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Storm & Stress First Edition Web V1 - 0 2014
Storm & Stress First Edition Web V1 - 0 2014
orm &St
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Jenni
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Storm
&
Stress
By
Jennifer L. Armstrong
Storm & Stress
by Jennifer L. Armstrong
2014
© Mike_kiev | Dreamstime.com
Graphic Design
© Paul Krichbaum
“The revolutionary is a marked man; he has no personal interests,
affairs or feelings, no personal connections, nothing that belongs
to him, not even a name. Everything in him is geared to a single
and exclusive goal, to a single thought, a single passion: the
Revolution.”
Surgey Nechayev (1847-1882)
May the favour of Yahweh our God rest upon us; establish the
work of our hands for us, yes, establish the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17
Potsdam, Germany
1917
Toronto
1860
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2
Prologue
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“He could show you a thing or two.” The young men had
stopped paying attention to Anna. “He probably knows the city
better than you and he’s only been here a day. Look, he’s already
gotten himself a doxie . . .”
The young men were disengaging themselves from the chair,
the desk, the bed. Anna sensed that to them she was nothing
more than a package delivered to the wrong address.
They were putting frock coats on over their white shirts and
trousers and reaching for hats.
And then they were hurrying her along the corridor.
I am a danger to these young men, Anna realized. Albeit, one they
didn’t mind engaging in, briefly. If it were discovered by anyone
in authority that they had anything to do with her being here,
they would be reprimanded or worse. But their fellow-students
were hooting and laughing as they passed, so they would be
heroes if they didn’t encounter that disapproving don she had
seen earlier. Then it was down the winding stairs and out into the
bright sunlight.
It was a beautiful day. The University of Toronto campus
covered 150 acres with plants and shrubs abounding more than
buildings.
Comments were being directed at Anna, or the young men, as
they headed across the commons toward the identical building
opposite. Anna didn’t understand most of the expressions,
although they were obviously ribald. The mildest comprehensible
comment was “Who’s the ladybird?” and Anna gathered from
others that dollymop was also an acceptable alternative for what
they thought was her profession.
The young men were appreciating the attention, achieved
entirely by serendipity. They seemed to think that Anna had
gotten the names of the buildings mixed up and whoever this
Eddie was, he would be so grateful to them for the cheerful
return of his doxie that the gates of Empire would open up to
them.
But first they had to navigate her through some obstacles.
Anna was baffled. This was a university dormitory, and yet,
there were two constables guarding the entranceway and no
young men passing freely. This was only mildly offsetting to her
escorts who circumnavigated the building until out of sight of
the constables, where they at once began to test the windows.
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Prologue
Finally, they found one that they could slide open with ease, and
once again, Anna was the package. One young man scrambled
through the window first and then she was lifted and pushed
through by the other two in a quick effort to get all of them
inside before being spotted. Then they were moving through
quiet corridors. The two dormitories were reversed, but in every
other way, identical and they were making for the room that
corresponded with their own. Except that this room also had a
constable guarding the door.
“Distract him!” hissed the young man with the greatest
leadership skills to the other two.
After only a moment of hesitation, one of the two called out,
“Hullo, blue bottle!”
It was enough to cause the man in the blue uniform to raise
his eyebrows.
“My friend, here, is a bit of a dipper,” he continued, nudging
the second young man. “I bet him a quid he couldn’t nick
something of Eddie’s. But he did!” He reached into a pocket and
waved a handkerchief. The two turned and ran.
The constable reacted by chasing them, right past Anna and
her now single escort.
Astounding, thought Anna. All for a used handkerchief. Who
on earth was Eddie?
Her remaining escort hurried her to the door and opened it
without knocking.
The young man standing by the window turned and his eyes
widened. Anna’s eyes widened too. He was about Anna’s age, well
dressed in a morning coat and trousers, and idly leaning on what
looked like an Indian lacrosse stick.
Anna was looking straight at one of the most recognized faces
in the world, Victoria’s own son and heir, Edward, Prince of
Wales.
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take you west, and Yonge Street to take you all the way north to
the glittering waters of Lake Simcoe.
In those days, many visitors arrived not by coach, but by boat.
Toronto, built right on the edge of Lake Ontario, didn’t impress
every visitor. Anna Jameson, British essayist and wife to the
newly appointed Chief Justice in Upper Canada, wrote about her
new home, that Toronto, “was, thirty years ago, a wilderness, the
haunt of the bear and deer, with a little, ugly, inefficient fort,
which however, could not be more ugly or inefficient than the
present one.”
Clearly, Victoria’s son agreed with this because he said,
“Finally, something interesting in this outpost.” He leaned the
lacrosse stick against the window frame and came forward.
“Here we go, sir,” said the university student, bowing deeply.
“And a real topper she is.”
“I would say more of a toffer,” said Edward gravely, looking
Anna over. His voice was pleasantly English with a slight German
accent. His clothing was fastidious, but his eyes were droopy. Not
a handsome face. But then he smiled and Anna felt something
stir in her heart.
“Well said, sir! Well said!”
“What is your name?” the Prince of Wales asked Anna. He
was the first man to directly speak to her.
“Anna, sir,” she said.
“I must be going, sir,” said the student. “The constable will be
returning . . .”
Edward nodded, hardly interested, his eyes on Anna. Her
escort was forced to back out of the room, bowing the whole
way.
So much for a reward, thought Anna.
“Won’t you please have a seat?” said Edward, taking the plush
chair where the desk would normally have been and waving for
Anna to make herself comfortable on his single, but canopied
bed. Anna wondered which rich home in Toronto had been
raided for these furnishings.
“I regret I have nothing to offer you,” Edward said,
apologetically. “Mamma has instructed my keepers not to let me
have alcohol unless at dinner.”
“I don’t mind,” Anna said. “My mother was an actress, but she
never drank either.”
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Prologue
Actress. That’s what the alderman had always called his young
wife.
“I bet her shows are ripping,” said Edward, not noticing that
she had spoken in the past tense. “I wish they’d let me see some
of them while I’m here. It’s rather dull fare they have lined up for
me. There must be pretty girls in Toronto—well you’re proof
aren’t you?—but they have me dancing with people like the wife
of the Director of the Welland Canal.”
Anna laughed.
The photographs in the newspapers were usually of an
unsmiling young man with weak features, but here in life, Edward
was alive and she felt his vibrant energy.
Though young and a little bit shy, he seemed to be able to
cope with suddenly having a young woman arrive in his private
room.
He moved closer to her and she realized that he was going to
treat her like a doxie, rather than like the daughter of an actress.
Or maybe if you came from sophisticated London, it was all
more or less the same.
Anna hesitated.
Despite her earlier awareness that a life of offering her body
for sex would be the only recourse for her, she still wasn’t ready.
At this moment, it felt real. Too real. A doxie shouldn’t care
about the man she was required to be used by. And Anna cared.
Already, she was feeling the fumbling awkwardness of it as the
prince clumsily tried to figure out the buttons on her dress.
It wasn’t for her to decide either way.
The prince, though not yet a man of the world, was enough
of one to know what he wanted. To Anna, it finished almost
before it had started. Her corset didn’t even get loosened. She felt
nothing. But the prince was pleased.
And he was talkative now.
“They took me to see Niagara Falls. It was quite the show. A
chap named Blondin went across on a tightrope and offered to
take me over on a wheelbarrow. After that, it was an Agricultural
Exhibition. Not quite the same. The people here have been kind.
I suppose they love the mater, but I’m told 50,000 came out here
to cheer me on. Montreal, not as many, but I say, I’m quite taken
by the French. All they seem to do there is eat and dance. No
stuffy openings, but some long speeches, I’m afraid. And they do
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8
Chapter One
Toronto
present day
F elicity!”
I turn to see Toby.
He is behind me, coming down the stone steps of the
Humanities Building.
Toby is a lovely sight. He’s tall and confident. His hair is wavy
and dark and his smile is broad. He comes toward me with
assurance, putting an arm around me. His other arm has books
under it.
His embrace, although undoubtedly sincere, has a casual feel
to it. But then he intertwines our hands and I feel more
connected as we continue walking.
We are passing the Canadian-German Fellowship Hall, a place
neither of us would dream of entering. The students coming
down the marble steps are still speaking German to one another.
There isn’t a single citizen of Canada who isn’t able to speak at
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least a few words in German, but amongst the Socialists, you will
never hear one of those words pass across our lips.
Toby glances at them before lowering his voice. “I received a
telegram. We have a lot to discuss . . .” Then he glances up.
It is a sunny day and many students are out enjoying it, but a
large black shadow has filled the sky, ominous and frightening.
Then I hear the hum of an engine.
My free hand clutches Toby’s arm. I can hardly believe what is
passing above us. A zeppelin. Certainly I have seen them many
times from a distance but it’s nothing to prepare a person for
actually standing underneath one. The shadow that it casts is
enormous. They don’t usually pass right over Toronto. It must be
someone important.
Toby continues on, holding my hand, giving everyone the
impression that we are a couple. Girls openly look up at him. It’s
at moments like these that I long to be just his and not to belong
to the cause. Would he even love me if it weren’t for who I am?
That’s a thought I always quickly push away.
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Chapter One
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12
Chapter One
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14
Chapter Two
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16
Chapter Two
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18
Chapter Two
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20
Chapter Three
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22
Chapter Three
Toby always wins. “He always said that King Edward shouldn’t
bother going to church.”
Toby laughs.
“Edward Cornwall would have been fine with it. What he
objected to was the fact that King Edward was supposed to be
the head of the Church of England but he was a glutton and a
womanizer.”
He’s right, of course.
We stroll in silence. Toby will be with me until the end,
regardless of my opinions. That’s really the thought that I push
away. He stays with me because of my story and my life is really
the story of a king.
Actually, it’s really the story of two kings and one king-to-be.
Back, before the revolutions, in Russia, there was Tsar
Nicholas II. In Germany, there was Kaiser Wilhelm II. In
England, there was the reclusive Queen Victoria, elderly and still
in mourning for her beloved Albert who had died thirty years
earlier. So the public saw more of her heir, Edward, Prince of
Wales, than her. By the late 1800’s, he was a middle-aged man.
Wilhelm II was descended from warrior kings—both his
father and his grandfather had been busy in the 1800’s taking
land for the Fatherland. But Edward’s wife, Princess Alexandra,
was Danish and protested bitterly about Germany taking
Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. Edward for the most
part, shared her viewpoint.
Nicholas II’s mother was also a Danish princess, one of
Alexandra’s sisters. Both sisters never forgave Germany for what
it did to their father, forcing him to make war payments after
taking half his kingdom. The two sisters dressed identically when
together to suggest English-Russian solidarity. When separated by
all of Europe, the two Danish princesses openly snubbed all
German nobility that had the misfortune to have to appear at
their respective courts. In both cases, the husbands chose to take
their wives’ sides, which in Edward’s case, meant going against
his mother’s official stand. Victoria was always in favour of
Germany since her beloved husband had been German and her
daughter was married to the heir to the German throne—the one
who had actually participated in the campaign against the Danes.
But the British public sided with Prince Edward—the Danes
were the victims of German oppression, courageous despite their
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Chapter Three
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Toby greets them as they come in, while I brew some coffee.
They mostly ignore me. I’m essential to the movement but
inconsequential to the everyday matters. The guildies are eager to
share the latest with Toby.
“It’s just come in that the Kaiser purchased a hunting lodge in
northern Ontario a few months ago.” Micah is sitting on the edge
of Toby’s bed. “You know what this means!”
They all nod. This suggests a place for secret meetings.
“We knew the King was against us,” Matthew continues, “but
now with the Kaiser behind him, we could be in trouble if we
don’t act soon.”
“Protests in the streets aren’t enough,” says John. “We need
to have some real leverage.”
Toby glances at me.
“I think Felicity and I may be able to do something about
that.” He opens a desk drawer and hands something to me. I take
it. It’s the telegram. But before I have a chance to read it, Toby is
telling the others what it says.
“They’re worried in England. The Concerned Comrades see
the Kaiser’s influence everywhere on the continent. But what’s
even more troubling is that he’s building up his navy at Kiel and
that can only mean one thing.”
“The invasion of England,” murmurs Micah.
“But if we follow this to Iraq, it could change everything,”
Toby says.
My eyes widen and I look down again at what is in my hand.
