India had been left in an uncomfortable position by the British collapse. Her legal status was questioned, at least by the Japanese who asserted that since India had been part of the British Empire and Britain had surrendered to Germany and Germany and Japan were allies, Japan now owned India. Not to mention Burma and Malaya that were part of the Indian realm of authority. Sir Martyn had seen Thailand as part of the forward defense of India but to be a secure defense, the country needed defensible borders. The existing ones were not; French policy on the 1890s had seen to that, Sir Martyn had done two things. He'd made friendly noises towards the Thai government, reminding them of their long and (mostly) friendly relations with India. Then, he'd acted as an “honest broker” to establish relations with the Americans.
At his urging the American Secretary Cordell Hull had visited Thailand and negotiated with the Government. The Ambassador grinned to herself (disguising it as an expression of intense interest in an especially banal and pointless remark made by the pompous idiot opposite) Field Marshall Pibul had been on his best behavior, earnestly expressing his regret at the development of events and stressing how the American embargo on arms and equipment was forcing them to do business with the Japanese and Germans. The French had helped by staging another series of incidents on the border; the scene of one bombing raid had been inspected by Secretary Hull.
The Americans hadn't been that convinced but at least they'd gone away understanding that nationalist didn't mean enemy sympathizer. When the war had broken out, the Thai army had smashed the French on land (at sea it hadn't been that way but the Ambassador was a soldier and didn't really care about what had happened to the navy). By the time the Thai Army had finished pursuing the routed French forces, they had reached the original, pre-1860, border. A border that happened to be highly defensible and that gave Singapore a defensible land border at last.
The combination of a much-needed victory by a country apparently well-regarded by at least one Commonwealth ally, the restraint shown in the advance and the obvious need to pry a possible ally away from the Japanese and Germans had brought the Americans around. A lot of UK-ordered equipment was still waiting for a user in the United States. It had been shipped to India and the pick of it had gone to Thailand. Sir Martyn had gambled that it was probably better to have Thailand as an ally than an enemy, but even if the gamble didn't work, one additional enemy couldn't possibly make his position any worse. What Sir Martyn didn't know was that the Japanese had tried to force an early end to the Indo China war and, after that effort was rejected had staged several quite bloody border engagements. The Japanese had lost those and the route south was blocked. The Thai ambassador was quite certain it was her country's efforts that had saved India.
“If the Japanese have taken India, I will use the same tactics against them that I have used against the British!”
The Ambassador gave a smile of great admiration and support. She could just see it happening. The Japanese invaders finally conquer India. They hear of this great Resistance Leader, Mahatma Ghandi. A Japanese officer is asking about this Ghandi when a dirty little man walks up and starts babbling about how he will starve himself if the Japanese don't leave. The officer chops off the dirty little man's head. He then continues looking for this Mahatma Ghandi who is leading the Resistance to Japan.
Any honest person had to admit that the results of passive resistance would be vastly different if India had been dominated by the Nazis or the Japanese. Under those circumstances, the people of India would see tanks rolling in to literally grind them down underfoot, gas chambers running day and night, thugs with machine guns mowing people down in the streets, forced starvation, and/or chemical weapons attacks upon the populace. With any such-style government, Ghandi would have been imprisoned and killed long before he even had a chance to build a following, much less organize his first non-violent protest. The Ambassador had a soldier's appreciation of the effects of precisely-applied violence that a twittering old woman like Ghandi couldn't possibly understand. Mentally she changed her preferred image from slicing Ghandi's throat to removing his male member. She also noted that Sir Martyn crossed his legs at that precise moment. Perhaps he was telepathic after all.
Stupid, impolite, dirty and smelly Ghandi may be but he was also a menace. His civil disobedience campaign was weakening India at a moment when it didn't need to be weakened. India was one of the three bulwarks of the Commonwealth (no longer the British Commonwealth, that had ceased to exist on June 19th 1940). Much of the British fleet had made it out to India after the Great Escape. As a soldier, the Ambassador admired that operation, it had taken planning, skill and a lot of luck. When the Eastern front had stagnated more or less along the Don River, east of Moscow, the Germans had found themselves without the manpower needed to hold the line. The Russians hadn't either so both had done the obvious - called for help.
The Americans had responded with what eventually became two Army Groups holding the center of the line on the Okadon Plain. The Germans hadn't been so lucky so they'd demanded troops from the Vichy French and English. Both had refused, both had been occupied. The naval responses had typified both countries,. The French had scuttled their fleet in Toulon, the Royal Navy had tried to fight its way out. The five brand-new battleships had got out to Canada and become the nucleus of that country's fleet. The three battlecruisers were also out and were now based in Singapore. Most of the old slow ships hadn't been so lucky. The old British R class and two of the QEs hadn't made it more than a hundred miles from the coast before bombers and U-boats had taken them down.
The cruisers and destroyers had been the key. With the, India and Australia had established the basics of a strong military force. They'd been helped by the residual of British Naval power of course; the British Empire was founded on the basis of seapower and there were bases that could support the fleet all over. Australia and Canada were military powers of note now. But India? That was the rub. Ghandi's movement was demanding the British authorities and military forces leave. Immediately. He wanted the armies gone, he wanted the developing military industries abandoned. If that happened, the Japanese would have the country occupied in a month. That would be a disaster for the Ambassador's country as well; her army (and, again although Sir Martyn didn't know it, troops under her personal command) had humiliated the Japanese. If the tides went the other way, she and her country would pay dearly for that. Ghandi really was the problem. And, wonder of wonders, he'd finally stopped talking.
“Thank you so much for your most interesting comments. Our two countries share so much philosophy and religious tradition in common I am sure that much of what you say will be of great influence upon us,'“ Out of the corner of her eye, the Ambassador saw Sir Martyn apparently start to choke. Fortunately Ghandi left before Sir Martyn turned blue. Ghandi's pretentiousness extended to transport. He'd been offered an official car and escort but refused them. After all, he’d argued, how could his people harm him? He leave the building now, walk across the road to greet his supporters who'd been waiting for him then walk down the street through the crowds. In fact, he'd be reaching the street just about .......now.