In the meantime he would enjoy this holiday and see what happened next year.
1945
BERLIN - FEBRUARY
The British and German Foreign Ministers were in the middle of one of their regular meetings. A year earlier, Sir Anthony Eden had prevailed upon von Altendorf to release to him a copy of the pre-war ‘Hitler’ study on colonial empires. The British government had found cold comfort from its findings. One thing that Sir Anthony particularly found frustrating was the firm conclusion that the ‘British Empire was a major source of stability in the world’, yet the President of the United States was now pressuring Britain to start dismantling it, beginning with India.
“The United States has quite an empire of its own but they just won’t admit it. They really believe their own propaganda, that only European nations are imperialists”. Eden complained sourly.
Imperialistic behaviour by the United States dated back to at least the ‘Louisiana purchase’ in 1803 when the US paid France fifteen million dollars for over eight hundred thousand square miles of territory, including its inhabitants, west of the Mississippi River.
An ‘imperial acquisition’ can be defined as an aggressive encroachment of one people upon the territory of another.
Furthermore, the many infamous and unjust ‘Indian wars’ in America were nothing more than blatant imperialism and genocide of the worst kind.
Territory had been permanently acquired from Mexico, the Mexican cession lands, in the Mexican – American war of 1846/48. The huge territory of Alaska was purchased from the Russian Empire in 1867.
Hawaii had been a sovereign independent kingdom until 1893 when plotting American and other residents had staged a coup d’état. Hawaii became officially a US territory only a few years later.
Also at the end of the nineteenth century, as a result of the one-sided Spanish – American war in 1898, the US gained considerable territory in the Caribbean and Far East. Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and some Pacific Ocean islands became American. In 1900 the Samoa Island group in the Pacific became American, and in 1903 the Central American country of Panama granted sovereign rights to the US for a coast to coast strip of land, ‘in perpetuity’. This was for the building of a canal.
The United States of America was still acquiring land in 1917 when it purchased a group of Caribbean islands from Denmark. These then became known as the US Virgin Islands.
One of the United States’ leading historians stated ‘From the time the first settlers arrived in Virginia from England and started moving westward, this was an imperial nation, a conquering nation.’
This was now the country that professed such a distaste for empires and whose President was lecturing Great Britain on the right to self-determination for the oppressed.
India was the problem that Sir Anthony was currently wrestling with.
Nationalism had been slowly on the rise in the ‘Jewel in the crown’ since 1885 when educated middle class Indians had founded the Indian National Congress, (INC). After 1918, nationalism had intensified, one factor in this being that the then American president, Woodrow Wilson, had stimulated certain receptive minds with his ideas about people of any country having the right to govern themselves.
The British government had proposed and introduced various reforms with a view to a measured pace of advancement towards self-government, but with India remaining an integral part of the British Empire. These were denounced as stalling tactics by many of the more politically minded Indians, who wanted power for themselves.
In the early 1930s, a conference in London, attended by Mahatma Gandhi as the senior representative of the INC, broke down over the issue of religion. The Hindu Indian delegates could not agree on the matter of Muslim representation in an independent Indian government. A sure sign of future religious strife. A sign that was largely ignored.
In 1935 the Government of India Act was introduced. An elected wholly Indian Assembly would have a say in all aspects of government except defence and foreign affairs. Provincial assemblies would have control over local affairs. Unfortunately the INC were still not satisfied. Also, the Indian Princes, whose rule continued in some areas of India, refused to co-operate with provincial assemblies. This Act again completely ignored the problem of religious rivalry.
In 1937 The Muslim League now demanded a separate Muslim state, to be called Pakistan. On the other side, Gandhi and the INC were determined to preserve Indian unity, with themselves as the dominant partner. Hostility between the two religions was ever increasing.
The start of the European War in 1939 meant the issue of independence had been temporarily shelved. India provided valuable military assistance to Britain in exchange for an understanding that the country would be granted the same independent dominion status that Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand currently had, once the war ended.
In 1941 the war had been over for six months and normality was returning to Britain and Indian. The independence negotiations started again. As did the squabbling.
In early 1942 the religious rivalry was coming to a head. There appeared to be no prospect of compromise between the INC and the Muslim League. Violence continued to spread and India quickly descended into a low grade civil war.
The government in Britain finally accepted the situation was slipping beyond their control. They grasped the nettle and announced four emergency measures.
All British forces would leave India by the end of 1945. In the meantime troop reinforcements would be despatched to restore law and order. The current Viceroy of India, the Marquess of Linlithgow, who had governed India since 1936, was being replaced by Lord Mountbatten, who would oversee the transition to independence. India was to be partitioned. The greater part of the sub-continent being Hindu, would retain the name of India. The majority Muslim areas in the east and west would be named Pakistan.
