Dislocated to Success (18 page)

He asked what the best thing we could do was. I suggested that Spain would be in trouble unless it could get its treasure, mainly silver, from the Pacific to Spain; we had taken a substantial sum from them, but they would find it incredibly difficult to get any more from that area given the damage we had done to their shipping. In order to stabilise them, they needed access to the money - there was nothing more dangerous in trans-time than unpaid armies. I suggested that it might be possible to carry some of this for them; Norman quickly added “at a fee”. The initial approach was rebuffed, but as the news got worse from Cuba and as unrest spread to Aragon, they swiftly changed their mind. It became quite a lucrative business for several years, and it used capacity that we would have otherwise been carrying nothing back from California. In fact the constant delivery of silver and other goods actually improved the performance of the Spanish economy, although Geoffrey did joke that the improvement was from a persistent vegetative state to merely comatose.

You will have noticed so far in my work little mention of the Russian Empire. We had very little contact with the Russians during the first two years after the Dislocation; this was due to issues on both sides. For the first critical few weeks, the Russians were essentially cut off from us by the weather, the Baltic being heavily iced - and the idea of getting from Danzig or Königsberg to Russia was laughable. By that time, the Russians had dropped down our list of priorities as the researchers had got to work, and when we tried to make contact, we were firmly rebuffed; they had learnt something about us by osmosis and they didn’t like what they learnt.

We did eventually establish a very limited embassy and found that our historians had done us proud; the Russian court was a maze of plots and counter-plots between the Ivanids and the Petrids, with various powerful boyars manipulating them both. It wasn’t an unfamiliar situation, and I thought that our former Kremlinologists would adapt easily to it - they did, although it took them some time to understand all the nuances. The real difficulty with Russia was stopping people thinking of it as the Soviet Union; whilst it looked remarkably like the old RFSFR on a map, it was incredibly primitive and only had power by strength of numbers. This didn’t stop people discussing it as if there were still a few thousand tanks ready to descend through the Fulda Gap at a moment’s notice.

We had also cut back section ‘R’ considerably, and I wasn’t entirely convinced that the staff we had left in the department were good at dealing with the after-effects of the Dislocation. There were quite a lot of reports which essentially emphasised building relations with Sweden-Finland, Poland-Lithuania and the Ottomans and Crimeans to keep the Russians under control. The idea of military alliances was of course forbidden - although, to be fair, if the Russians did initiate a war against the Poles it was generally understood that we might have to take strong measures, to protect both our grain supplies and the large number of British citizens who were working to uplift Poland-Lithuania.

Contact had therefore been limited; any proposals for trade or people to visit generally received a hearty Nyet from the extremely xenophobic Russians. Our visit to Alaska - and the information that it was now a British protectorate - led to a month-long no-speaks and a counter-claim for recognition of the Russians with the boundaries of the 1945 Soviet Union, plus Finland and Congress Poland, which showed that the spirit of Suslov was alive and well in the Kremlin - it was a masterful piece of denial and double-think. We understood that they increased their efforts in Siberia, but that there was general confusion in the Kremlin at what to actually do. It seemed there was little money, even fewer resources and people wanting to go in around nine different directions. In hindsight, this was situation normal for the court of Anna.

However by May 1982 they had become more curious. They wanted to hold further talks and perhaps regulate some trade; but, Russia being Russia, they would not do this with a normal trade delegation, only with a Royal Visit. So I went to see the Prime Minister; she was amused but curious, and approved the idea - but only with a minor Royal; there was no way that we were dignifying the Russians with anyone important. After going to speak to the Royal Family, we decided to sent Prince Michael of Kent, who - mercifully - was willing to go and who spoke excellent Russian. It turned out to be a two-month mission, which was full of sound and fury but actually meant very little to either side except for some prestige value.

One of the trickier problems was that of Africa; despite a lot of help from people at SOAS - and sadly some deliberate hindrance from there as well - we did not have a complete picture of Africa south of the the Sahara. We slowly confirmed over the years post the Dislocation the situation around the coasts and the immediate hinterland, but the centre of the continent remained dark - with us reliant on not terribly good records. What we did have were a considerable number of former embassy personnel who were much more interested, but as far as ordinary people were concerned there weren’t that many former citizens of the black African nations in the UK and the vast majority of them were totally uninterested in “going home”. In fact, with many from West Africa, they weren’t even interested knowing about what was going on. Of course, there were a handful of exceptions in every nation - although very much the handful in some cases - but the only ones with any sort of remotely viable numbers were the Nigerians and the Kenyans, and even those were very low. In the case of the Nigerians, it was generally regarded as being mainly talk rather than action - and certain prominent Nigerians were introduced to a few people who gave them the real story on what West Africa was like. This quietened them down considerably. With Kenya it was much more complex; the ports were generally either Ottoman, Omani or - more likely - in the hands of their tributaries. We made it quite clear that if people wanted to go back, they could - as long as they had their shots and quarantine, and understood that they did not have any form of British backing; nor could they expect anything but a rescue mission in terms of assistance if they were lucky.

The other group that wanted to go back were generally white South Africans and Rhodesians:  to large parts of the political establishment this spelt trouble; to others it spelt seasoned old hands who had useful skills; and, well, to some MPs it represented the re-awakening of their grubby little fantasies. Originally, with a a few exceptions, they were barred from returning. There was a slow leakage of the small number of Afrikaners to Kaapstad, but most of them came back pretty quickly - and quite a few got sent back by the Dutch. By 1981, a screening process had been developed by which we could take the ones with useful skills and the younger families and find them a job or some land along the railway line. Mercifully, most were not extremists - extremists were generally Dislocated - and there weren’t many problems, especially as restrictions had to be lifted and travel to Lawrence Marks became easier. The main problem was some of the Rhodesians, who had left because of the impending arrival of Black Majority Rule and now wanted to go back. The UK kept a general travel ban north of the Limpopo for a very long time, and anyone who fancied doing a Cecil Rhodes was told in no short order that Tristan da Cunha was not that pleasant.

