Gregory nodded. "You've done a grand job of work, Freddie, in puzzling all this out; but you're looking pretty done up now. I should go to bed if I were you and we'll talk some more about it in the morning."
Freddie smiled his acknowledgements and climbed on to the oven with the two girls; but Gregory remained seated at the table. He was immensely intrigued at Freddie's discovery and wanted to run through the whole document with the key that Freddie had provided. When his friends woke again after a four hours' sleep he was still working on it.
That day the others went about their occupations much as usual, rubbing down the horses, thawing out the strips of dried reindeer meat so that they should be ready for cooking in due course, and taking their hour's exercise in the crisp, crystal white snow; but Gregory left all the work to them for once and seemed extremely preoccupied. In the afternoon he made a detour round the snow covered barrier of trees to go and look at the empty road. That night after they had finished their evening meal he suddenly announced:
"I'm afraid you may not like what I've got to say but I want you to listen to me patiently for a while. I spent the early hours of the morning translating the famous document into ordinary language. I won't bother you with the early part of it but 1 think you ought to hear the last part, which consists of the stages by which Germany plans to dominate the world. I say plans rather than planned because the plan is still in active operation."
With an uneasy feeling of foreboding they settled down to listen as he read:
"'STEPS IN THE WORLD PROGRAMME TO ACHIEVE WORLD DOMINION
"'1. The Austrians are a part of the German race although their country formed part of the old Austro Hungarian Empire. Therefore an Anschluss by which we must absorb Austria should arouse little opposition.
" `2. With regard to the rest of the old Austro Hungarian Empire, Hungary values her independence but once Austria has been absorbed into Germany we can move troops up to the Hungarian border upon which Hungary will be in no position to resist us. She can, therefore, be invaded at any time so it would be preferable to settle matters first with Czechoslovakia. The Czecho Slovaks also value their independence, particularly the Czechs, who are extremely anti German, but they are rich people and the Skoda arms works are essential to us early in the game. Pressure can be brought to bear upon the Czechs and the Slovaks through the Sudetenland and Ruthenia respectively. The Czechs ill treat the Sudeten Germans, who are a part of the German race, so it should not he difficult to present a case for the return of Sudetenland to Germany. The Ruthenians are also ill treated by the Czecho Slovaks and Hungary regards Ruthenia as one of her lost provinces. In order to divert Britain’s attention from our own operations we should incite Hungary to claim Ruthenia. The Czechs will appeal to their ally, France, which may precipitate a crisis, but the French will have great difficulty in giving military support to Czechoslovakia and the crisis must be faced. Unless Britain agrees to give France her aid there will be no war. Once the Sudetenland has been cut off Czechoslovakia will prove an easy prey.
.3,. Albania is very badly governed and none of the Balkan countries give her any assistance. Here is an excellent pretext for involving Italy. She must be persuaded to take over Albania, by force of arms if necessary. It is apo or country but an excellent base for operations against the Balkans. Once Italian troops are stationed there Italy would be in a much stronger position to exert pressure upon Yugoslavia and Greece.
"'4. Some inducement will have to be offered to Russia to bring her into a Russo German alliance. Germany has considerable interests in the three Baltic States, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. It is proposed that we should sacrifice these interests to Russia, upon which she would have no difficulty in regaining possession of these three ex Russian provinces.
" 5. Poland should be dealt with next. Parts of Poland are by right German and other parts by right Russian. Danzig and the Polish Corridor are definitely a part of Germany. The Poles persecute their German citizens in these territories which gives us every justification for reabsorbing them into the Reich. Poland may go to war rather than agree to surrender them peaceably, but if she does she will have such a bad case that we shall be able to brand her as a warmonger before the world. Russia and Germany will then act in concert, invade Poland and divide the country between them.
" 6. Finland is another portion of the old Tsarist Empire which should be reabsorbed into it. The Finns are an independent people who are making a success of their small country and they may give Russia a certain amount of trouble; but Finland has always relied on German support. If we cut that off, Finland will go the same way as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
" 7. While Russia deals with Finland we must exert pressure upon the Scandinavian countries to prevent their going to Finland's assistance. When the Russians have advanced their frontier across the Mannerheim Line there will no longer be any danger of the Scandinavians combining against us, as they can be threatened by Russia and ourselves; simultaneously. Sweden is strong enough to require a separate operation so she should be left for the time being, but Norway and Denmark can be taken over together. Sweden will then be entirely isolated, and so in no position to resist us whenever we consider it convenient to take control there.
"'8. Before going down into the Balkans it is essential that our right flank should be secured on the North Sea, otherwise Holland and Belgium may become alarmed at our operations and for their own protection invite Britain and France to attack us through their territories while we are occupied elsewhere. This reasoning also applies to any suggestion of attempting to absorb Holland separately. The Low Countries must, therefore, be overrun in one operation. At this point we must certainly anticipate a conflict with Britain and France, but having already established ourselves in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Holland and Belgium, we should have ample resources and nothing to fear.
'9. Switzerland, like Sweden, having been almost encircled by the powers of the Pan German Federation, can be absorbed at any time, but should a major war eventuate at Stage 8, Switzerland should be next on the list so that we can outflank the Franco British front and drive straight down towards the Mediterranean.
" `10. A sufficient interval will now have elapsed since our take over of Austria and Czechoslovakia for us to have properly established ourselves in those countries; so our next move should be to exert pressure on Hungary and to absorb her also.
" 11. If over a period of five or six years we have succeeded in absorbing Austria, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Hungary and a part of Poland, and Italy has absorbed Albania, either without provoking war or through 'a series of short wars, Britain will not fight again until directly threatened. However, our next stage, being Yugoslavia and Greece, involves our coming down into the Mediterranean, so it is highly probable that this will provoke Britain, for the first or second time, to conflict, but as the masters of the whole of Northern and Central Europe our position will then be very strong. Yugoslavia will be sandwiched between German Austria and Italian Albania and Italy must now be forced into the open. With Yugoslavia in Italy German hands, Greece will fall to the Federation naturally by pressure from Yugoslavia and Italy.
12. Our advance into Hungary will bring us to the borders of Rumania. Bulgaria is already a Russo German sphere of influence. She will be instructed to demand the return of the Dobruja. Russia will put forward her equally good claim to Bessarabia and on behalf of Hungary we shall claim the last province of Transylvania. Entirely encircled and threatened on all sides, Rumania must succumb and join the Federation, of which Bulgaria will also automatically become a part.