The INC finally accepted the stand of the Muslim League that internal peace would only be possible with separation of the religions.
The British Foreign Secretary was now weighed down with the problem of an agreed and orderly partition. All sides of the debate were making impossible demands. A mischievous thought went through his head. ‘If only we could give this entire sub-continent to the Germans. I think they would not stand for the nonsense we British have taken from the demanding, inconsistent, untrustworthy and self-seeking Indian politicians.’ He smiled to himself.
Von Altendorf was speaking. “Yes, I am afraid our American friends have acquired the habit of assuming that only they are capable of acting unselfishly and for the good of mankind. It is an attitude encouraged by their politicians and media. They really do think they know what is best for the world. I forget which politician said it, but the quote was ‘you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else’.
Still, for all their faults I cannot help liking the ordinary people. They have big hearts. It is only their politicians, both high and low level, that I am wary about. Strictly between you and I, of course.”
There was silence between them for a moment.
“Well Baron, I am very worried that this partition of India is going to be horribly expensive in terms of human lives. The Muslims and Hindus absolutely hate each other. At this moment, they are incapable of negotiating anything without their underlying hostility rapidly surfacing.
Religious bigotry among people claiming to be educated and civilised, in this day and age! It is beyond comprehension.
To complicate matters, the eastern Muslims of Bengal, are now viewing the dominance of the western Muslims with some suspicion. It is possible India might have to be partitioned into three separate entities.” Eden was quite gloomy.
Von Altendorf could only offer advice as an outsider, although Germany had considerable intelligence on India, indeed, on every country in the world. “India’s large population will no doubt ensure that the Hindu and Muslim states will have an important place in the future world. Shou
ld Britain make a major mistake in the manner of partitioning of the sub-continent, the emerging states may not easily forgive you. If their economies do not prosper, or if there is social unrest or political instability, they will always blame Britain as the former colonial power. In fact, if the rains fail, or there is a tsunami, Britain will be blamed. That is Germany’s reading of the situation.
My colleaugues and I came to the conclusion that the current plan for a single Muslim nation divided into a West Pakistan and an East Pakistan, is laying the basis for the easterners in Bengal to sooner or later secede from the arrangement. This could well lead to a war between the two entities, which could perhaps draw in India.”
This thought had already crossed Eden’s mind but he had not yet got to the stage where he was prepared to actively contemplate it. “Do you know something about Bengal that I don’t know, Baron?” he asked.
“Very little, I think. We know that it was an independent state before the British gained control in the second half of the eighteenth century. You are probably aware that one of your Bengali Muslim politicians called Chandra Bose, spent some time in Austria in the mid-thirties. He even married an Austrian girl. While he was here, he met, and was influenced by, prominent Nazis.”
Eden confirmed he knew a little about this.
Von Altendorf continued, “What you may not know is that the same gentleman re-appeared here in Germany in April 1940. He was seeking some sort of assistance from Adolf Hitler to establish an anti-British Indian National Army. He had come to the conclusion that the Japanese would eventually take control of Indochina, and from there they would attack British controlled India. Hitler met him once but nothing ever came of it, and of course, within weeks the Fuhrer was dead.
While Bose was here, the Abwehr interrogated him and discovered the Bengali anti-Hindu feeling was as strong, if not stronger, than the anti-British trait. Furthermore the Bengalis were also suspicious of the Western Muslims. Bose later travelled to China. We heard much later that he had died in an aircraft accident.
Our intelligence services review all their country files on a regular basis and submit updated reports to the Governing Council. The subject of a recent one of these, was India. On the basis of Bose’s disclosures, the report concluded that due to the ethnic, linguistic and historic differences, as well as the one thousand six hundred kilometres separating them, Bengal would not readily accept union with a future West Pakistan. It further concluded that in the event that the British coerced Bengal into becoming part of a Pakistan state, it would almost certainly lead to future unrest and insurrection or civil war.”
This was news to Eden. It was also enough to cause a complete re-think of the strategy of partition. Once again he found he was indebted to his German counterpart. He asked, “I don’t suppose it would be possible to get a copy of that report, Baron?”
The German Foreign Minister smiled. He valued his relationship with his British counterpart, and in fact he had become a complete Anglophile. “Of course. I will send for it immediately. I will have to read through it again to make sure there is nothing in it we could consider ‘classified’. Our embassy in London will deliver it to you tomorrow or early the next day.”