But I can’t read it. It’s in the code that the Socialists use to send
confidential messages. The King James Bible, a book approved
of by both King and Kaiser, is the cipher with numbers
representing certain words in the scriptures.
According to Toby, the Middle East is simmering. The
Germans are heartless and the Arabs don’t like the Turks. The
Sanjaks of the Ottoman Empire are on the verge of turning
Communist—Mosul, Baghdad, Basra. They sent a message to
England for help. They promise that the whole Arab world chaffs
under Turkish rule and would rise up as one. The world’s oil
would belong to the Socialist cause. Persia and Arabia have only
survived as monarchies because of German support, but the
Germans are cruel to anyone who isn’t Aryan. Russia is already
making claims in Persia. If England is to have any share in the oil
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Chapter Three
supply, she must act now. Only oil can provide the fuel necessary
for the type of navy that can fight German naval supremacy. It
could tilt any future war in favour of the Socialists.
“Well, you’re the logical one to go and meet with them,” says
Micah. “The Socialists will control the oil and the Kaiser’s navy
will be useless.”
“We’ll go west,” says Toby. “That’s the whole point. To stay
safe. The Concerned Comrades in England can’t risk crossing
Europe. There’s a good chance they’d be stopped along the way.
But we can go west to the coast and cross the Pacific. It’s an
American ocean and the Kaiser has no presence in it.”
“And what do you do when you get there?” says Micah.
“You’ll be fine in Japan and China, but once you hit India, the
Kaiser’s men will pick you up.”
“We’ll stay on the water until we get to Basra,” says Toby.
“Then it’s just a river ride up to Baghdad. No big deal.”
“And what if she dies of malaria in a dhow in the middle of
nowhere?” John jerks a thumb towards me.
“We drink a lot of gin-and-tonic along the way,” says Toby
grinning, looking over at me. I smile back though I’m a bit
stunned.
Baghdad! We’re going to Baghdad! Talk about the ultimate
expedition. But it’s disturbing that the Germans control India.
When Britain had to abandon India after the brief Great War,
Germany went straight in.
“And if we don’t do this,” Toby adds, “There’s a good chance
that Yonge Street will become Kaiser Wilhelm Strasse.”
There is general agreement on this point.
“We’ll need you guys to cover for us when we’re gone,” says
Toby. “Get one of the girls to be Felicity, and all that. Make sure
our names are everywhere. The King’s men can’t know we’ve left
Toronto.”
Another pot of coffee is made and the conversation turns to
how awful it will be if the King and the Kaiser make an alliance.
It is illegal in Germany to say anything bad about the Kaiser
so people there refer to him as “Siegfried Meyer”—since S.M.
stands for Seine Majestat—when telling amusing stories about
him. The really cautious call him Herr Schmidt when talking
about him.
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Chapter Four
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Chapter Four
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Chapter Four
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Chapter Four
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Chapter Four
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38
Chapter Five
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40
Chapter Five
“And who will pay for this new world order? Who will pay for
the maintenance of the Kaiser’s navy? For surely you do not
think this means peace?”
He has the people’s attention. The pastor wants to continue
speaking, but Toby continues.
“This means war! War against England! War against Socialism.
War against anything that stands in the way of the King and the
Kaiser! And that war will cost . . .” He dramatically surveys the
crowd and then points his finger to the drifting poor. “You!”
He takes a step down to be closer to the crowd.
“It will be a beer tax, to be sure. It is always a beer tax when
the King wants to add a new regiment or buy some new
submarines.”
The poor are returning, nodding, murmuring that this is true.
“The might of the King and Kaiser will rest on the weary
shoulders of you who are already over-burdened!”
He has convinced them and now this mass of people who
only came to see a show are starting to move menacingly towards
the King’s Rifles.
An additional tax on beer. The poor man’s only consolation.
This could get ugly. Then Toby is back by my side, grabbing my
hand, and we are running. Like Lot’s wife, I look back and I see
the King’s Rifles holding their ground against the fury of a mob.
How long will it take before it becomes necessary to turn their
weapons against these outraged people?
But even if it turns into a massacre, it will only be a minor
skirmish in a greater war.
Because we are not running away from it. We are running
towards something. Rather, we are running back to Toby’s small
room to gather what we can, quickly, to take us to the deserts of
Iraq where maybe, just maybe, we will be able to start a
revolution.
“What do you think the King will do?” I ask, the next day
while we sit in our compartment, waiting for the train to depart
from Union Station.
Toby has pulled down the blinds of the narrow window.
We are frequent travellers of the train. Every year, there is a
Party congress meeting in a different Canadian city. The workers
are in the cities and they are the strength of the Party.
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42
Chapter Five
think setting off a bomb or two in the cities makes the slightest
difference to the cause, you’re out of your depth. The King’s men
love the challenge of ferreting out your kind.”
It’s true. The public devours the entertainment provided by
the noble King’s spies hunting down the filthy anarchists and
putting a stop to their murderous plots. Even the wretched poor
gather around the television sets in the pubs and watch the shows
churned out by the CBC
“Your problem is you’re dull.” Lucian is scornful. “Benefits
for new mothers. Sick pay. Workers’ rights. How dreary it all is!
Every man in his heart is on the side of the anarchist.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” says Toby, leaning back. “It’s
not enough to tear down the old. One must be ready to build the
new. A revolution comes to nothing if it doesn’t offer people real
change.”
Lucian ignores this, instead, turning his scorn on me.
“And you think she will be able to help your cause?”
“Go back to third-class,” says Toby.
“And if I do,” says Lucian. “How will you know that I haven’t
set a bomb to go off in second-class?”
Toby sighs.
“So we’re stuck with you then, are we?”
Lucian pulls a ticket out of his pocket and waves it at Toby.
“Actually, I am travelling first-class today. Not all supporters
of anarchy are dirt poor.”
He stands to go.
“Why did you find me?” asks Toby.
“To see for myself that you really are going west,” says Lucian.
He smiles. It isn’t pleasant. “Three members of the provincial
Parliament will be assassinated . . .” He looks at his wrist. “. . .
shortly. My patron suggested we attribute it to you. But since you
are clearly nowhere near the city, it would be difficult to make a
plausible accusation. Oh well.”
He passes through the doorway of the compartment and is
gone.
My mouth has dropped open.
“Oh don’t worry about him,” says Toby, glancing at me before
returning to his newspaper. “You should know by now he’s not
our enemy.”
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You could have fooled me. I’ve never liked Lucian and I fear
that if the Socialists did come to power, we’d still have to deal
with people like him.
“What kind of patron supports someone like that?” I ask.
“You know how he is,” says Toby, still behind the paper. “He
finds some rich old man with enemies and convinces him that the
anarchists will do his dirty work for him for a hefty price, so long
as they get to take the credit and declare it a political act. The rich
old man loves it because it’s hardly likely to be traced back to him
and he gets rid of the people who stand in the way of his
business or his ambition. And the anarchists get to travel first-
class.”
“Silly world,” I say.
“Very,” agrees Toby. “But the truth is, we need people like
Lucian. These aren’t the days of Edward Cornwall. The King
thinks that if he doesn’t legalize trade unions, the grubby masses
will stay loyal to him and not turn to sedition.”
It’s true. King Albert thinks that if there had been no Labour
Party in England, the revolution there would have failed, so he’s
eliminated all the legal ways of bringing about change. Labour
has no representation in Parliament. It’s asking for revolution.
Politically, Canada is not unlike the Tsar’s Russia. In 1906, after
some serious scuffles with the anarchists, the Tsar finally allowed
an elected assembly to be formed, the Duma. The Duma
immediately called for reform—redistribution of land, an end to
capital punishment, and equality for all in Russia regardless of
class, race or gender. The Tsar almost immediately dissolved the
Duma.
Toby is absorbed in the newspaper so I’m left to watch the
passing scenery. Boathouses of all sizes line the shore of Lake
Ontario and the lake is a colourful scene of sailboats, rowing
teams in training, yachts at anchor.
Once out of the city, Ontario scenery is pretty much the same
as it’s been for a hundred years—small towns, farmland, lakes,
trees. Prince Edward probably looked at the same scenes on his
one and only visit in 1860 when he was a young man.
King Edward’s England was a time of elegance for some and
poverty for most. In Parliament, the Labour Party called for
reform. But what the workingman called fair wages and benefits,
the upper classes called a society on the brink of anarchy.
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with half the selection and a pot of German coffee with our
simple torte. In third-class, they are eating stew made from the
leftovers and custard for dessert.
In first-class, they dress-up for dinner and have a full orchestra
playing in the background. In third-class, they wear the clothing
they boarded in and have a fiddler playing a jig in the corner.
Second-class is caught awkwardly in the middle. People like Toby
and me don’t dress up because, well, we never do. And there are a
lot of people like us. But there are also people who aspire to first-
class and make a point of putting on a dinner jacket and tie or a
long, shimmering dress. Music is provided by a string quartet. We
lack the spontaneity of third-class where they can dance a jig to
the fiddler or the elegance of first-class where they can waltz to
the orchestra.
But no matter what class you’re in, there are card games after
dinner, the air thick with smoke and conversation. Toby and I
check out the second-class library.
“Light fiction,” says Toby, scornfully, after surveying the
modest selection.
I take his arm.
“Let’s just get some air,” I say. It’s a whole different world, this
ship. No one knows who I am. No one cares that Toby is the
most effective spokesperson for Socialism in the King’s Toronto.
Maybe if we can just stroll the promenade like any other couple,
we can find out if we have what it takes to be a real couple . . .
We have five days alone together. Apart from the wireless
room, we are cut off from the world. Though the ocean liner can
send and receive telegrams 24-hours a day, no one knows that
Toby is aboard the Olympia so no one can send him anything.
But I underestimate Toby’s ability to spread Socialism and
sunshine wherever he goes.
A lone young man is leaning against the railing. And the next
thing I know, Toby is talking with him. The young man is
complaining about the toffs who have an unhindered view of the
ocean while second-class and third-class have to peer around the
lifeboats to see the water. He’s exaggerating. If you squeeze by
the lifeboats, you can stand by the railing and watch the ocean.
It’s only from the deck chairs that most of it is blocked.
“Have you seen it up there?” he asks Toby. “I had a look
around before we set sail. It’s all mahogany and marble. Their
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Chapter Six
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knew what to make of her. Exquisite, but not easy to rule. For
that matter, the King didn’t even seem to try.
“It’s the son I’m worried about,” said the Kaiser. “Not
strong.” He shook his head. “Not strong at all.”
“He studies drama,” said the Kaiserin.
The Kaiser snorted.
“And just one heir. Such foolishness.” He thought of his own
six sons back in Berlin. A thought blew in, staying around the
edges of his mind. If something were to happen to the King’s
son . . .
His mind was already running through the entire scenario. The
King’s son is abducted. The King receives a ransom demand
from, say, the Socialists. Yes! The Socialists. The King pays, but
the insidious Socialists kill the Crown Prince just to be
spiteful . . . No more heir. Instability ensues. The Kaiser steps
in . . .
He turned away from the ocean, unseeing eyes now on the
promenade. He didn’t really like the idea. Plans made in secret
had a way of coming out into the open and he would lose his
high moral ground when they did. Kaiser Frederick did things
openly. He was the Kaiser of a military-nation, one who faced its
enemies head on in battle, not a nation of devious undertakings.
He ruled by the grace of God. It was his moral obligation to do
things honorably. Ridding the world of Socialism was honorable.
Abducting a fellow monarch’s son was not.
“He has no military training,” said the Kaiser. “I specifically
asked.”
The Kaiserin murmured her agreement that this was
unacceptable. At the age of six, each of her sons had received his
own military advisor. A program of vigorous physical training
commenced. At ten, they received a regiment of their own and
were expected to wear its uniform on all formal occasions. At
fifteen, they became officers and were given command of
twenty-one men. By eighteen, they would be commanding the
whole regiment.
Every German uniform, whether it was Army, Navy or
Airforce, had “Gott mit uns” sewed onto it. God with us. It was
incomprehensible to the Kaiser that the King seemed vaguely
uneasy by their military discussions. It could be his wife, the
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“Yes, yes,” said the Kaiser impatiently. “And then when she
finally got her son, she fell under the influence of that horrible
Rasputin thinking he could heal the boy of his hemophilia. It
really doesn’t matter what the issue is, the Anarchists use
whatever they can to undermine the people’s respect for the King
and his right to rule.”
