General Rudolf Sieckenius was to be its second recipient. Hjalmar Schacht would be the first. They had other recipients in mind.
After a highly pleased Sieckenius had left the meeting, they got down to normal business.
The Foreign Minister reported that the United States President had been most annoyed by Germany’s rejection of the United Nations concept. To the American’s dismay, only Greece in the whole of Europe, including the Soviet Union, supported the idea. And Greece hadn’t even paid the agreed initial monetary contribution! China and Japan had also declined.
The Americans had said they would press ahead regardless, as countries in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia had expressed varied degrees of enthusiasm. This was pure bravado and obstinacy on the part of the Americans. They were well aware that without Europe and the two Far East powers, the United Nations was doomed to be an ineffectual bystander in world affairs.
Von Altendorf also advised that he had been in communication with the Soviet Foreign Minister recently about the mooted summit meeting between the German Chancellor and the Soviet leader. After the initiative for this coming from the Soviets, they now appeared to be stalling. Germany’s reaction to this would be to just forget about it for the time being. If it happens — it happens!
The remaining ministers, with the exception of Defence, had little of note to contribute at this meeting.
General von Mannstein now spoke. “The Kriegsmarine have finalised their requirements for the submarine branch. We all know that they are operating U-boats that were essentially designed nearly ten years ago. These have been continually updated since then, but it is time for a completely new generation of submarines to be introduced in the near future.
The new design will give Germany the biggest, fastest, quietest, most heavily armed submarines, and with the greatest operational range, in the entire world. We will also increase the size of our fleet, and offer new subs to our Alliance partners.
The large ‘notional’ Soviet submarine superiority in numbers will be reduced. Bangladesh, China and Argentina are eager to buy a number of our current operational subs. No doubt General Sieckenius can dispose of the rest,” he said with a smile.
He continued. “While on the subject of submarines, I think you are all aware of the successful undersea launch of one of Professor von Braun’s A4 rockets last month. The navy’s research team are now looking into how this can be of practical use. In theory, it seems there is no great problem in building a submarine large enough to accommodate several missiles. While this is not considered a priority, it is certainly an interesting development.” He paused for a few moments.
“We have talked about aircraft carriers for the past six years. In that time the only action we took was to finish building the existing Graf Zeppelin.
The Americans, British and Japanese have ten carriers each. The French and ourselves have one each, and the French one is obsolete anyway. The Soviets have none, and have no plans to build any at present, as far as we can ascertain.
Unlike the other nations with aircraft carriers, Germany has no colonial empire to defend. We do, however, have a merchant shipping fleet operating around the globe. And it is a fleet which is expanding all the time. We also have commitments to the European Alliance. I therefore seek the approval of the Council to build our next aircraft carriers.
I say carriers, as two are needed to ensure that we always have at least one at sea at all times. By the time this next generation of carriers are ready for use, our current flagship, the Graf Zeppelin, will be approaching twenty years old. Furthermore it was never designed for use by jet aircraft.
Accordingly the Defence Ministry seeks approval from the Governing Council to procure two carriers in terms of the specifications detailed in the document that I now pass to you.
Possible buyers of our existing carrier, Graf Zeppelin, are Argentina and China.”
He was finished.
James Blackthorn, following the shock he had received earlier in the year concerning his affair with Magda Reinhardt, had thrown himself into his work. Eventually the bank’s Managing Director, somewhat concerned about James’ pace of work, had insisted he take a break. “Go and visit our California operation, James”, he had forcibly advised.
Two weeks later he was sitting in Jamie’s office in San Francisco having coffee.
The original idea expounded by Frank O’Donnell had proved inspirational. No other west coast bank was even close to them in terms of their ‘financial engineering’. O’Donnell, the Bradlington Thornberry Bank, and Deutsche Bank, were very pleased with their investment. It was very profitable and had brought enhanced prestige to all parties involved.
Originally hired as the President of a subsidiary of the American bank, Jamie had turned out to be the perfect choice for the next President of the bank itself, and had been so appointed only two months earlier. The bank was well funded, and its loan book, much of it guaranteed by the German Credit Guarantee Corporation, was of very high quality and considered virtually risk free. The profitability of the business was a constant source of wonder to O’Donnell. No wonder all bankers were thought of as rich!
James had been mulling over an idea for the past couple of months. He had decided it wasn’t really right for his own bank in the UK, but perhaps an American bank?
He outlined it to Jamie. Basically it was quite simple. Germany had a specialised department within their Defence Ministry, actively marketing German armaments to countries outside of the European Alliance. They would not sell indiscriminately, and they had certain strict guidelines they followed.
It had come to James’ notice that in two recent cases, Germany had been unable to finalise arms sales to two particular countries in South America as they did not meet the tough credit assessment imposed by the German Economic Ministry. In all other respects the two countries were considered suitable.
James suggested that this opened up a great financial opportunity for their American bank. They could raise medium term loans or bonds; say five to ten years term, for such countries, on the international capital market in the USA. The proceeds of the loans would be held in escrow in the US pending cash payments to Germany for arms deliveries. James was sure that Deutsche Bank would gladly inform Jamie of any potentially interested countries.
Nice, clean, simple business. Everybody happy!
Jamie loved it. For the next hour they went over everything in detail and came up with a game plan. Firstly O’Donnell would have to approve it. Only then would it be submitted to Nigel Thornberry and Deutsche Bank.
Strangely enough, it was the enthusiasm shown by Jamie, and their animated discussion of the development plan, that was the catalyst needed to drive the last remnants of self-pity about the Magda affair from his mind. He was free!
Two days later James was back in London. He played with his son while Fiona indulged herself in her favourite pastime. Watching TV and listening to the radio! He actually enjoyed himself!
It was only a few days later that Jamie telephoned him. All the parties concerned, had given the go ahead for his idea. James’ contribution was acknowledged by a grateful group of shareholders. It was intended that this ‘acknowledgement’ would be something more substantial, once the scheme had proved successful.
Jamie promised to ensure that this promise would be kept.