Luckily, it was decided that we would not try and engage at present with every African state from the large to the tiny. North of the Sahara and the Horn of Africa was left to the Foreign Office; the rest was transferred to the Commonwealth and Colonial Office temporarily. In general ‘temporarily’ meant ‘for the foreseeable future’, although we did get the Ashante transferred back in 1987 and as I left office plans were being drawn up in the Kenya area. This transfer was certainly the best thing, but it was taken badly by most of the ghosts of the cis-embassies - many of which were quietly reminded that they were pensioners of the British government. However, they were now Michael’s problem, and that was quite a relief to the FO.

Of course, in trans-world it was expected that the Foreign Minister accompanied Royal Visits and this was usually one of my more pleasant duties. The royal visit to Denmark and Norway was not a great triumph; it wasn't a failure either, but the lack of reporting in the press except by the odd fawning royal correspondent with nothing to do was a mercy.

Of course, the two kingdoms couldn't be more different. Norway, which had been lightly populated and without great prospects was now doing quite nicely. Several mines had been expanded with the help of British companies and were producing ores or are close to producing ores. The considerable scope for forestry started being exploited, although there was competition from Sweden-Finland, Brandenburg-Prussia and our own New Hampshire for this trade.

Denmark, by the time of the visit was also doing nicely, but on a more limited basis. The initial Danish boom was an agricultural boom, mainly sustained by ourselves and our need for food - and of course the tolls for The Sound. They spent their infrastructure money relatively well, but their cis-advisors found they are running into a wall by advocating certain agricultural land reforms. Their little East India company was also doing very well at that moment, but I did wonder how long that would last.

However, whilst the Norwegian prosperity at the time was spread more evenly, the Danish prosperity was concentrated mainly in the hands of around 300 landholders. The King mainly took advice from his cousin, who was just as religious as himself. Luckily, he took enough outside advice that adscription did not happen. His cis-advisors were hampered by the fact that he really speaks no other language than German fluently; his Danish was frankly very poor considering, and at the time he had no English or French. Luckily, Prince Philip speaks some German, as - contrary to popular rumour - the Queen does not.

Pietism, of course, does not lead to an exciting court; although it does lead to a relatively tolerant and restrained one. Apart from the official opening of the new port of Ny Christianhavn, there was an advanced programme of Lutheranism at its most tedious. Such is the discontent amongst the Danes with the way things are that crowds were few at the public events. Her Majesty, of course, handled it all with aplomb, but Prince Philip was twitchy at times.

Behind the scenes, we were trying to arrange some trade deals. There were issues over the infrastructure fund; whilst the Danish part had been allocated and spent or planned to be spent, the Norwegian part had not - mainly because the King wanted to spend it where he wanted to, and the trustees wanted to spend it in Norway. However, we managed to cut a deal on behalf of BP which assisted this. With the additional revenue from BP going into the Danish crown, the Norwegian fund could be spent in Norway. Sally also managed to take orders for four of our new smallest steamer for the Baltic trade, and invited the Danish East India company to come and look at our modern sailing ships which we were producing in Bermuda.

The Queen and Prince Philip were much better received in Hamburg, from which they departed on Britannia back to the UK. Feted by huge crowds, a splendid banquet from what proudly called itself "The Most Modern City in Europe" and with a small regatta on the Außenalster, it managed to capture the both the UK and the Hamburg press every nicely. I took the opportunity to address a private meeting of the Senat, which was most interesting; whilst we merely continued to reaffirm our strong friendship, tariff-free deals and generous visa requirements, Sally walked away with a rather nice deal for school equipment and designs for schools - mainly from the private sector.

The holiday season, a time to wind down and relax, where the business of government slows down as thoughts of pleasant times in some delightful place take over. Not in the summer of 1982; after a busy trip to Lisbon, followed by Norway and Denmark, I was at least thinking of a long weekend in Aldeburgh as soon as I had sorted out a couple of smaller matters - the main one of which was a complicated intelligence meeting with Pym and Tebbit, for which it would be best to be well-prepared.

However, it was not to be; it was off to Ostend for a rather clandestine meeting with the Dutch, to which I was asked to bring a defence minister. Unfortunately, the only one available was Alan, so I said none was available and took Hal Miller instead - as Francis's PPS he'd do in a pinch. It was best not to take Alan abroad.

Anyway, Ostend luckily has a ferry a couple of times a week - which saved getting the RN all shirty about a ship, or the Treasury getting all shirty about a private boat. It did mean a night in Ostend, however, which is pretty grim - modernisation has not really touched the Austrian Netherlands yet. They trade, but they are not welcoming.

Needless to say, the Dutch turned up mob-handed; I'm sure that it was a carefully-balanced representation of the provinces, and not the controlling members of the VOC. As had been rumoured, the VOC had decided sensibly that its best long-term interests were served by becoming our best friends and dealing with the WIC.

The problem was money, of course; the VOC's finances were built on some interesting accounting, whilst the WIC was making money hand over fist. Anyway, the Estates-General met and - by a vote of 5-2 at the province level - decided to remove the charter of the WIC, and abolish slavery in the UP and the lands of the WIC, the VOC and the Suriname and Berbice Companies. I must admit, I didn't even know the latter existed.

However, there was a slight problem. The WIC's paltry collection of ships, several of which had been hired in of late, headed off eastwards to other more friendly ports; Groningen and Frisia were in uproar; and the fairly pathetic Dutch Navy and the VOC were wondering what to do about it all. Guess what - they wanted help and assistance.