The Kaiserin murmured her agreement. She and her ladies-in-
waiting were above reproach—all devoted to good works for the
German people. The Kaiserin wouldn’t allow any woman into her
inner circle unless she was free of any scandal of impropriety.
Even divorced women weren’t permitted at her teas and garden
parties.
“I’m amazed no one’s tried to assassinate him,” said the
Kaiser, thinking back to King Albert. “His security is horribly
lax.”
In Berlin and Potsdam, the Kaiser had a bodyguard of a
hundred men under orders to shoot-to-kill any individual who
attempted to penetrate the private chambers of the Kaiser and
his family. The Kaiser’s military police monitored Nihilists,
Anarchists and Socialists from Calais to Constantinople.
“It may just be that no one wants to assassinate him,” the
Kaiser decided. “They certainly try to assassinate me,” he said
with satisfaction. “At least his navy is in decent shape. Although,
he keeps too many ships in the Great Lakes. Now that we have
an alliance, he can stop fearing this hypothetical American
invasion.”
The Kaiserin nodded. Her husband wasn’t afraid of the
Americans. He had already restored a European monarchy to
Mexico. Republics vs Monarchies. That was the game her
husband had always played. The German Empire covered over a
quarter of the world’s land and ruled the same number of its
citizens. Beyond that, it was a matter of making favourable
alliances with weaker-minded rulers in order to bring their
nations into the German sphere of influence.
We must take Germany to every corner of the world. It was
something the Kaiser said often to his generals, his military
adjutants, his wife, usually emphasized by a pound on the table
with his fist.
“I don’t think much of him as a man. He’s a ninny. He
whimpers on and on about the Americans.” The Kaiser shook
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his head. “He frightens far too easily. If you ask me, he’d be fit to
live in a country house and raise turnips.”
The Kaiser turned his attention to the sea, some would say, his
overbearing attention. It was impossible to say from his stern
look whether he approved of the sea or not today.
The Kaiser suddenly clapped his hands together.
“Oh! How good it will be to get home! I wonder how many
trenches our boys have dug in our absence?”
The Kaiserin smiled. Her boys had a tendency to turn the
palace lawns into fortresses of pounded dirt. Obliging gardeners
filled bags with sand to add to their fortifications. Family and
close friends knew better than to give gifts to the boys that
weren’t military-related, consequently they had a constantly
growing collection of toy guns and cannons to defend their
installations.
“I do not want Affie in military school,” the Kaiserin blurted
out. It was something that had been distressing her for weeks
now. “Or Fritz. They’re far too young.”
The nursery was the Kaiserin’s domain and the Kaiser rarely
interfered. He had been lax about putting their two youngest into
the military academy just because he feared the effect it would
have on his wife, justifiably so, as it turned out.
“Not today, Effie!” he said. He knew it came out with a force
more appropriate for the barracks than for a marriage. But his
wife was becoming tiresome about this topic and since he had no
weapon against her tears, he preferred to head off the argument
before it started. He should have known better.
“If not today, when?” his wife demanded.
It was true. Within days, they would be back at Potsdam and
the Kaiser would be inaccessible to his wife for most of the day.
Over the years, he had deliberately encouraged the belief that
matters of the state could not be interrupted for matters of the
nursery. The truth was, the Kaiser welcomed any interruption
that would take him from his ministers with their minds on such
numbing issues like grain tariffs. Any interruption, except from
his wife.
“I’ll think about it,” he said, his voice softening. It wasn’t true,
of course. His mind was already made up.
But for the moment, it seemed to do.
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“OK,” said Effie. “Thank you, Frederick.” She took his arm.
It suggested trust.
Frederick patted her hand and was glad that at that moment
the gong sounded for lunch.
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stretch their legs in the morning sunshine and head out followed
by porters pushing their luggage on dollies.
It isn’t until the next morning that we arrive in
Constantinople.
Constantinople is really a German colonial city, where young
blond soldiers patrol the streets and the stations, we learn as we
disembark. The train stops just short, on the edge of the Golden
Horn where we have to catch a ferry to actually arrive in the city
proper. Two of the German soldiers cross over on the ferry with
us and whether this is normal, we don’t know. But they continue
to follow us to the massive European-style Hyderpasha Terminal
where we move with the crowds and try to find our train to
Baghdad among the many tracks.
We are thrown off by the fact that the train we are looking for
is actually called the Taurus Express. It takes us an hour to figure
this out, after talking to porters and station guards, a process
involving a lot of questions and unintelligible answers and even
more gesturing. Finally, we are pointed to our train. A travelling
German who is boarding the same car assures us that it is the
train to Baghdad.
The two soldiers from the ferry have been behind us the
whole time and as we settle into our compartment—with them
two compartments down—Toby remarks that we should have
just asked them which train it was to Baghdad.
“They are following us, aren’t they?” I say nervously.
“I think so. If they know we’re going to Baghdad, it’s logical
they would try to stop us.”
Our second-class berth can seat and sleep up to four people.
As the train begins to move out of the station, we think we have
it all to ourselves, but the door to our compartment is opened
and a fair-haired, young man drops into the seat beside Toby.
At first, I think he is German. But when he speaks, he is
clearly English.
“Sorry to intrude on your love nest, comrades,” he says. “But
the only other choice was a pair of potatoes.”
Toby laughs.
The Germans are called potatoes by the English Socialists.
“No worries, comrade,” says Toby. “We’re happy to have you.”
The young Englishman is pleased to find himself among fellow
Socialists and he and Toby immediately begin talking of the
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“I’m not going to war with the people of England,” said the
King.
“No, but the Kaiser is,” said his secretary, hardly pausing in his
paper sorting. “You wouldn’t kill a cat. But the Kaiser will drop
bombs from his airships that will kill rosy-cheeked English
children. They’re talking about stringing up a cat outside of New
Buckingham Palace and torturing it for your benefit.”
“My God!” said the King, shaken for the moment. He felt like
he was going to vomit. He liked cats. Cats wandered through
New Buckingham Palace and were free to reproduce at will. Even
the Queen adored them. They were frequently featured in
national news magazines.
“And a cat isn’t made in the image of God,” his secretary
continued. “So it would hardly be as immoral as the Kaiser’s
bombs on England.”
The King no longer knew whether this was his secretary
talking or the people talking. He stood up.
“If they kill a cat, or harm a cat in any way, I will personally
decapitate them.”
He looked viciously to a ceremonial sword on the wall that the
Kaiser had given him back when they had visited him at
Potsdam—something that had belonged to an ancient shogun
and came into German hands due to their Far East holdings.
“Well spoken, sir,” said the secretary, almost smiling.
The truth was, the topic of cats had not come up this
morning in the Ottawa eatery, only the immorality of a war with
England. The people were angry about having to fight the
Kaiser’s war and the private secretary was angry in particular
about his sister and her children living in a flat just outside of
London.
“And after all,” said the private secretary, pushing his point.
“Why does the Kaiser need the wealth of England? He already
has the wealth of the Romanovs.”
“What?” For a moment, the King forgot all about cats.
The private secretary nodded, his face returning to passive. He
had it on good authority. Ever increasing in knowledge, the
private secretary had cultivated an amiable relationship with his
German counterpart. It was useful for both of them.
He had learned that one of the Kaiser’s plans was to acquire
the relics of the monarchy from England if he ever had
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daytime planner. His personal secretary was the only one of his
staff who shared his interest in garden plots for the poor.
The King hoped it would be enough. It had so alarmed the
final Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Charles I, when
he had learned of the Tsar’s abdication in 1917, that he had
immediately written to his ally, Kaiser Wilhelm II, that they
needed to bring a speedy conclusion to the Great War so as to
engage in battle with the real enemy that was raging across
Europe, international revolution. He had cited “general
starvation” as revolution’s strongest ally. Unfortunately, Charles
I’s insight had been spot-on. The Great War had led to semi-
starvation in Austria and when money had become worthless,
desperate people had paralyzed the economy further with
debilitating strikes. The red flag of revolution had started
appearing in the cities, and even more distressing, on some of his
own navy ships. Charles I had lost his throne shortly thereafter
when his multicultural kingdom was torn apart by nationalistic
factions.
The truth was, the King would have rather puttered among
the gardens of the poor than visit the new armaments factory.
For now, armaments were his contribution to the alliance with
the Kaiser. God knew, he didn’t want to promise any men in a
nation of only thirty million, particularly when most of his
ground forces were spread along the Canadian-American border.
But when he was with the Kaiser, he had the gloomy sense
that a European war was inevitable. The Kaiser had talked of a
pre-emptive strike on the English navy, while at the same time
assuring Albert that it was England who wanted war, not him. A
German preemptive strike on the English navy would hopefully
be a sufficient flexing of Teutonic muscles to deter any of their
plans to spread Socialism to the continent, he had explained.
The King could sympathize with the idea of enemies on the
border.
The Kaiser was in the middle of the two Socialist
powerhouses—England and Russia. Though small, England
maintained a formidable navy, along with a modest air force. And
Russia boasted an army of over five million men. Her tank forces
were kept in top shape and ready to roll at the slightest sign of
German aggression. And learning the lessons of the past, Russia
was more than capable of engaging an enemy that took her on in
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the dead of winter. The Kaiser had lamented that his men were
outfitted for nothing greater than a drop to zero degrees Celsius.
The average Russian infantry division remained comfortable
down to minus twenty degrees and there were special winter
divisions that could engage in battle down to temperatures of
minus forty degrees Celsius without suffering the effects of the
cold.
The Kaiser’s interest in King Albert’s Arctic Patrol division of
the navy had been disturbing.
In fact, it all made King Albert enormously nervous. Even if
the Kaiser offered his people quick victories, both the English
and the Russians were stubborn people. They would fight
courageously and cunningly. The King could easily imagine a war
that would wear down the German people, create food shortages
and turn central Europe into another Socialist republic.
The Kaiser did have his Asian empire to draw upon—India
alone could provide a million-man standing army to throw at
Socialist Russia, but Albert doubted that the Indians would last
too long once any winter—Russian or English—settled in. Not
to mention that the Kaiser had a notorious habit of sending
inferior army equipment and supplies to his brown forces.
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His Foreign Secretary couldn’t stand the Kaiser and had such
a difficult time concealing it that the King had felt it prudent to
leave him out of the negotiations.
“You have committed us to a European war, sir,” said his
Foreign Secretary.
“Not necessarily,” said the King leaning forward, across his
desk. “If you’ll read it more carefully . . .” But he knew the man
was right.
“If it were any other man but the Kaiser, I would agree with
you, sir. But the Kaiser is an ambitious man and I fear we will be
absorbed into his ambitions.”
The King exhaled. He found the whole business of
government annoying. Theoretically, he was an autocrat and his
word was law, but in reality, the people saw Parliament as the
buffer zone against tyranny and for that reason alone, he had to
bow to its wishes.
In 1905, the Tsar had had his Duma, but he had dissolved it
due to the bloody-mindedness of it all. King Albert didn’t want
to repeat the Tsar’s mistake. The Tsar had subsequently retreated
to Tsarskoe Selo, his luxurious estate just outside of St.
Petersburg, where he had enjoyed his family and his garden and
had limited his visitors to those who shared his views. Much as
he loathed most of his engagements, the King had tried to do the
opposite.
Socialist newspapers were still periodically closed down, but as
long as the mercantile and banking families of the East and the
large landholding cattle ranchers and wheat-farmers of the West
were satisfied, the country kept on.
Queen Donna ensured that there were court balls in both
Ottawa and Toronto and that the debutantes were all annually
received at New Buckingham Palace. When they had travelled to
Germany in ’03, she had scorned the Kaiser’s court in Berlin with
its military quadrilles and dowdy women.
“The only other option I can see is that we offend the Kaiser,
stand on our own two feet and open Canada up to Socialism or
Republicanism,” said the King. “He’s one of our strongest allies.
If you want to be ruled over by Godless Bolsheviks, well, by all
means, throw away the treaty.”
“Sir, I’m hardly an advocate of Darwinian thinking.” His
Foreign Secretary was, at least, smiling now.
