Sir Martyn Sharpe relaxed slightly. He hadn't been taken in by the Ambassador's warm and friendly smile to the Australian, he had long realized that her facial expressions bore no relationship to her thoughts. It wasn't as if it was a deliberate deception, it was more that the two simply were not connected. It was like watching the cast of a play performing the actions of Romeo and Juliet while speaking the words from Julius Caesar. “Sir Gregory, I must apologize for the reduced level of honors here but as you know India suffered a tragic loss only yesterday and we must show our respect for the departure of a great spirit. The people of this country held Mahatma Ghandi in great regard and are mortified by his death in such a stupid and reprehensible accident. They are demanding reprisals against the Japanese and I fear Japanese actions are not calculated to take the heat out of the situation. We had to release that drunken chauffeur last night and this was not well received. The wild Japanese accusations are inflaming passions also.'“
“Indeed so.” The Ambassador spoke with sadness and her face showed her grief at the situation. “A special investigator from Indo-China arrived today. An odious little man called Masanobu Tsuji. A Colonel I am sad to say.” The Ambassador's own military rank was Colonel, “he had the chauffeur tortured most brutally. Eventually the man confessed to having spent the night on an illegal drinking session and stealing an Embassy car. There is a lesson there for all of us.” She shook her head sadly. Sir Martyn wasn't quite certain whether the lesson for them all was don’t drink because it gets you into trouble or don 't torture people because it doesn't get you the information you need. He also made a note to look up the record of Colonel Masanobu Tsuji, that name hadn't been mentioned casually.
“But onto more cheerful things. Sir Martyn, the signed copies of our trade agreement have arrived this evening from my Government. His Most Gracious Majesty himself has signed it, a sign of our very great pleasure at establishing such warm relations between our peoples. Sir Gregory, perhaps there is the opening for a similar agreement between our two countries?”
“Alas Ma'am, Australia is in a very different position from India and our problems are of an entirely different dimension. May I explain the problem we face?” The Thai Ambassador nodded, her face an expression of intense interest. “We face a huge economic problem, one that could cause our economy to collapse. You see the Australian Economy is based on the Ottowa agreement. We made primary exports to Britain, meat, butter, cheese, wool and so on. In return, British supplied manufactured exports to Australia. Even when this agreement ran smoothly, the balance of trade was poor since the price of foodstuffs relative to industrial goods was declining between 1920 and 1940.
“Certainly we were developing an industrial base of our own, but there are still critical gaps, tin plating, alkali plants, much light and medium industry. We have created an aircraft industry, we make the Ostrich, which is a good ground attack aircraft, some trainers and a rather embarrassing fighter that's based on one of those trainers. Our sources of raw material supplies from overseas are controlled by US/British cartel agreements that put Australia in the UK zone for companies like ICI. Australia can't replace the British products, because Australia has a trade deficit with the US and no access to US markets. This was refused repeatedly in the late 1930's by the US - and war or not, I struggle to see US accepting Australian beef, butter and cheese. The UK loans to Australia are obviously null and void which has helped us a little, but the US loans are still there and the mechanism to pay them back has disappeared. No new sources of capital for a wartime program or an industrialization program or even to bring in the raw materials we need. To defend ourselves, we may be forced to institute a command economy, abandon any pretence at naval power and concentrate on building a seven division Army to defend the country at its beaches.”
“And command economies do not work Sir Gregory. Free trade and free markets are the only way for countries to prosper.” The Thai Ambassador looked thoughtful. “May I explain our problems to you and then perhaps we can see how we may aid each other. Forgive me Sir Martyn I know you have heard this before. Sir Gregory. As you know, six years ago my country recovered the territories that were stolen from us by the French in the years up to 1908. What we did not know then was the extent to which French policies and French administration had devastated the provinces in question. In the short time they ruled those areas, they destroyed a culture and economy that had been in place for a millennia and had pushed back the standards of agriculture by over five hundred. I do not joke gentlemen, the per capita production of rice in the restored provinces was less than a third of that in those that remained ours. Indeed it was lower than that achieved in the fourteenth century. Truly the French Indochinese administration had the finest economic minds of the middle ages.
“Now, we are repairing the damage and returning agriculture in the restored provinces to a acceptable level. This means our rice production is soaring, it is now more than twice the level we achieved in 1939 and 1939 was a very good year for us. But, you know what happens when supplies soar and demand remains constant. Prices collapse and the farmer is no better off than before. This is why our agreement with India is so important to us. We are selling that surplus rice and maintaining the prices paid to our farmers. We are using the income from taxes and revenues to buy industrialized goods from India. Thus we improve the living standards of our people while helping our Indian friends feed their population and develop our industry.
“But we still have a problem. The destroyed agriculture of the provinces means that the livestock there has gone. The French instituted a system by which the farmers grew only rice, for which they were paid artificially low prices, and had to buy meat from French importers who charged them excessively. Now we must rebuild what was destroyed. Sir Gregory, you say the Americans will not buy your meat and butter, then sell them to us. Send your farmers and experts to create a new livestock industry in the restored provinces. We cannot help you with your cheese, for myself I like the stuff but, to most of my country people, cheese is just very, very sour milk. But there is much more than this, more than just rebuilding the farming communities of the restored provinces.
“We must improve the diet of our children. They are our future, our joy and our responsibility. For children to have a good start in life we must make sure they have a good diet and that means they must eat more meat. Sell us your meat Sir Gregory. We will pay you with gold from our mines. With precious jewels, sapphires, diamonds, rubies, all from our own resources. We can sell you teak and the finest silk in the world. The Americans may not wish your meat and cheese and butter but they will want luxury goods that you buy from us and can sell to them. That will give you the hard currency you need to pay your debts and import what you need to establish your own industry. And your Ostrich, that is an aircraft my country needs badly. All we ask is that we treat our trade arrangements as we do that with India. Openly and without hidden clauses or secret codicils. The world is in the state it is today because of such things. We wish our trade arrangements to be open so that all can see we are dealing honestly and fairly with our partners.