Passenger to Frankfurt - Agatha Christie [57]
‘A Christian gesture, though,’ said Monsieur Coin dubiously.
‘One can go too far even with Christian gestures,’ said Monsieur Grosjean.
Chapter 14
Conference In London
In the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street, Mr Cedric Lazenby, the Prime Minister, sat at the head of the table and looked at his assembled Cabinet without any noticeable pleasure. The expression on his face was definitely gloomy, which in a way afforded him a certain relief. He was beginning to think that it was only in the privacy of his Cabinet Meetings that he could relax his face into an unhappy expression, and could abandon that look which he presented usually to the world, of a wise and contented optimism which had served him so well in the various crises of political life.
He looked round at Gordon Chetwynd, who was frowning, at Sir George Packham who was obviously worrying, thinking, and wondering as usual, at the military imperturbability of Colonel Munro, at Air Marshal Kenwood, a tight-lipped man who did not trouble to conceal his profound distrust of politicians. There was also Admiral Blunt, a large formidable man, who tapped his fingers on the table and bided his time until his moment should come.
‘It is not too good,’ the Air Marshal was saying. ‘One has to admit it. Four of our planes hi-jacked within the last week. Flew ’em to Milan. Turned the passengers out, and flew them on somewhere else. Actually Africa. Had pilots waiting there. Black men.’
‘Black Power,’ said Colonel Munro thoughtfully.
‘Or Red Power?’ suggested Lazenby. ‘I feel, you know, that all our difficulties might stem from Russian indoctrination. If one could get into touch with the Russians–I really think a personal visit at top level–’
‘You stick where you are, Prime Minister,’ said Admiral Blunt. ‘Don’t you start arseing around with the Russkies again. All they want at present is to keep out of all this mess. They haven’t had as much trouble there with their students as most of us have. All they mind about is keeping an eye on the Chinese to see what they’ll be up to next.’
‘I do think that personal influence–’
‘You stay here and look after your own country,’ said Admiral Blunt. True to his name, and as was his wont, he said it bluntly.
‘Hadn’t we better hear–have a proper report of what’s actually been happening?’ Gordon Chetwynd looked towards Colonel Munro.
‘Want facts? Quite right. They’re all pretty unpalatable. I presume you want, not particulars of what’s been happening here so much, as the general world situation?’
‘Quite so.’
‘Well, in France the Marshal’s in hospital still. Two bullets in his arm. Hell’s going on in political circles. Large tracts of the country are held by what they call the Youth Power troops.’
‘You mean they’ve got arms?’ said Gordon Chetwynd in a horrified voice.
‘They’ve got a hell of a lot,’ said the Colonel. ‘I don’t know really where they’ve got them from. There are certain ideas as to that. A large consignment was sent from Sweden to West Africa.’
‘What’s that got to do with it?’ said Mr Lazenby. ‘Who cares? Let them have all the arms they want in West Africa. They can go on shooting each other.’
‘Well, there’s something a little curious about it as far as our Intelligence reports go. Here is a list of the armaments that were sent to West Africa. The interesting thing is they were sent there, but they were sent out again. They were accepted, delivery was acknowledged, payment may or may not have been made, but they were sent out of the country again before five days had passed. They were sent out, re-routed elsewhere.’
‘But what’s the idea of that?’
‘The idea seems to be,’ said Munro, ‘that they were never really intended for West Africa. Payments were made and they were sent on somewhere else. It seems possible that they went on from Africa to the Near East. To the Persian Gulf, to Greece and to