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“Those are just the Druze rebels in the hills. The French have
had a hopeless time trying to subdue them. The Nairn fellow says
we might see some action in the desert because all of the tribes
have joined together to fight the French and their cursed
taxations. But don’t worry,” Antony adds. “Nairn is used to
handling bandits. We’ll get across OK. And Nairn always travels
in convoys.”
Antony looks down at his watch. “Anyway, we depart at dawn
tomorrow. It means getting up at four. I suggest we rent a room,
grab a shower and get a meal.”
Toby agrees.
“I recommend we head for the Kanawat Station,” says
Antony. “It’s close by and it’s the departure point for the Hejaz.”
“The Hejaz?” I ask.
“Mecca and Medina,” Toby explains. “The holy cities of
Islam.”
Antony nods.
“There are so many pilgrims around the Kanawat Station that
we should be able to get lost in the crowds.”
We are already in the crowds, as far as I can tell, as we move
along with shoppers and fellow tourists.
Lining the streets are cafés filled with men drinking coffee,
smoking the nargileh and playing backgammon. The occasional
lorry full of troops goes by, but they’re all French, not German.
France has had a mandate over Syria since the Great War.
While the Kanawat Station is busy handling travellers from all
over the Muslim world, Antony leads us to a nearby
neighbourhood where streets are narrow and windows are
covered in lattice. We turn into a courtyard paved with stone and
a fountain in the centre that is surrounded by graceful flower
pots and shaded by lemon and orange trees.
“As salamu alaykum,” says an older man, hurrying out of a
heavy wooden front door that is open now, but closed, would be
a formidable deterrent to intruders. I notice iron bars on the
windows of the spacious stone building.
“Wa alaykum salam,” Antony replies. “We need some rooms.”
The man waves us into the cool interior of the hotel where
there is a small desk and a guest book.
“Don’t use your real name,” says Antony in a low voice.
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their cars waving the proud logo of the Royal Hohenzollern Air
Force.
By 1:00, we are at the border of Iraq. Passports are hardly
glanced at by an Arab customs official who comes aboard and he
shows no special interest in Toby’s or mine. The suitcases of the
Jewish merchants, however, are examined closely. They contain
nothing more than rows and rows of Palestinian apricot jam, but
it seems to take awhile to establish that they are not contraband
jam.
“If the road to Baghdad isn’t flooded,” says Antony. “We’ll be
there by sunset.”
It’s hard to imagine anything flooding around here, but soon
the dusty desert gives way to fertility. There are mud villages
surrounded by date groves. While I see huts that look dank and
uninviting and inhabitants who live in barebones poverty and
disease, Toby—for the first time in his life—doesn’t see the
human suffering and enthuses about this being the land of
Abraham. Antony, who shares my apathy about all things biblical,
murmurs something about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and
lost glory.
But even the muddy Euphrates looks inviting after the barren
Syrian desert.
At Lake Habbaniyah we see the base of the Royal
Hohenzollern Air Force. Toby and Antony are leaning across me
to get a closer look at the airfields lined with fighter jets and at all
the seaplanes in the water.
The villages get closer and closer together until we are in
Khadhmain, home of a golden mosque, and then it is Baghdad
itself. The tourists are snapping photos through the windows.
Baghdad is on the Tigris River and as we cross the river on a
wide bridge, there is a collection of river vehicles moving lazily
along—barges, steamers, sailboats, round basketwork boats filled
with fruits and vegetables. Along the river are homes of the
wealthy where they can watch the river traffic from their
balconies.
The Nairn bus stops in front of an upscale establishment, the
Tigris Palace Hotel. The driver of the bus points out several
other similar buildings along the street and says they are also
hotels.
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The natives of the east disembark from the bus, and after
claiming their luggage, are calling for rickshaw-style
transportation to take them either to the Baghdad West, Baghdad
East or Baghdad North train station.
The visitors mill around, trying to decide which hotel will be
the best and what they want to do first now that they have
arrived.
Antony tells us that we are on Rashid Street, the main road
running through Baghdad. It runs parallel to the Tigris River. My
first observation is that camels loaded with dates are sharing the
road with cars and trolleys.
Hungry, we all agree that food should be our next step. It is
getting dark, but the city is still alive. Kebab sellers operate small
stands. We pass elderly ladies stirring big pots of what looks like
string beans. Natives purchase a chunk of bread on a piece of
string that they can then dip into the soup. Other sellers have a
soup that smells like lamb and offers the same service.
Sellers of sherbet are doing a brisk business. The sherbets of
Baghdad come in a delightful variety of flavours—rose petal,
orange blossom, apricot, peach, pomegranate and almond. We
each get one. Antony recommends that we also grab a pickled
mango in pita bread.
From Rashid Street, there are several roads down to the water.
I see women carrying goatskins or earthenware pots coming up
from the river. I hope it’s just for bathing, otherwise, I anticipate
we could have collywobbles in our stomach while we’re here if
that’s the source of drinking water.
While we eat and walk, Antony asks if we have a place to stay.
Toby nods as he swallows.
“Probably. I have my contact name and an address. You can
join us if you want, but I should warn you, it won’t be safe.” He
reaches into a pocket his knapsack and pulls out a piece of paper,
handing it to Antony.
“I didn’t come here for safe,” says Antony. He reads the
address. “Ra's al-Qaryah. It’s the Christian district. I know
because that’s the only place where you can buy wine in Baghdad.
We’ll have to cross back over the river.”
He leads us down one of the side roads that he says is Shariat
al-Nawab. It runs down to the river where we can catch a river
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maidens of the village had tossed roses at their feet when they
had taken their final bows. It was amusing and exhilarating, and
while some of the actors took advantage of the maidens who
fawned over the troupe, the Crown Prince and Peter had merely
laughed and waved the women away, instead, returning to their
tent with a bottle of apple cider to talk the night away. Peter was
a recent convert to Socialism and that had opened a whole new
world of discussion—about God and social justice and the
current state of the world. Peter was passionate about his new
faith. David was listening to his new ideas, delivered with such
fervor, intrigued by the change in his friend.
“Telegram, sir.” There was only one man in the company who
called David sir. He was the son of the director and was
responsible for all the paperwork that went along with outdoor
performances. He had to secure permission from local authorities
to use town squares and other public places for their
performances. He handed David a telegram.
Already holding his shaving kit with one hand, David took it
and glanced down. He expected it to be from his father, although
he had no idea how his father knew where to send it. They had
no fixed route or itinerary, just following the sun and performing
where they were welcome.
The telegram was from the Kaiser. How had the Kaiser found
him in France? David shook his head, ruefully. Trust the Kaiser’s
military intelligence to find out that the Crown Prince of Canada
was in a neighbouring country.
It was an invitation to the Kaiser’s hunting lodge at Rominten,
not exactly on the troupe’s route. The Kaiser tended to be wordy,
not feeling any need to conserve his thoughts just because it was
a telegram, and assured the Crown Prince, it would be “men
only” and that the forest around the estate was teeming with
evergreens, deer and other wildlife. Several of his older sons
would be there and would be thrilled to see their English cousin
again. The Kaiser wrote with the confidence that the Crown
Prince’s reply would be “yes.” After all, his hunting parties were
legendary. On one occasion, he and his party had brought down
over four thousand pheasant.
The director’s son was still standing there, perhaps expecting
that the Crown Prince would want to reply. The telegram hadn’t
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Two days later, there was another telegram from the Kaiser.
He said he quite understood that the Crown Prince was unable to
make it to Rominten, but there was an upcoming festival in Berlin
at the Royal Opera House featuring the works of several notable
German playwrights. The Kaiser expected that that would be
more to the liking of Crown Prince David.
The tone was still that of a summons, but David didn’t
crumple the telegram this time.
The director’s son waited, almost breathless, for what the
Crown Prince would say to this telegram.
“Tell him I will be glad to attend the festival,” said David,
giving him back the telegram. “I’ll arrange my own
transportation.”
The director’s son hurried off, not only to do the bidding of
the Canadian Crown Prince, but of the great Kaiser Frederick of
Imperial Germany.
David returned to his tent and lay down. The Kaiser would
understand the implications of David making his own travel
arrangements. No royal welcome at the Berlin train station. No
guard of honour. No pomp of the Kaiser arriving in a carriage to
escort his young distant cousin back to Stadtschloss.
David would arrive at the guarded gates of Stadtschloss with a
knapsack on his back. It went against protocol.
Protocol would also have him contact his father back in
Ottawa and tell him of the Kaiser’s invitation, but David decided
not to bother. He hadn’t bothered to contact his father about the
telegram that had come two days earlier.
The truth was, David felt that as a sovereign, his father didn’t
need to worry about the Americans or the Germans. If God had
put him on the throne of Canada, God would take care of its
borders. All he needed to do was be the guardian of his people.
An enormous Bible gilded the altar at New Westminster Abbey
in Ottawa. But in New Buckingham Palace, there was only one
Bible, and it was on the bedside table beside the Crown Prince’s
bed. And in it there was a parable, spoken by the greatest
sovereign of all, Jesus. He had given his servants talents—
increments of money—to use wisely until a time of accounting.
In the story, the man who had five talents had made five more,
the man who had two talents had made two more, but the man
who had one had buried it and been reprimanded for not
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that I love. But after that, you will see the reasons why Baghdad
teeters on the edge of revolt.”
He stands and says he will wait in the hall, allowing us to wash
up and change clothes.
From the Chaldean church, it is a short walk back to Rashid
Street.
A lorry convey of Arab soldiers is passing through the
crowded street, forcing all other vehicles and animals to move to
the side.
“Where are the Germans?” says Toby. “All I see are Arab
soldiers.”
Yusuf nods.
“We have a few German soldiers, too. They are mostly the
officers. But it is Arabs in the ranks. I believe it is a punishment
for a German to be posted to Iraq.”
We all smile.
From Rashid Street, Yusuf leads us through a maze of narrow
streets for about fifteen minutes until we come to a covered
marketplace.
“This is the Shorjah,” says Yusuf. “The sort of thing you
show people who want to see the real Baghdad, not the fancy
dress parties thrown by the Germans.”
There are fruit sellers, carpet sellers, silverware sellers, along
with all sorts of other items—cups and saucers, tea-pots,
embroidered scarves, second-hand coats and sweaters, hand-
made woven bedspreads, candles, clay pots, sheepskin coats,
inlaid mother of pearl trays and copper coffee sets. Spices, beans,
and rice can be purchased from enormous baskets. Everything
edible is covered in flies.
Older Arabs in long robes of striped cotton sit on stools by
trays of bootlaces or combs or bananas or towels or razors and
blades, their fingers slipping over amber prayer beads. Younger
Arabs in European suits move along at a quick pace.
A man with a cart of watermelons passes by. A woman with
small children, two on foot, one in her arms, stops him and he
pulls out a knife to cut open one so she can examine the colour.
Satisfied that it is red, not pink, she purchases it and walks away,
now loaded down even more.
Beyond the central market of the Shorjah are other roads. We
pass a stationary shop, a seller of sweets, a shop filled with
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quality of the fine German white wine that had been served to
him. “The Canadians didn’t have a single claret that wasn’t from
France.”
No one mentioned the obvious point that by definition, a
claret would always be a red wine from the Bordeaux region of
France.
Someone murmured something about Canada having French
people in Quebec, which the Kaiser ignored. No one else spoke
up. Ministerial purges were all too frequent.
“Well, that’s it for today, gentlemen,” said Frederick, walking
towards the door of his office, forcing the others to move along
with him. The newest member of the clique, a young Minister of
Agrarian Affairs, was startled by the abrupt dismissal. The others
were used to it. Although these personal meetings with the
Kaiser were meant to touch upon matters of current debate in
the Reichstag, the Kaiser only brought up the things that
interested him.
The small group watched the Kaiser’s back as he disappeared
through a doorway into the interior of Stadtschloss, leaving his
ministers standing in the anteroom of his office.
While his ministers speculated about whether he was going
hunting or riding, Frederick hurried to his next meeting, one that
was not in his personal secretary’s day planner, one with the
Admiral of the German Imperial Navy. There were battleship
plans to look at and Kaiser Frederick was like a young boy on
Christmas Eve. Each new battleship was a shiny present. With his
Admiral, he could talk openly. Together, they no longer even
pretended that the Kaiserliche Marine existed to defend the
coast. They could speak freely about its offensive purposes. They
were in the process of expanding their submarine fleet and
Frederick could already imagine his submarines stealthily
navigating the Thames and emerging in the heart of London
much to the terror of its Socialist citizens. It was an enormously
pleasing thought, although, his Admiral had a more prosaic plan
for the submarine fleet—to disrupt British trade in the Channel
and the Atlantic.
