Manop nodded slowly. “How did you know that? It isn't in the book.”
“My father, Sergeant Major, he fought against the French in 1940. With the Queen's Cobra Division. We have the old Type 45 rifle at home, chambered for eight millimeter Siamese. Permission to take Nomenclature Test Sergeant Major?” Manop nodded. Sirisoon took a deep breath and pointed to the muzzle of the rifle. “Foresight Hood, Foresight, Foresight Hood Retaining Clip, Barrel, Cleaning Rod Half.” The list went on as she worked her way down the rifle, pointing to and naming each part in turn. Eventually she came to the Lower Butt Plate Retaining Screw and stopped. Manop stared at her.
“You forgot the Magazine Plate Release Plunger Spring Cadet. Get three strips of canvas and tie your rifle to your leg tonight. Help you to remember in future.” There was another swell of laughter around the room. Manop turned and pointed to one of the men. “You. Nomenclature Test in five minutes.” The man went white. “The rest of you, look at the furniture on Cadet Sirisoon's rifle. See how it has a silk-like sheen? That is how it should look. It is satisfactory. In most armies the furniture on a rifle is birch or cheap laminated wood but Our King gives you a rifle with the best grade teak we can find. So make sure you earn that privilege by seeing to it that your rifle is satisfactory also. Dismissed Cadet Sirisoon.” He tossed the rifle at her and she caught it neatly. Then he turned and went back to his room. But as he turned he gave her a slight acknowledging nod.
Office of Sir Martyn Sharpe, British Viceroy to India, New Delhi
“Well, we were expecting a damning report Sir Eric. Not quite this damning I admit though. Secretly, I must admit this report pleases me. The Commission of Inquiry did a splendid job, called the shots the way the evidence pointed and didn't pull any punclies. If we're going to have an efficient modern government here, we must have a system where situations like this are investigated properly. We must, must, learn from our mistakes, not sweep them under the table and pretend they never happened.”
There were times when Sir Brie Haohoa wished he had the Ambassador's ability to present one set of facial expressions while actually thinking something quite different. This was one of them. Sir Martyn's enthusiasm for open inquiries and Seaming from mistakes was all very well in theory but Sir Eric was a practical politician and could see the problems that reality tended to interject into such ideas.
There were those who objected to the path India was taking and the unfolding disaster at de Havilland (India) was ready-made ammunition for them. He leafed through the report issued by the Commission of Inquiry on Problems Experienced with Mosquito Aircraft. CIPEMA for short. They had certainly been thorough. If anything they could be criticized for being too thorough, they'd gone far beyond their official remit. They'd also suggested solutions to the problems they'd found, good workable solutions. Sir Eric sighed slightly, if the CIPEMA Report was anything to go by, the future for those who made a mess of Indian Government contracts would not be a pleasant one.
“They do commend your decision to ground the Mosquito, Sir Martyn. They also recommend a temporary solution that will keep the remaining fleet operational. Apparently, if the squadron maintenance units burn drainage holes in the lower wing panels, that will prevent the water build-up that caused the mid-air wing failures. Apparently burning the holes, rather than drilling them, prevents a rim of splinters forming inside and interrupting the water flow-out.”
“Temporary though. We can't keep them in service like that. The Americans have heard something, their DEME people are hammering on the Air Ministry doors already. Offering us surplus B-27Es at give-away prices. More or less saying we can have them if we come to Russia and take them away.”
“Very generous of them Sir Martyn, 'Disposal of Excess Military Equipment' indeed. We take their kind offer, kill off our own aircraft industry in the process and are stuck buying their spare parts for the next twenty years. I bet they didn't breathe a word about giving us the spares as well.”
“Not a word, Sir Eric, the matter appears never to have crossed their minds. The Australians are in a much better position than we are of course; they benefited greatly from Thwamap. They make the spares they need down there, the ones they need anyway. A glass of whisky?”
“Thank you. Thwamap, theThree-Way Military Assistance Program.” Sir Eric rolled the words around his mouth then washed them down with whisky. Thwamap had funded much of Australia's industrial growth during the war years. A triangular relationship between tbe United States, Australia and Russia. America had bought war material made in Australia, given it to the Russians and charged the money against Russia's lend-Lease account. The arrangement had made Australia an alternate source of supply for American forces in Russia and the Pacific. In turn, that had enabled the Australians to re-equip their strangled industry. Now Australia was leveraging that industrial development into a peacetime industry structure. “If we get the B-27s, can the Australians supply us with spare parts for them?”
“I do not know, but I think we both know somebody who does.”
“The Ambassador.” Sir Eric looked both pensive. It seemed that everywhere one looked these days, there was a Thai businessman acting as an intermediary. Smoothing paths, calming troubled waters, providing the funding necessary to get mutually profitable deals off the ground. All scrupulously honest of course, it was just that the English language appeared to have been written with the specific intention of enabling Thai banks to make money out of brokering deals.
To make matters worse, nearly all the big trading houses from Hong Kong and Shanghai were moving to Bangkok now that the Japanese were consolidating their hold on China. Australia was too remote, India was too poor, Thailand was central, peaceful and its Government was determined to be hospitable to foreign investors. “That's something we'll have to explore later. In the meantime, what do we do with Sir Geoffrey de Havilland?”
“We will follow the recommendations of the CIPEMA Report. There is no doubt about bis skills as a designer, he is probably one of the leading lights of his generation. The criticisms of the company are basically those of poor management and poor production engineering. The outline plan from CIPEMA is that we nationalize de Havilland (India). Sir Geoffrey can stay on as chief designer for one of its product streams. There's another man there who the report speaks well of. Chap called Folland. We can set him up as a second design stream.
“We'll tell Sir Geoffrey that we're taking the burden of running the company off his hands and bringing in production engineers to help him on that side of things. He'll go for it, its probably a lot better deal than he's expecting. CIPEMA have even given us a name for the new group. Hindustan Aviation. They recommend sixty percent of the shareholding be held by the Government of India, forty percent by the public.
“They are also suggesting that we have an external office to audit designs produced by all the aviation companies here. That's only Hindustan Aviation now of course. Others when they follow. They suggest we slow down on the various programs until that's done. The Hornet and Vampire fighters of course but also the Comet.”
“The Comet as well?”
“Especially the Comet. Heaven knows we need that aircraft. The ground transport network is terrible, you know that. It takes days of hard travel to get from one city to another, even by train. If we can establish an air travel system, it will help immensely. We've made a start with the Australian-built Dakotas and Lodestars but a jet airliner will put us ahead in that market. It may even become the standard for the whole region. The last thing we need is for the thing to start its career by falling out of the sky.”