A Bitter Field Read Free Page B

Hungarians or the Sudetenland Germans?’
    Peter sighed. ‘Do you have to complicate things?’
    Cal felt he needed to make the point even if the world was less ignorant now than it had been a few months before, because Czechoslovakia was very much in the news, with German newspapers ranting daily about the ‘plight’ of their racial brethren in the border regions called the Sudetenland.
    Yet, even on the front pages of the world, few appreciated how much the nation was a construct nation of peoples hacked out of the dismembered Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a dozen languages and rivalries going back centuries. Like most of his fellow countrymen, and most unfortunately the people in power in London, Peter did not appreciate the problems that produced.
    If the Sudeten German minority were the most vocal in the search for concessions to their racial background they were just one of half a dozen similar problems facing the Prague Government, given every ethnic group had, to varying degrees, jumped on the federalist bandwagon. Tempted to explain, Cal decided not tobother; the nub of the question was not about that.
    ‘Despite the bleating of their minorities, the Czechs are an honest bunch who run a democratic government that others of a similar ilk should support. How does that sound?’
    That got an idly raised eyebrow. ‘Like a Daily Herald headline and easier said than done, old boy.’
    ‘But not impossible,’ Cal responded, his voice becoming more animated. ‘They have a reasonable military, good equipment and a fortified mountainous border with Germany that would take a serious commitment of manpower to get through, one perfect to aid an assault from the west by a combined French and British army.’
    ‘I’m not sure that’s actually answering the question I asked.’
    ‘I am, Peter, given it’s the only one that matters. They would have made a perfect partner before Hitler marched into Vienna, but sadly the border with Austria is a flat plain and difficult to defend. By being supine over the Anschluß, we have fatally weakened and are going to lose a useful potential ally unless we do something to stop it.’
    ‘That does assume Adolf wishes to go the whole hog, old boy, and swallow the country up.’
    ‘Something tells me you have not got round to reading Mein Kampf yet. I seem to recall telling you to do that with some force two years ago.’
    ‘Picked it up, of course, but it’s terribly turgid stuff, a perfect cure for insomnia, in fact. I have never got very far when I try. Nod off every time.’
    ‘Then let me precis it for you, once more. Adolf Hitler wants back all the bits of German-speaking Central Europe they and the Austrians were forced to give away at Versailles and if he can’t get them by threats he will go to war to recover them. He’s alreadyremilitarised the Rhineland and swallowed Austria in a coup, two things he listed in his ever-so-turgid book, both of which should have been stopped. Not many politicians keep their written promises, but he is one who will.’
    Peter sighed and lit another cigarette. ‘While our lot seem to have promised there will never be another pan-European war.’
    ‘They don’t have the power of decision, Peter. Hitler does! Has anyone in London looked at a map and seen what possession of Czechoslovakia does to the defence of Poland?’
    ‘He’s after them too, I suppose?’
    ‘He wants to wipe out the Polish Corridor and take back Danzig, and the Poles won’t give them up without a fight.’
    ‘So, tell me how you managed to get them out with all that flap going on.’
    ‘The guns?’
    ‘What else?’
    ‘Would I not bore you?’
    ‘Cal, old boy, you often make me wonder what drives you to get into so many scrapes, but bore me, never!’
    ‘While I am wondering if you have just come to La Rochelle or were waiting for me to arrive.’ Peter Lanchester grinned and flicked off a bit of ash. ‘You were waiting for me, weren’t you? Not that you