In his pocket, he had a redesigned war ensign for his navy
featuring the Imperial eagle, a symbol that went back to the days
of Charlemagne, who took it from an even earlier Empire, the
Romans. It was no great feat for Frederick’s imagination to
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believe that very soon, he would rule a landmass the same size as
that of the mighty Romans. The other symbol on his new war
ensign was the iron cross and that went back to the days of
Teutonic Knights in Jerusalem.
Frederick entered the office of his Admiral, hardly bothering
to knock, already rubbing his hands in anticipation of the new
battleship plans they would view together.
His Admiral, a small slim man with grey hair and matching
Van Dyke beard, looked up and gave him a slight smile. Despite
their outward differences and his Admiral’s complete lack of
sense of humour, Frederick felt that they were really two parts of
the same soul. He could speak his mind with this man and
receive no irritating protestations. His ministers always looked
pained when he spoke his mind. But, of course, politicians were
not men of action.
The Admiral handed him the blueprints and he unrolled them
on the enormous table in the centre of the office. He studied
them for some time, his Admiral at his side.
“Yes, yes,” he finally said, approvingly. “This will give the
English something to think about. Of course, it would be
marvelous if the first time they met the SMS Wilhelm that it
would be on the high seas. But I don’t suppose their spies can be
stopped from reporting back to London.”
The Admiral murmured his agreement. No amount of
Imperial Naval Intelligence could keep the activities of the Kiel
dockyards a secret.
The Kaiser left the plans on the table, moving restlessly
around the room, his eyes eventually turning to a memo on the
Admiral’s desk about creating another torpedo division.
“How many divisions do we have now?” he asked the
Admiral.
“About thirty,” said the Admiral. Frederick nodded his
approval. The Admiral came forward with some papers for the
Kaiser to sign, which Frederick did without even glancing at
them first. The trust between the two men was too complete.
The Admiral poured them each a coffee from a silver pot on a
side bureau, which they drank while talking, before turning to a
bottle of schnapps in a cupboard below.
They continued to talk for a pleasant hour until the Kaiser
refused a last drink and stood, saying, “The Kaiserin will be
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expecting me for lunch. And you know how she doesn’t like me
to arrive in a tipsy state.”
The two men laughed.
The Kaiserin was a model of womanhood and disapproved of
any drinking before the midday meal.
With six lively sons, the luncheon table was never quiet, but it
could be dull. Frederick did not encourage his wife to take an
interest in political affairs and her charities, though worthwhile,
did not interest him.
Today, the matter on his wife’s mind was the one she’d been
going on about for weeks now. Their youngest two, Affie and
Fritz, had a private tutor but Frederick had pointed out
repeatedly to his wife that the Crown Prince had been attending
the military academy just outside of Potsdam when he had been a
year younger than Fritz and that they really must go. But the
Kaiserin just flatly refused to let go of her two last children.
“You can have an officer train them here,” she said today, after
the Kaiser had asked a blessing over the sauerbraten, roasted
potatoes and dumplings.
“No, I cannot,” he said with exasperation, reaching for a jar of
spicy mustard and wishing that his wife allowed beer at the family
table. “A man cannot learn to be an officer if he doesn’t have
men underneath him.”
“They are not men. They are boys.”
As if to demonstrate the truth of this, at that moment, Crown
Prince Wilhelm tossed a hard bread roll across the table at Oskar,
something that the Kaiserin would normally have corrected him
on, but today she was fighting a hopeless war and her nerves
were too shattered to concern herself with bread battles.
“Boys must become men.”
“You have enough men in your army. You have enough
officers. Why can you not just allow some of your boys to be
what they wish to be?”
“But the boys want to be officers, don’t you, boys?” said the
Kaiser, turning to his two youngest.
The two nodded and nobody could say whether it was because
they genuinely did or because they didn’t think they really had a
choice.
“So what should they be?” the Kaiser asked, turning back to
his wife. “Painters? Tram drivers? Chicken farmers? Really, Effie,
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The Kaiser stood and pushed back his chair, leaving his wife
to her untouched coffee. Perhaps a cruise through the northern
seas could be an annual event for his wife.
Effie, through years of quiet observation, knew where her
husband’s thoughts were going. Whether she liked it or not, her
husband would plan a holiday for her. And today, it enraged her.
She also stood, pushing her chair back into the table with such
force that all the china shook. The boys were instantly quiet,
exchanging concerned looks. It was all very fine and well for
them to hurl bread rolls across the table at one another, but when
their mother was angry, the world was disconcertingly turned
upside down.
She followed her husband—who thought he had made a clean
break—for one final showdown.
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N o one can prepare you for the heat of Iraq. We are out
in the open sun today, drifting down the Tigris in a
guffah—an enormous round wicker basket coated with
bitumen. We are seated on the bottom while the owner of the
guffah moves us gently along with a long pole, like a gondolier.
No self-respecting German overlord travels this way. They have
safinahs—hundred-ton boats with shaded decks and iced drinks
to quaff.
The Tigris is the main route to the south because roads are
primitive. When it rains, they turn to mud and I am told that it is
actually quite cold here during the rainy season.
We are continually being passed by larger ships transporting
goods—long narrow fifty-ton balams, as well as baghalahs which
are deep-sea dhows that can sail along the Gulf coast. Bellums
with white awnings carry passengers, manned by muscular men
pushing poles. Small black canoes maneuver around all the bigger
boats.
But the guffah is the most popular form of travel for people
and goods. Many are filled with melons and are heading in the
opposite direction, back to Baghdad.
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But after awhile, they have to come down from the clouds and
back to the world of men.
“You have come here to convince us that we will succeed if
we join with you and that you will succeed if you join with us,”
says Sheik Habibi.
Toby nods.
And then the sheik asks Toby a question no one has ever
thought to ask.
“But tell me,” says the sheik. “Why will you fail?”
The background murmurings stop and everyone leans in to
listen to the answer.
Toby hesitates and then answers honestly.
“Because we are divided.” And then it comes out like a flood.
“There are enough of us, but we are all in different groups. The
Canadian branch of the Concerned Citizens. The Order of the
Canadian Knights. Union for the Welfare of the People. Union
of Salvation. I could go on. And that’s just the Socialists. The
Anarchists could have hundreds of organizations for all I know.
People meeting in basements all over the country, plotting to
overthrow the king and all for different reasons. No. That’s not
true.” Toby corrects himself. “We all want the same thing. We all
want a power shift, a chance for the ones on the bottom to try to
make it to the top, or at least a little higher up. What we can’t
agree on is, who will lead us.”
“And who will lead?” asks the sheik, quietly. “Is it to be you?”
Toby shakes his head.
“No, it’s not. And the army would have to be on our side . . .”
A rifle shot is fired just outside the tent. And then there are
shouts. “Almaan! Almaan!” And then more rifle shots.
Almaan is Arabic for German I quickly realize as men jump to
their feet, excitement on their faces.
The sheik is calm, but moves fast. We are rapidly invited to
follow him, ducking out of the back of the tent where there are
some horses and servants already untying them from their tether.
At first, I think the sheik is going to ride out with us, but he is
handing the reins of a horse to Toby.
“I hope we haven’t caused you too much trouble . . .” says
Toby.
“This isn’t about you,” says the sheik, as another servant
hands him a rifle. His eyes are sparkling. “This is sport. We
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“The lad is right,” the Kaiser said, after a pause. “Out of the
mouths of babes.” He beamed at the room as the collective
breath was released.
“So if they were rioting in your country, what would you do?
I’ll leave this one up to you, David,” said the Kaiser surveying his
followers with a smile that said we’re-having-enormous-fun. He
called out to the throng of officers. “Let’s see what the young
pup suggests!”
They all laughed. David got the feeling that they always
laughed at what the Kaiser said, but today, most of it sounded
genuine.
“Your subjects love you,” said David carefully. He had had
only had a moment to pray for direction. “Rich and poor, they
love you. But you are the defender of the poor. The rich can look
out for themselves.”
The room went silent. Everyone was watching Frederick for
his reaction. Again, he looked serious. Then he laughed.
“I’d by lynched if I took your advice, my boy!” He thumped
David on the back and the room broke out in general agreement.
David was not entirely disappointed. For one moment, he had
seen the recognition of truth in the Kaiser’s eyes.
David’s love of drama had been born of his love for the Bible.
Unlike many mothers in royal Canada, his had not read the Bible
to him at night. Instead, she had flipped through fashion
magazines to keep her company while he fell asleep. Though
more often, she was out at “an opening.” Queens always seemed
to attend openings.
So he read his Bible until he was sleepy—discovering blood
and gore and sex. Kings and harlots. Judges and farmers.
Prisoners and prophets. A blind man receiving his sight. A dead
man coming to life. A Saviour crying out against the religious
leaders of his day. Earthly armies. Heavenly armies. The stories
were so panoramic, the stage so vast that the Bible played out in
David’s mind like drama.
This evening’s production seemed banal compared to the
Bible—a sordid little story about peasants and the paternity of
one particular village child. His fellow actors seemed to be
enjoying it, as did most of the audience. David and his troupe
had seats on the main floor of the Royal Opera House, but right
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now, his eyes were on the Royal box where the Kaiserin and her
entourage were looking visibly upset about the production. When
two of the actors disappeared into an onstage haystack, the
Kaiserin stood up and the rest of the women in her box
followed. It didn’t go unnoticed by some in the audience and
even a few people on the stage had a passing look of concern on
their faces.
David grinned and turned back to the production. This show
would only run once.
When they returned to the palace, they were informed that the
Kaiserin had come home early from the Opera House to spend
time with her sons who hated to miss an evening with her. They
had her apologies for the vulgar production that they had been
subjected to and her assurances that the Kaiser’s play the next
night would be devoid of such immorality.
David sensed the amusement around him. The troupe would
have been openly guffawing if they had been in a pub and not in
the presence of the Kaiserin’s footman. David was sure they
would retreat to their rooms and have an outright laugh at Effie’s
expense over private flasks of gin or vodka.
“Would I be permitted to say a quick goodnight to the
Kaiserin and the Imperial princes?” David asked the footman,
while his party dispersed.
The footman hesitated.
“They do not normally allow anyone into their private
quarters,” he said. “However, I will see if they are willing to make
an exception for you.”
David was led through chambers of the sumptuously
decorated palace. That was the advantage of not losing your
throne. You inherited hundreds of years worth of family
acquisitions. New Buckingham Palace had a distinctly Canadiana
quality about it, with its paucity of accumulated European
treasures.
David was made to wait outside a massive pair of golden
doors that led to the Kaiser and his family’s private apartment,
two guards keeping a careful eye on him while the doors closed
behind the footman. David didn’t know anything about German
regiments, but the uniforms were smart and the bayonets looked
sharp.
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The next night, there was a marked change in the Royal Opera
House. The Kaiser’s play was on a vast, epic scale and one could
feel the energy in the air.
All of the notables of Berlin were in the audience and while
the Canadian troupe of actors had their seats on the main floor
among them, David had been invited to sit in the Imperial Box
with the Kaiser, Kaiserin and their six sons. The younger boys
were fidgety but the Kaiserin passed them her opera glasses to
keep them amused. David was sure one of them was going to
drop the glasses on one of the heads of the dignitaries below.
The setting was medieval and the play was about a battle. The
stage was filled with actors and swords and smoke and even live
horses.
“It’s an allegory,” the Kaiser said to David, happy to have
someone to explain things to. Effie and his sons had long since
tired of hearing about his production. “Between good and evil.
We must be ever vigilant. In this case, the historical setting is the
Prussian conquest of Europe in the late 1800’s.”
David nodded although he didn’t necessarily agree that Prussia
warring against France was part of the epic battle between good
and evil.
David couldn’t help but notice that among the audience
members, it was those in the cheap seats who enjoyed the lively
show. The ministers of state that the Kaiser had pointed out to
David all looked as fidgety as the Kaiser’s younger sons. A few of
them even failed to return to their seats after the intermission,
something that did not go unnoticed by the Kaiser.
