heavily in his chair as if he couldn’t believe what he had seen.
The three men watched him tensely, believing him, because of what was written on his face – waiting for it. Franklin took a red pencil out of his breast pocket and leaned over the map. Glancing from time to time at the list, he made a series of red circles at seemingly unrelated points across Britain and Eire, but Bond noticed that they covered the areas where the forests of symbols were at their densest. As he made the circles he commented, ‘Aberdeen – Aberdeen Angus, Devon – Red Poll, Lancashire – poultry, Kent – fruit, Shannon – potatoes,’ until ten red circles stood out on the map. Finally he poised his pencil over East Anglia and made a big cross. He looked up, said ‘Turkeys’ and threw his pencil down.
In the silence that followed, M. said, rather testily, ‘Well, Mr Franklin, what have you in mind?’
The man from Ag. and Fish. had no intention of being pushed about by someone, however grand and hush-hush, from another Ministry. He bent and dug again into his brief-case. He came up with several papers. He selected one, a newspaper cutting. He said, ‘I don’t expect you gentlemen have time to read much of the agricultural news in the paper, but this is from the Daily Telegraph of early December. I won’t read it all. It’s from their agricultural correspondent, good man by the name of Thomas. These are the headlines: “CONCERN OVER TURKEYS. FLOCKS RAVAGED BY FOWL PEST”. Then it goes on: “Supplies of turkeys to the Christmas market may be hit by recent fowl pest outbreaks which have resulted in large numbers of birds being slaughtered …” and further down, “Figures available show that 218,000 birds have been slaughtered … last year, total supplies for the Christmas market were estimated at between 3,700,000 and 4,000,000 birds, so much will depend now on the extent of further fowl pest outbreaks.” ’
Mr Franklin put the cutting down. He said seriously, ‘That news was only the tip of the iceberg. We managed to keep later details out of the press. But I can tell you this, gentlemen. Within the past four weeks or so we have slaughtered three million turkeys. And that’s only the beginning of it. Fowl pest is running wild in East Anglia and there are also signs of it in Hampshire, where a lot of turkey-raising goes on. What you ate at lunch today was almost certainly a foreign bird. We allowed the import of two million from America to cover this position up.’
M. said sourly, ‘Well, so far as I’m concerned, I don’t care if I never eat another turkey again. However, I see you’ve had quite a problem on your hands. But to get back to our case. Where do we go from turkeys?’
Franklin was not amused. He said, ‘We have one clue. All the birds that died first were exhibited at the National Poultry Show at Olympia early this month. Olympia had been cleared and cleaned out for the next exhibition before we had reached that conclusion, and we could find no trace on the premises of the virus – Fowl Pest is a virus, by the way, highly infectious, with a mortality of one hundred per cent. Now then’ – he held up a stout white pamphlet with the insignia of the United States on it – ‘how much do you gentlemen know about Biological Warfare?’
Leathers said, ‘We were indirectly concerned in the fringes of the subject during the war. But in the end neither side used it. Around 1944 the Americans had a plan for destroying the whole of the Japanese rice crop by the use of aerial sprays. But, as I recall, Roosevelt vetoed the idea.’
‘Right,’ said Franklin. ‘Dead right. But the subject is still very much alive. And very much so in my Ministry. We happen to be the most highly agriculturalized country in the world. We had to make ourselves so during the war to keep ourselves from starvation. So, in theory, we would be an ideal target for an attack of this kind.’ He slowly brought his hands down on the table for emphasis. ‘I don’t think it would be too much to say, gentlemen, that if such an attack could be launched, and it can only be countered by slaughtering the poultry and animals and burning the crops, we would be a bankrupt country within a matter of months. We would literally be down on our knees, begging for bread!’
‘Never thought of that,’ said M. reflectively, ‘but it seems to make sense.’
‘Now this,’ continued Franklin, holding up the pamphlet, ‘is the latest thinking on the subject by our friends in America. It also covers Chemical and Radiological Warfare, but we’re not concerned with those – C.W., B.W., and R.W. they call them. It’s a United States Senate paper, Number 58991, dated August 29th, 1960, prepared by “The Subcommittee on Disarmament of the Committee on Foreign Relations”. My Ministry goes along with the general findings on B.W., with the reservation that America is a vast country and we are a very small and tightly-packed one. B.W. would hit us a thousand times harder than it would hit the States. May I read you a few extracts?’
M. positively loathed the problems of other Ministries. In the end, on the Intelligence side, they all ended up on his plate. Bond, amused, watched him summon an expression of polite interest. ‘Go ahead, Mr Franklin.’
22 | SOMETHING CALLED ‘B.W.’
Franklin began reading in an even, expository tone of voice, frequently stopping to explain a point or when he skipped irrelevant passages.
‘This section,’ he said, ‘is headed “Biological Warfare Weapons and Defence”. This is how it goes on:
‘ “Biological Warfare,” ’ he read, ‘ “is often referred to as bacteriological, bacterial, or germ warfare but it is preferred over those terms because it includes all micro-organisms, insects and other pests, and toxic products of plant and animal life. The Army lists five groups of B.W. agents, including certain chemical compounds used to inhibit or destroy plant growth:
‘ “Micro-organisms (bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi, protozoa). Toxins (microbial, animal, plant). Vectors of disease (arthropods (insects and acarids), birds and animals). Pests (of animals and crops). Chemical anti-crop compounds (plant-growth inhibitors, herbicides, defoliants).
‘ “Biological Warfare agents, like Chemical Warfare agents, vary in lethality, making it possible to select an agent best suited to accomplish the objective desired, whether it be temporary incapacity with little after effects or serious illness and many deaths. There are some important differences between B.W. and C.W. other than their scientific classifications. B.W. agents have an incubation period of days, sometimes weeks” ’ – (Franklin looked up. ‘See what I mean about Olympia?’) – ‘ “which produces a lag in their action while C.W. weapons usually bring reactions within a few seconds to a few hours. C.W. agents are easier to detect than B.W. agents, and identification of the latter could often be too late to permit effective counter-measures.” ’ (Franklin again looked significantly at his audience) ‘ “… B.W. agents theoretically are more dangerous, weight for weight, than C.W. agents, though this advantage may be cancelled because of loss of virulence by B.W. agents under exposure.” ’
Franklin paused. His finger went down the page. ‘Then it goes on to talk about anti-personnel B.W. agents like anthrax, typhus, smallpox, botulism, and so on. Yes’ – his finger stopped – ‘here we are. “Anti-animal B.W. agents which might be used to incapacitate or destroy domestic animals are:
‘ “Bacteria: Anthrax, three closely related species of brucella, and glanders. Viruses: Foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest, Rift Valley fever, vesicular stomatitis, vesicular exanthema, hog cholera, African swine fever, fowl plague, Newcastle disease, and equine encephalomyelitis.” ’