As he had been on many occasions in the past few years since the war, Eden was extremely thankful for the special relationship that had developed between Germany and Great Britain. The German inspired European Alliance was the greatest military power on earth. A power for peace. The countries that comprised the Alliance collectively had the greatest industrial output in the world. The communist menace that was the Soviet Union, was docile in the face of Germany’s and the Alliance’s resolve. It was ironic that the problems facing Great Britain over its empire were, at least partly, a result of the naïve utterances and actions of their ‘cousins’ and friends, the United States.
Later that evening he was at home in his study, already starting work on a new, and hopefully final, proposal for the partition of India.
SAN FRANCISCO - 12 APRIL
It was announced that the President of the United States, Franklin D Roosevelt, had died suddenly.
Jamie thought back to only a few months ago when he and his father had discussed this very possibility. It was very sad, but Jamie acknowledged to himself that he had definitely lost a little of his respect for his President since the election campaign.
The US Vice President, Harry S Truman, had been sworn in as the thirty third President of the United States. He had only been Vice President for eighty two days when Roosevelt had died.
Jamie was thoroughly enjoying his work at the bank, and while he and Katherine missed Germany and Europe, San Francisco was now their home. Business was booming. In the past month alone, they had taken orders for three merchant ships from Germany, plus a lot of other machinery and equipment. Frank O’Donnell’s Mercedes Benz car dealerships were importing large numbers of the vehicles. On top of this, he had discovered he had a talent for banking.
He believed his future was assured, interesting, and profitable.
BERLIN - APRIL
Prince Paul, the Regent of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was deep in discussions with Baron von Altendorf. He was extremely concerned for his country. The ethnic divisions and hostility among his peoples were simmering, and close to boiling point.
Yugoslavia had only existed as a country since 1918. Following the end of the Great War, certain territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire had merged with the formerly independent Kingdom of Serbia. The Serbian King, Alexander I, became the King of Yugoslavia.
Political unrest soon led to King Alexander banning political parties and assuming sole executive power in 1929 with the aim of curbing separatist factions within the country. In 1934 he was assassinated. His young son Peter succeeded him, but was too young to rule. His cousin, Prince Paul, had been appointed Regent.
The various ethnic groupings had continued their squabbling, and this had been aggravated in later years by the meddling of the Nazi and Fascist dictators, as well as communist agitators. The departure of Hitler and Mussolini from the scene provided only a temporary respite. The despairing Prince had started to believe his country was becoming ungovernable. Hence his visit to Germany.
It had been nearly three years earlier that Yugoslavia’s ambassador to Germany had first brought up the possibility of that country joining the European Alliance. The reservations of the German Foreign Minister were equally as pertinent now, as they had been then. The Yugoslav respected him for them.
Prince Paul had now devised a drastic plan. But without the assistance of the European Alliance he knew it would be impossible to implement it, and his country would unavoidably descend into anarchy and war. He wanted to end the ongoing strife by dismembering Yugoslavia into its seven basic ethnic components. These being Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Each to become a completely independent sovereign nation.
The Prince believed such a separation of the ‘tribes’ was inevitable, but the conflicting demands by the different language groups, and various splinter factions, would be irreconcilable and make voluntary partition impossible to achieve. Compromise would have to be strictly imposed. An iron fist in a velvet glove was needed. As an early twentieth century American President, Theodore Roosevelt, had once said, ‘Speak softly but carry a big stick’.
His plan was to call all interested parties and regional politicians within Yugoslavia to a national conference. There, without prior warning, Prince Paul would firmly lay down the law. Thousands of copies of the proposed boundaries of the soon to be created countries would be distributed.
To say there would be an uproar, would be an understatement. Threats would be made by all and sundry, against him and everyone else, including the Pope! It would be complete and utter chaos! He fervently hoped nobody would sneak a pistol into the conference!
The only thing that would prevent immediate warfare breaking out would be the European Alliance simultaneou
sly flooding the country with soldiers acting in a temporary peacekeeping capacity. The existing Yugoslav army would initially be confined to barracks to avoid conflicts of interest until the situation had normalised. It would then be disbanded by transferring units and individual personnel to whichever country their loyalties lay.
Unbeknown to Prince Paul, the Germans had a very comprehensive dossier on his country, and von Altendorf was, if anything, even more pessimistic about the situation than its ruler was. He patiently listened to the proposals, and formulated his reaction.
“Your Highness, I understand your dilemma.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “What you are asking for is not easy. The European Alliance is a purely defensive body. Germany itself does not, and will not, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.” He looked at the crestfallen Yugoslav.
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