“Today our battle is against Socialism,” said the Kaiser, who
didn’t bother to lower his voice. The noise on the stage didn’t
really require him to.
David said, “You yourself have a Christian Socialist Party in
the Reichstag.”
“A misnomer,” grumbled the Kaiser. “It’s not possible to be a
Christian and a Socialist.”
“On the contrary,” said David, whose quick mind had
absorbed all the salient points of Peter’s arguments over the last
few weeks. “I think it’s quite possible for a Christian to be a
Socialist, particularly a Christian king.”
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The Kaiser’s eyebrows went up and David was glad they were
with the family and not with the military entourage.
“Explain,” said the Kaiser.
“Our very Saviour was a Socialist with a passionate interest in
the poor.”
“No,” said the Kaiser, shaking his head. “He said we would
always have the poor among us. That is different.”
“He said the rich have had their comfort in this life and that it
would be the poor beggar Lazarus’s turn in the life to come.”
David’s eyes roamed around the opulent theatre.
The Kaiser shrugged but was quiet. David pushed the point.
“It is for the King to be a Socialist, not his subjects. It is for
the King to ensure that all his subjects have their needs met and
that there is an equality of resources. Each King is given talents
of gold by his King, our Father in heaven. So we alone are in a
position to bring about justice and equality.”
The Kaiser snorted but didn’t say anything to contradict him.
A King should not fear Socialism,” said David, as he pushed
to make his final point. “A King should be the greatest Socialist
of all.”
Now the Kaiser laughed, a full hearty belly laugh.
“If I talked that way, my own Admiral of the Fleet would have
me locked up!”
But David knew that he had made his point.
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“Let me steer you on the straight path, son,” said the Kaiser,
leaning forward. “Strength comes from God and right now, I
have that strength. Your father knows that, and no matter what
you say, that treaty we signed is in the best interest of Canada.”
“I believe that the straight path is Jesus Christ himself, sir,”
said David.
“I won’t argue that one,” said the Kaiser. “Theology is clearly
a gift with you and the Kaiserin is as proud of you as she is of
her own sons. We consider you family, as indeed you are. But in
terms of politics and world affairs, your father is wiser than you.”
David nodded as a tribute to his father.
“As indeed all fathers are,” David said. He did not feel moved
to share his belief that the best antidote to radicalism was for the
King to claim its central tenets for himself.
The Kaiser settled back in his chair.
“All this fuss over a few more dreadnoughts in my navy,” he
said, shaking his head, sounding bemused.
David didn’t say anything. The whole civilized world knew
that the German naval build-up was about far more than a few
extra ships. It represented a threat to the current balance of
power.
“I must take you out on my yacht,” said the Kaiser, still
smiling. “It’s the finest in its class.”
David nodded. It would be awhile before Canada forgot the
Kaiser’s yacht, the size of a battleship and equipped with the
furnishings of a palace. All the Toronto newsmen had rushed
down to the docks to obtain tours of its luxury, which the Kaiser
had granted despite the semi-secret nature of his visit.
“I would like that very much, Uncle.”
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busy commercial area. The strikers and their supporters are soon
mingling in with shoppers, fooling no one, but protected by the
fact that the police cannot gun down an entire souk.
We find out the next day that, despite that, at least ten people
died and another 27 were injured.
And everyone is angry in Kirkuk. It is clear that the
government values its oil more than its people. The word in the
souk is that Kirkuk doesn’t think the government is worth
supporting.
Alas, we cannot stay and take advantage of this highly-
favourable environment. Yusuf and Toby will be wanted by the
police and so we say goodbye to our hosts, the local Communist
leaders, and leave further ferment to them.
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Lower decks; engine room; galley, even the crews’ quarters. There
had been gunwale gunnery drills to view, followed by a
sumptuous lunch in the Kaiser’s dining room that didn’t include a
single item with ham or potatoes, but rather, a conglomerate of
edible imports that came to Kiel from the world’s cargo ships.
After a few days of sailing, what had started as a simple desire
to show-off his yacht to his young cousin had turned into an
entire tour of all the ancient ruins in his empire. The Kaiser was
an avid amateur archaeologist and found David to be an
intelligent audience, particularly when the ruins were of a Biblical
or Roman site. Though at home, the Kaiser was famous for
announcing at the opening of a secondary school, “We ought to
educate young Germans, not young Greeks or Romans . . .” he
still greatly appreciated the classical quality of the Canadian
Crown Prince’s education.
Of course, David’s parents now knew that he wasn’t touring
France anymore and the King’s telegram to his son aboard the
royal yacht revealed a concern that his son might be a semi-
hostage, meant to keep the King of Canada in line with the
recently-signed treaty.
David had replied with assurances that he and the Kaiser
shared a genuine interest in ancient relics and that, in fact, he was
having an enormously enjoyable time with “Uncle Frederick.” He
had no way of knowing if his father was convinced.
He and Frederick had already toured the ruins of Rome and
Pompeii, where the Kaiser was received as a returning Caesar, for
that was what Kaiser meant in German. Italy was only a
sovereign nation in name. The Kaiser considered it part of his
personal sphere.
Now they were steaming to the island of Corfu where the
Kaiser owned a villa that had been in his family since the days of
Wilhelm II. He generally visited once a year and while there,
would supervise a nearby expedition digging for Roman relics.
When the Kaiser was out of earshot, David heard one of his
travelling party sarcastically remark how the locals always refilled
the site with “relics” for the Kaiser to find each year.
David gathered that the Kaiser deliberately left Effie behind
on these trips, preferring the masculine company aboard the ship
and the freedom that came with not having to be on his best
behavior. David soon found that the Kaiser was a lover of
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The cook was also missing, the only person who wasn’t part
of the Kaiser’s entourage. She had a small room off of the
kitchen, and though it was on the other side of the house, it was
impossible to think that she would have missed all the tumult.
Others around him had come to the same conclusion.
“She could have run away as soon as she heard the noise.”
Someone in the know shook his head and said, “Years ago, the
Kaiser had the door for the tradesmen boarded up for security.”
“So that’s why they always come through the main
hallway . . .”
David had noticed the same thing, local farmers bringing
baskets of their produce through the marble entranceway, down
the long hallway to the kitchen.
“But what about the Kaiser?” said David.
“If he didn’t die, he’s long gone,” said the one who was in the
know. He waved a hand in the direction of the hills. “He has so
many hiding places. Everywhere we go, they build a tunnel and
there’s a bunker or a retreat of some sort so that he and his
bodyguard can barricade themselves in and hold out for months
if they have to. We can’t lose the leader of the free world!” There
was general laughter at this.
Tunnels and bunkers weren’t something that David and his
father had. At best, they could hope that a courageous bodyguard
would take a bullet for them, but if anyone chose to blow up
New Buckingham Palace, the Royal Family had no place to
retreat to if they survived, only to the goodwill of their people.
“Who saw the Kaiser last?” someone called out.
“He was in the drawing room when I left,” said someone else.
“And I’m pretty sure I was the last to leave.”
“No, I was,” said David. “He went to the library and I did too.
But he left ahead of me. I didn’t see the Kaiser go upstairs,
though.”
“Well, the fact that his bodyguard is gone is a good sign.
They’d be searching for his body if they weren’t protecting it.”
There was general agreement. David found it disturbing that
all around, the Kaiser’s possible death was only a matter for
discussion, not tears.
“Thank God we won’t have young Willy ruling over us for
awhile,” said another. More agreement. And then they all
returned to the villa and despite the lateness of the hour and the
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Toby looks tired the next day. It could be from effort, it could
be from the dogs that seem to howl all night in this city. He
hardly eats the lentils and eggs and bread left for us outside our
door by the nuns. I run a hand through his wavy, damp hair. He
feels feverish, obviously worn out, but he’s not discouraged.
“It’s all on track,” he says, a few times, almost to himself, while
I fix my hair up to keep it from sticking to the back of my neck.
At least the weather is cooling down a bit.
But on our way to the Bab ash-Shaikh district, there are
dramatic headlines in all the newspapers—Arabic and German.
The Kaiser has come out with a startling statement regarding the
unrest in the Ruhr region and the striking workers. He blames the
mine-owners. Productivity is up. The export of German products
is up. The workers just want to share in the prosperity created by
their labour. The owners aren’t generous toward their workers.
The news has literally stopped Toby in his tracks. After buying
a German-language newspaper from a young boy, he is reading it
in the middle of the busy sidewalk, ignoring the people and
animals that have to move around him.
“The Kaiser has ordered an increase in wages,” he says,
translating as he reads it out loud. “If the owners do not comply,
the Kaiser will order the immediate withdrawal of government
troops and allow the workers the freedom to express their
frustrations.”
My eyes widen.
“He has announced to his cabinet that if necessary, the
workers can burn down the villas of the wealthy owners if that’s
what it takes to make them give in. He has issued a message to
the workers that all Germans are under his care and he will not
allow the workers to be ruthlessly exploited.”
Toby is too stunned to continue reading or walking. I take the
newspaper from him and finish the article. In addition to all of
this shocking news, the Kaiser has announced an end to child
labour and a reduction in the number of hours in the work week.
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While the Kaiser issues orders from his villa in Corfu, the
anti-Socialist laws stay in place in Germany. These laws allow for
agitators to be relocated and for Socialist publications to be
suppressed.
“But at least there is a Social Democrat party in Germany,”
says Yusuf. The events in Germany are still the main topic of
discussion in the midst of the usual Party work in Iraq.
“But have you noticed what’s happening?” says Toby, to the
few members who are present at the meeting today. Even in Iraq,
he has managed to get a copy of The Daily Worker. It’s the only
newspaper Toby trusts because they print the speeches of the
Socialists and their enemies verbatim, rather than editing and
misrepresenting any of the speakers. “The Daily Worker points out
that despite recent developments, for years, the Kaiser has
watered down the Social Democrats to the point of near-
ineffectiveness. It says here . . .” he hits the paper, “that there has
been a gradual replacement of the educated urban Socialists with
the uneducated workers from the rural areas.”
“How does that help the Kaiser?” one of the Arabs asks.
“Because the Kaiser is a master at manipulation,” says Toby.
“He lives with the overweening belief that the true German is the
man in the field. The man who truly loves his king. He wants to
recreate Socialism in Germany but with him as its benefactor.
He’ll win over the workingman with his paternalistic goodwill but
nothing important will be achieved. No laws will be passed that
really benefit or protect the workers.”
“He never did pass any legislation, did he?” I say.
“Exactly!” says Toby. “He just ordered an end to child labour
and an increase in wages. But if he changes his mind in the
future, there’s nothing to protect the child labourer from being
sent back into the mines or the wages from dropping again.”
But the dwindling numbers at the Communist Party meetings
suggest that a lot of people would rather trust the Kaiser than
put their own lives out into the fray.
And three days later, the warning from Antony about a spy in
our midst is confirmed.
The Iraqi government has just announced a new conscription
plan. The idea isn’t that unusual for this part of the world. But
the money that will fund the new uniforms and the additional
weapons was originally in the budget for the creation of a dam
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The next day, we are in line with all of the pilgrims who are
waiting for the double-decker tram to Khadmain. It is another
hot day and I am fanning myself with a hand fan Yusuf
purchased for me. He and Toby are arguing about conscription.
Regardless of Toby seeing the long-term benefits of it for the
furtherance of Communism, Yusuf is telling him that the Imams
of Islam see it as being a work of infidels, creating an army to
fight for German imperialism rather than for Allah.
All around us, native Iraqis are talking in Arabic. The only
other language anyone here bothers to learn is German. Only the
Socialists or Communists learn English or Russian.
“It is a fortuitous time for the Socialists,” Yusuf continues.
“The Shiites in Iraq have always stayed close to the Shiites in
Persia. The Germans have never been able to get more than a
foothold in Persia, so they are afraid of the Persians. And lately,
the Imam of Persia has been calling for the tribes to rise up in
the name of Islam. It is an affront to Islam to be ruled by
infidels.”
“Sounds promising,” says Toby. I’m glad that Toby seems back
to normal this morning.
Yusuf nods. “And the tribes are the ones with the weapons.”
Yusuf lowers his voice slightly. “Both in the north and the south.
And the Germans have never been able to entirely control the
guns held by the tribes although lately they have been more
ruthless about guns coming in from Persia. This angers the tribes.
