"What's all this about a letter? I thought you were working on some damn fool puzzle."
"It's the letter you stole from Goering," Freddie explained. "It was in code and I've been."
"Good God " Gregory sprang to his feet. "Why on earth didn't you tell me about this before?"
"But we did " Freddie protested. "Still, perhaps none of us has said anything about it in the last two days, since you've been your old self again."
"Of course 1 I remember now. Quick let's hear what you've made of it?"
"The whole thing is frightfully simple, really, once you get the hang of it," Freddie replied, as they all settled down. "You see; the family is really the German nation and the other branches of it include the rest of Europe. The Balkan countries are the Müllers, the Scandinavian countries the Heins, Mrs
Klein is Russia and Mr. Saxe the United States. Every name in the whole thing represents some country or other and the wicked Jew, Jacob Bauer, who runs the rival business, is poor old Britain.'
"But how thrilling!” Angela exclaimed, her blue eyes shining. "Freddie darling, I do believe you're a genius, after all."
He almost purred with satisfaction as he threw her a loving and triumphant glance. "The whole of the first part explains why Germany failed in her 1914-1918 attempt at world dominion. Apparently, Austria Hungary precipitated the Great War before the Germans were ready for it and, later of course, Italy ratted on them. All the stuff about holding another Family Reunion is their plan for a second attempt to become masters of the world or, at all events, to coerce all the other European countries, with the one exception of Britain, into a sort of United States of Europe under German leadership.' It was drafted about 1936 or 1937 I should think, and it's extraordinarily interesting to see how many stages of their plan have already been carried out by peaceful means before the war even started."
"Interesting!" Gregory echoed. "My God, it is! What else does the thing say?"
"It proposes what must have then been the revolutionary idea of a German tie up with Russia. The Germans foresaw that such a step would offend their Axis partner, Italy, and the other anti Comintern nations, Japan and Spain, but they didn't mean to let them know anything about it until it wasa fait accompli. Anyhow, they never intended to drag Italy into the war on their side during its early stages. Her role is to gather the Balkan nations under her wing, then it will be an even greater blow for the Allies when she does come in."
"That's counting their chickens before they are hatched, with a vengeance," Gregory broke in. " Italy is basically pro British and would never have been anything else, even superficially, if Baldwin and Eden hadn't stabbed `Sam' Hoare in the back over the Hoare Laval pact. If that had gone through the Italians would have got all they wanted but Haile Selassie would still be living in Addis Abbaba as Emperor of Abyssinia and Britain would be in control of the headwaters of the Nile. Instead Sanctions drove Mussolini into Hitler's arms and resulted in the Rome Berlin Axis. But Mussolini's a much cleverer man than Hitler and he's only been using Germany for what he can get out of her in the way of backing. It's all Lombard Street to a china orange that he'll remain neutral, unless we offer him British Somaliland and a slice of Tunisia to come in with us."
"Wait a minute," said Freddie. "This thing makes it quite clear that 'Musso' is not a party to the German plan. He's only to be let into it a bit at a time. Italy may remain neutral for the present; in fact the Germans want her to. But if they succeed in gobbling up half Europe it wouldn't be so easy for her to keep out. Anyhow, the writer of this reckoned that by the time they wanted Italy to join them they would have been able to justify their Russian tie up by results already achieved. The idea of trying to split the Anglo French alliance is mentioned here too, as apparently they decided that France could not be left out of a European confederation whereas Britain could, and the grand design of the whole thing is the smashing up of the British Empire."
"How jolly," said Angela. "Go on."
"It particularly stresses the importance of getting as much territory as possible under German control by diplomatic pressure so as to stall off an armed conflict until absolutely unavoidable. The really interesting part, though, is the seventeen stages in which Germany planned to become master of Europe with Russian and Italian aid. Apparently they were very nervous about Stage 2, which was the Czech business, but they thought that if they could get over that without having to fight they'd be all right down to Stage 8, which involves walking into Holland and Belgium. it was a sticky corner for them, too, as the Russians were to collar the oil fields in Iraq; but they had the sublime self confidence to think that they might even get away with it right up to Stage 17, when they meant to rope in France; but I suppose they felt that we'd darned well have to fight then."
Gregory had been studying the document and he looked up quickly. "Have you de coded the whole of this thing, Freddie?"
"No; but I've got a list here of all the names and the countries they represent."
"Let's have a look at it."
Freddie handed over the sheet and Gregory read:
Britain… Jacob Bauer Germany Father
France… Cousin Julia Italy… Mother
U.S.A… Mr. Saxe Japan… Uncle Rudolf
Russia… Mrs. Klein Spain… Uncle Ulrich
The old Austro Hungarian Empire Great Aunt Wilhelmina
The Mediterranean… Mothers Estate
The North Sea… Fathers Estate The Baltic…
The property for which
Ernst and Aunt Marta are
Joint trustees
The Versailles Treaty… Grandmother's iniquitous Will
Ernst… Adolph Hitler Aunt Marta…Joseph Stalin
Austria Cousin Vicki
Czecho Greta
Slovakia Gretchen ) The Engels branch of the
Sudetenland Little August Family
Ruthenia Little Casper
Hungary Mitzi
Yugo Marie
Slavia Mara
Greece Mansi ) The Müller branch of the
Albania Marlene Family
Bulgaria Oscar
Rumania Otto
Bessarabia Fritz
The Dobruja Franz } Otto Müller adopted
Transylvania Freidricka children
Portugal Berthold } Uncle Ulrich’s Son
Belgium Siegsmund
Holland Siegfried } The Schwartz branch of
Switzerland Siebald family
Sweden Hermann
Norway Heinrich } The Hein branch of the
Denmark Hilda family
Finland Hans
Lithuania Karl
Latvia Kurt } Mrs Klein’s children
Estonia Konrad
Poland Paula
Little Paul The Polish Corridor } Paula's children
Little Peta Danzig
Iraq Liese
Turkey Leopold
Palestine Ludwig
Egypt Lenchen
Africa Johannes } Unrelated to the Family
India Julius
Libya Georg
Tunisia Erika
Algeria Elfrida
Morocco Erna
"You see how they run in series," Freddie went on. "The Christian names of all the Schwartz's begin with `S' and those of the Heins with `H'. That's what enabled me to tumble to it. No members of any real family would all have the same initials or, anyhow, the practice wouldn't extend to a whole group of families connected by marriage. Whoever devised the code arranged for overlapping, too, in the most important cases. Mitzi is Hungary and, although one of the Mid European 'Engels', her name ties her with the Balkan 'Müllers'. Finland is Hans and one of the Russian Mrs. Klein's sons but his first name connects him with the Scandinavian `Hein'. I expect it was arranged like that so that these dozens of names could be remembered easily from alphabetical association with various parts of the map. That would have enabled the Nazi leaders to mention the countries guardedly in the presence of people who weren't in the know, without much risk of giving anything away."