When we overthrow the Germans together, we will go our
separate ways. Those who conquer for Islam will take back the
mosques but the Socialists will have control of the oil
installations.”
“Who will have control of the government?”
“This remains to be worked out,” says Yusuf, smiling. “But it
is safe to assume the tribes will stay out of the cites. And it is
only in the south that they are motivated by Shiite unity. The
north is our true strength because they are connected to our
Socialist brothers in Syria and Kurdistan.”
The tram comes and the line that formed turns into a jostling
mass. No one wants to have to wait another hour in the hot sun
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for the next one. The Khadmain mosque is only two and a half
miles away, but it would be an uncomfortable walk in this heat.
Most of the seats are filled and the only remaining three
together are on the top deck, out in the sun.
I soon discover it isn’t just the sun, it’s the dust too.
Outside the city, it is bumpy and the amount of dust increases,
but rose trees line the road and give off an exquisite scent. In the
distance are palm groves.
“I still don’t see how we can lead the tribes . . .” says Toby.
“We don’t,” says Yusuf. He nods his head toward a young man
reading an Arabic paper and tells us that right now the front page
is devoted to the story in the south that has all of Baghdad
enthralled, the ongoing saga of the sheik we met, Sheik Habibi.
“Of course, the German newspapers don’t portray him in
such a positive manner,” said Yusuf, smiling.
“I’m still concerned by the opposing forces of Islam and
Socialism,” says Toby.
“Do not be, brother,” says Yusuf. “They are not as
incompatible as you might think. One of our poets, Ma'ruf ar-
Rasafi, stood up at the inauguration of our new House of
Deputies and said, ‘I am a Communist...but my communism is
Islamic for it is written in the Sacred Book, “And in their wealth
there is a right for the beggar and the deprived.” And it was the
Prophet that said, “Take it from their wealthy and return it to
their poor.” Was that not communism? Who would then but out
of ignorance resist this principle?’”
“Wow!” says Toby. “How did the Germans take that?”
“Not too well. But what could they do? He is a popular poet
and if harm were to come to him, every man in the street would
take up arms against the government.”
“Then why doesn’t he lead the revolution?”
Yusuf laughs.
“It is enough that he speaks with beauty and candour. Come,”
says Yusuf, motioning for us to stand. “We are almost there . . .”
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problems, but the only solution. The young man was in tears,
nodding and saying he had known that when he had joined, but
somewhere along the way he had lost that when the King’s men
had interrogated him.
But he was all too happy to share what he had learned in his
interrogations.
He had been asked if he had enough of a following to create a
counterfeit Communist organization. Of course, the crippled
young man had no confidence in his ability to compete with Toby
in that regard.
He had been asked to return to the Party and to report back
to the King’s men on a weekly basis. Furthermore, it had been
promised to him that as soon as they had sufficient grounds for
arresting all present, he too would be arrested and tried, so that
no one would ever know he was the infiltrator. He would serve
his short time in prison and then return to the Party to continue
his spy career and not a single person would ever imagine that he
wasn’t a true Party man.
In fact, the King’s men assured him that his arrest would only
add to his reputation and they were confident that someday, he
may even end up in a position of Party leadership. The benefit to
the King’s men if that happened was obvious.
So that day, the young man became a double agent. He meets
with the King’s men and feeds them semi-truths. Toby says that a
semi-truth is harder to detect than an outright falsehood.
He isn’t Toby’s only source as to what is going on in the inner
rooms of the King’s authorities. There are a few double agents
among the constabulary, particularly the ones who patrol the
shantytowns and have soft hearts that are sickened by the poverty
they see.
As annoying as it is to be followed, it gives me the courage to
go see if Toby and Yusuf are in the coffeehouse. And it turns out
that Toby and Yusuf have seats in the wicker chairs that line the
coffeehouse where the men can watch passersby in the souk
while they smoke hookah pipes. Toby moves so that I can be
between them. And the young woman passes by, but eventually
lingers in front of a colourful display of hijabs.
“I was followed,” I murmur. “She’s over there looking at a
turquoise scarf.”
Yusuf looks concerned. So does Toby.
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Chapter Nineteen
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time, the Left holds the airwaves. They announce, with great
optimism and boldness, a new era for Iraq, one where there will
be tremendous reforms. There will be land distribution to
individual fellahin, amnesties granted to political prisoners,
freedom of the press, free elections, prison reforms, a fairer tax
collection.
Thanks to German engineering, the broadcast signal makes it
all the way to Damascus where all the cafés tune in.
Toby listens, half-chagrinned, half-thrilled by the
announcements. It is declared that all workers now have rights
and the rights include an 8-hour workday and a fifty percent
increase in wages, effective immediately.
While men in the café cheer on behalf of their fellow Arabs,
Toby and I exchange glances. Who is going to enforce it? The
Kaiser?
“I’ll say this,” murmurs Toby. “If Kaiser Frederick speaks up
on behalf of these people, he could in one proclamation
decimate the Iraqi Communist Party.”
I nod. As much as we’d like to see these people receive
immediate support, it’s only if the Communist Party takes power
that the changes will be for the long term.
In addition to these exciting announcements, Radio Iraq has
various imams calling on believers to rise up against all foreign
forces in Iraq. Ominously for the Germans, one imam calls for
the tribes not to fire their ammunition in the air in vain.
The Communists then issue their manifesto. I recognize it
from the hours I spent sitting in a hot, stuffy room while Toby
and Yusuf worked it all out with the other Party members.
“The Manifesto of the Association Against Imperialism. To
the Workers and Peasants, to the Soldiers and Students, to All the
Oppressed! From our class comes the agonies, the sacrifices, the
tens of thousands of victims . . . The benefits go to the
financiers, the feudalists, and the higher officials . . . To our lot
has fallen only hunger, cold and ruthless disease . . . and a horde
of tax-gatherers without a touch of mercy or
humanity . . . Today, the Germans and the ruling class are
partners in a compact that aims at perpetuating the oppression
and exploitation from which we suffer . . . The oil and other raw
materials of the country have become a preserve for the German
and Iraq has been turned into an outlet for their goods and
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Chapter Twenty-One
W e are torn.
Stay or go? Damascus or back to Canada?
The Daily Worker reports that anyone with a
Communist Party membership or involvement in any kind of
Socialist organization in Iraq has been arrested. The outcome is
that anyone with a casual involvement in Socialism has lost all
interest in the whole thing. Even most of the leaders sign an
agreement not to engage in any further political activity.
“You can imagine that those who haven’t signed are being
persuaded to even as we sit here in comfort,” says Toby, grim,
eyes shadowed from lack of sleep.
I nod. The Germans are brutes with the Semitic people,
hardly even seeming to regard them as human and certainly not
on a par with Europeans.
And the reason we are still here in Damascus is because we
have received indirect news of Yusuf. Toby is desperate to help
him. One of the members of The Association Against
Imperialism in Damascus has a second cousin who works for the
government in Baghdad and keeps his Socialist sympathies to
himself. He has been sending messages to his cousin in Iraq
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about the true state of things. He reports that the prisoners are
being regularly caned in between their interrogations. But Yusuf
is increasingly becoming a hero to the officers assigned to convey
him to and from the interrogations.
The Investigating Officer asked Yusuf who participated with
him in reorganizing the Iraqi Communist Party after the initial
arrests?
Yusuf ’s brave reply was that, “Party discipline prohibits me
from divulging the name of any of its members or laying bare
any of its organizations.”
The Investigating Officer then asked if he was aware that the
propagation of Communist ideas was liable to punishment under
the Penal Code?
Yusuf replied, “The Iraqi Penal Code is based on the German
Constitution which has conceded the freedom of belief to every
German citizen . . .” And that was all he could say before being
dragged away, once again, to be caned.
Hearing all this, Toby naturally doesn’t want to go home no
matter how bleak it seems for the Communists of Iraq. That we
might be in danger ourselves doesn’t seem relevant to him.
Personally, I think I’m in greater danger of dying of boredom.
I can’t wander the streets by myself when Toby’s out at
meetings—which take up his days as well as his nights now.
There are Arabic women out in the streets but there’s always
been this understanding between Toby and I that I won’t do
anything foolish to endanger my life or wellbeing. So I can only
watch life go on outside the boarding house window.
Down in the narrow street below, young boys play marbles. In
the late afternoon, there are older Arab schoolboys playing
football. They like to call out what I can only imagine to be rude
remarks at any passing European man, including French soldiers.
There is a well at the end of the street and Arab women pass
by carrying petrol tins or earthen jugs. I have observed that a
donkey will carry two petrol cans strapped on its back.
Even food, which has the potential to keep life interesting,
becomes irritating. All Toby seems to come back with is flat
bread, goat’s cheese, figs and mulberry juice. To him, one doesn’t
need a varied diet to keep life from being dull.
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Yusuf and nine other Party leaders are appearing before the
High Criminal Court and have each been assigned lawyers. On
the first day, one of the lawyers makes such an effective plea on
behalf of his client that he is immediately arrested for being a
Communist.
Toby groans as he reads this. No surprise, the other nine
lawyers do not show up in court the next day.
In any case, this gives Yusuf and his fellow Party leaders the
chance to speak freely and they do, The Daily Worker reports with
admiration.
After two days of this, they are charged with having “foreign
sources of income.”
Toby snorts as we sit and listen to this. Today, I am in a café
with about twenty men, listening to trial highlights on the radio.
“Relying on Germany is obviously acceptable, but relying on
Britain or Russia isn’t,” he says.
Most of the news reports are in Arabic so we return to our
room and read the rest of it in the German-language newspapers.
In any case, it is Yusuf who points out that no one outside of
Iraq is supporting them financially. I squeeze Toby’s hand and he
sees the concern.
“Don’t worry, Felicity,” he says. “They know we were there
but we made no financial contributions. And I don’t think it
would help their cause to mention us . . .”
I’m not sure if he’s talking about the Communists or the
German prosecutors.
It is pointed out that producing newspapers and tracts is
expensive so they must have a source of money from
somewhere. Yusuf replies that they sell their newspapers and rely
on the goodwill of supporters.
In fact, as the days go on, that’s the whole nature of the trial.
Yusuf is accused of something. He either denies it or has a
reasonable explanation.
The German judge accuses the Communist Party of spreading
sedition and encouraging armed revolt. Yusuf replies that he has
never done or said anything against the Kaiser and he points out
that had he been encouraging an armed revolt, he would have
supplied his men with arms, something he never did.
But reasonableness does not win the trial and in the end, all
ten men are found guilty and sentenced to hang. Even the man
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them, the slogans they are calling out are so Socialist. The
German broadcaster translates some of them for us.
Apparently, the day’s march started small, at one of the city
gates. There were no placards or signs because those assembled
were the poor and illiterate workingmen who just wanted to
protest the sugar and tea tax increase.
But once the students got involved, it became more political.
They assembled in front of the School of Medicine, about
seventy of them, many with signs and headed for al-Muadhdham
Gate. There they began inciting the people to demonstrate,
shouting, “Down with the Government!” “Down with Foreign
Oppression!” “We are for a People's Revolution!”
As workers joined the students, they also began to shout,
“Long live the unity of the workers and the students!”
By the time they reached the brass founder’s market, one of
the students addressed them and stirred them up to even greater
passion. Next, they halted before the Headquarters of
Investigations, and shouted, “Provide Bread to the People!”
“Down with the Investigations!” “Send the Chief of
Investigations to the Gallows!” When they arrived at the next
Square, another student leapt to the roof of a coffeehouse and
made a speech that included pointing at the throng and crying
out, “We want a people's government representing these classes!”
After that the procession moved on and made for the Eastern
Gate, pausing in front of a petrol station to listen to another
inflammatory speech by another inspired student. After that they
shouted, “Long live the People's struggle!”
The tall blond male broadcaster is reporting the summary of
the day’s events with the tone of an adult discussing an errant
child. But at least the footage is clear and he is thorough in his
translations of the shouting Arabs.
The broadcast continues, showing the crowd rolling forward
and shouting, “Release the lions of Kut!”
Toby nods at this homage to the Communist leaders in prison,
although the news correspondent reports this with the sense that
it’s not going to happen.
“I think that time we spent with the imams really paid off,”
says Toby.
The footage goes back to earlier today when the people ended
up outside the government buildings demanding the death of the
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We are down early the next day for breakfast in the lobby and
more news.
Everyone in the hotel seems to be doing the same, wrapping
their eggs in pita bread and leaving the dining room to stand
around in the lobby while holding cups of coffee, all eyes on the
television.
The rioting continued into the night.
The crowds destroyed the German Information Service
Building using crowbars and battering rams before dowsing the
interior with oil and setting it ablaze. As well as typewriters and
filing cabinets, thousands of books, magazines, and files were
destroyed. A German-language newspaper office was also set
ablaze despite a nearby police station that was showering
demonstrators with automatic fire from their rooftop. The mob
then turned on the police station, setting it on fire and tearing
apart three policemen as they tried to make a run for it,
beheading one just for good measure.
The blond GBC correspondent in Baghdad looks a little more
shaken today.
“Baghdad is a battle zone,” he reports, from his hotel balcony.
(Yesterday he was down at street level.) “Students continue to
come in bus convoys from other towns and fieldworkers
continue to pour into the city . . .”
We see footage of police openly firing on crowds from the
roofs of buildings. The crowds retaliate by setting one of their
armoured cars on fire. The police then have to retreat across one
of the many bridges that span the Tigris.
Most in the crowds are armed only with heavy sticks, but they
are angry and that makes them terrifying.
There is a murmur among the people in the hotel lobby as we
see footage of the police taking positions on rooftops and in the
minaret of the al-Muradiyyah mosque.
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“This is live, Felicity,” says Toby, his face pale and serious. He
takes my hand.
I hadn’t realized that the newscaster had gotten us all up-to-
date and that we were now looking at a live broadcast.
I gasp as the police fire down on protesters. The number of
people is so enormous that I have a hard time picking out who is
hit. But as the firing continues, here and there, people drop.
But the crowd just keeps getting bigger and angrier.
And today there are way more signs. They’re in Arabic, so we
ask one of the waiters to translate some of them for us.
“Death to all Enemies,” he read. “Free Land for All.” He
glances at us before reading another one and moving on.
“Destruction to all Foreigners.”
I’m so glad we’re here and not there.
But despite the gunfire, protesters are pushing in from all
directions. The news cameras are on the roofs of buildings so we
see it all. They are pouring across the bridges. At the same time,
they are being fired upon. I see bodies falling into the Tigris and
floating away. Some get caught in an iron bridge. I’m so glad the
cameras do not zoom in any further but maintain only an
overview.
Armoured cars and machine guns continue to meet the
protestors.
I hear a gasp from someone in the lobby. And then we see
why. From one side street is coming a whole school of young
children, led by their teachers. Within minutes, they will be on the
front lines, facing armoured cars and machine guns.
We all wait, hardly breathing, because, of course, we can see
what the crowds can’t. But then the protestors of Baghdad realize
that there are children in the midst, their very own children in
some cases. And then the police realize it, too.
And in that moment, the police hesitate. They stop firing. And
it is just enough time for the people to move. The crowds push
forward and the policemen who can, flee, scattering in every
direction.
“They’ve won,” says Toby. His palm is sweating in mine. Then
he turns and hugs me with a passion I’ve never felt from him
before.
“The people have won!” he says. His arms are still around me
and in his embrace, I forget everything, Baghdad, Damascus,
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Chapter Twenty-Two
D
shoulders.
avid’s father was pale. His son’s words were shocking.
Almost unbelievable. But King Albert couldn’t deny that
an enormous burden had been lifted from his own
His son was ready to step forth and take his place in the world
of men, and not just the world of men, but the world of rulers.
There was no wavering in David’s tone. He spoke in
certainties. King Albert remembered the days—not in his own
lifetime, of course—when kings of England spoke in certainties.
It reminded him of the way the Kaiser spoke, but in this
scenario, David was, well, David, and the Kaiser was Goliath.
Could his son bring down Goliath with a single stone? He
certainly spoke with the confidence of a young David facing the
enemy of Israel, and there was something so compelling about
his determination to do what was right rather than what was
expedient.
Will the people appreciate what their Crown Prince is willing to do for
them? King Albert wondered. Then he sighed. It didn’t matter.
David stood before his God. There would be rewards here on
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earth for David and greater rewards in heaven. Albert wasn’t sure
he could say the same for himself.
“Your mother won’t like it,” he murmured.
“Mother doesn’t have a say in it,” said David, in a matter-of-
fact tone. It was true. She was a side point in all of this. Albert
had an awareness that for most of his reign, he had been making
major issues of minor issues and vice versa.
“When I am strong enough,” said David. “I will speak out on
behalf of all of the oppressed in the world. And Canada will aid
them in their struggle.”
King Albert almost smiled. It was the statement of a child, a
child who wants to right wrongs and put an end to injustice. But
didn’t Jesus say something about, let the little children come to
me? And something along the lines of unless you become like
one of these little ones, you will not even enter the kingdom of
heaven? King Albert exhaled. If Jesus took an interest in
temporal kingdoms, King Albert was certain he was watching the
Kingdom of Canada right now.
“Can the meek truly inherit the earth, though, David?” he
asked.
David didn’t waver in his answer.
“If you believe, yes. If you have faith the size of a mustard
seed you can say to a mountain, be cast into the sea.”
“The Kaiser moves his own mountains.”
“And that will be his downfall,” said David.
King Albert felt a chill run down his spine. And in that
moment, he understood. David believed. David had discovered a
power greater than the Kaiser, greater than the Americans. And
for that illuminating moment, the King felt sorry for them both.
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certainly know that one does not need a king in order to have
good government.”
On only one occasion had King Edward replied to one of
Edward Cornwall’s diatribes against him. And even then, it was
indirectly. In a speech delivered with passion in Hyde Park and
joyfully recorded by the newspapers who preferred sensational
stories, Edward Cornwall had brought out a list of all the people
accompanying the king on his forthcoming trip abroad, and not
an official visit of one head of state to another, mind you, but a
simple pleasure jaunt. His entourage would be enough to fill half
a hotel.
King Edward was said to have replied to the comment the
next day at a dinner party when he dryly noted to his guests that
in his mother’s day, the monarch’s entourage would have filled the
entire hotel.
Occasionally, the attacks had gotten even nastier and more
personal. Edward Cornwall assured his listeners that although the
king monopolized the British papers and bullied them into not
printing all of his exploits, that the French papers had no such
scruples and for anyone willing to take a trip across the Channel
to read one, he would quickly learn that his sovereign’s trips to
Paris were entirely devoted to his pleasure and that in addition to
stuffing himself in the city’s finest restaurants, he also partook of
the city’s most notable beauties who gladly gave themselves to
him.
“Look at this,” said David, leaning forward. He held up the
book he was reading, a small paperback biography of Edward
Cornwall published in England that Peter had found in a box in a
second-hand bookstore on Queen Street. “It says here that
Cornwall spent his younger years in Germany. His mother was a
servant at Potsdam!”
“No way!” said Peter. “Potsdam as in the Kaiser’s palace?”
David nodded and stood.
“I’m going to telegram my uncle and ask that he send me
everything he can about Edward Cornwall.” David, who had
started walking, stopped. “No, that’s not good. He’ll be
suspicious and he won’t send me anything that might corrupt
me.” He thought for a moment. “I’ll send a telegram to the royal
archivist. He’ll assume I’ve already mentioned it to the Kaiser and
that the Kaiser referred me to him.”
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knew that Edward Cornwall was his cousin. In fact, one of his
boyhood promises was that that they would invade England
together and that Edward Cornwall would be King of England
instead of the Godless Edward.
As they grew to manhood, Edward Cornwall stayed in
university while Wilhelm built an inner circle of military advisors.
When Edward’s mother died, he went back to England to accept
a teaching post at Oxford. At some point back in England, he
had become the champion of Socialism.
David reached for the intelligence report and read it more
carefully for himself.
It seemed that Edward Cornwall was everything that his father
wasn’t. He was a man of words and ideas and convictions. He
had many enemies and yet, not one of them had come forward
with slanderous reports about doxies or drink or debauchery. He
lived simply and surrounded by people, and from all accounts, he
had a steady habit of putting their needs ahead of his own. Even
on paper, one could still feel the devotion that those around him
felt towards him. David felt it himself. A longing, an aching for
the ideals he stood for and the embodiment of them in a single
man.
And he lived in extraordinary times, times that were in his
favour. The report included details about the revolution in
England. Miners and railway workers were striking and Edward’s
son, King George, had no sympathy for strikers, suggesting to his
Prime Minister that a law be passed against picketing.
Throughout the years leading up to the war, England had often
come to a standstill due to general strikes. Protesters had thrown
rocks at the windows of Windsor Castle and women were leaving
their homes to join the suffragettes marching in the streets.
But things really started to go against King George when the
Russian Revolution erupted. The Great War with Germany was
still raging and England had to come to the aid of her ally,
Russia, who was also in the middle of a revolt against the
monarchy. History summed it up by saying that the workers of
England rose up rather than lose even more men just to crush a
worker’s revolution in Russia. When England became a
republican state, they had immediately made peace with
Germany. The Germans considered themselves the winners of
the war and had put into practice a policy of dominating
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After hugs and tears, Toby and Yusuf sit down for a good
long talk. All the horrors of prison life are part of the past. It is
the future they are both thinking of.
“The military will want to do things their own way,” says
Yusuf. “They will not want the Communist Party interfering. But,
the good thing is, they may not interfere with the Communist
Party.”
Toby nods at this wisdom.
“The main thing is,” says Toby, “You needed the army to drive
out the Germans. You couldn’t have done it without them. So
this is the new reality.”
Yusuf nods.
“And the oil will stay in Iraq,” he says. “As long as the Arab
world stands together to defend it. But I regret to say, it probably
won’t benefit the Socialists in the West in their struggles.”
“That’s OK,” says Toby. “It is as it should be. The oil was
always yours to begin with. In a way, you’ve had your revolution.
Mabrook! Mazzeltov!”
And there is a feeling of celebration in the streets of Baghdad.
I think the looting is just part of that. It’s only fair that Toby
should stay and enjoy it with the comrades. I don’t begrudge him
this small victory. The less oil that the Kaiser can use for his navy
means a stronger Socialist England.
The Arab way to celebrate is to be in the streets. But we
remain indoors with our comrades, with only an occasional visit
to Rashid Street for food and bottled water. Toby doesn’t mind.
He and Yusuf talk for hours while sipping mint tea or Arabic
coffee, both of which are starting to make my stomach queasy.
Antony is made of different stuff—he is out in the streets,
enjoying the festive atmosphere and even returning with some
loot—a few Western-style men’s hats from a German department
store. For one brief and treacherous moment, I wish I were
Antony’s girlfriend. He seems like a lot of fun. But then I repent
and feel ashamed. Toby could have any girl he wanted. He has me
because of who I am. Or more accurately, because of who he is.
Without his commitment to Socialism in Canada, I fear he
wouldn’t want or need me.
A small printing press is brought to our dilapidated hideout by
some of the comrades. Toby and Yusuf have been working out a
strategy for living under the new military regime.
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“We must support them,” says Yusuf. “They are our only hope
for keeping out the Germans. But we must speak out and
continue to uphold the needs of the people.”
Toby agrees and with this in mind, they design and publish the
first post-revolution pamphlet. It thanks the army for
safeguarding the rights of the workers and calls on all Arabs to
protect Arab interests. It is not a radical pamphlet in any way, but
it will be risky just to go out in the streets and start distributing
Communist literature again.
But all the comrades are getting restless and the general
feeling is action, any action, is better than sitting around.
As usual, I will be left behind. At first, it is Toby who
(reluctantly, I think) says he will stay and keep me company. But
then, to my surprise, Antony announces he will stay with me.
He’s been out enough, he says.
I hate the way my heart speeds up at being alone with Antony.
It’s not just that he’s attractive, but I’ve never gotten over my
feeling that he could also be dangerous. Though at this point, I
have no idea who he would be betraying us to. The Germans
have fled. I doubt he has any association with the Iraqi military
elite. Maybe it’s just that he seems like such an adventurer, like a
mercenary for hire.
While the others head out with handfuls and pocketfuls of
pamphlets—I observe that Toby does not even glance back at
me—Antony moves a chair closer to me and settles in for a long
chinwag. The only furniture we have in this home is some
lightweight folding wooden chairs. And the only food we have is
a large mesh bag of oranges. Antony is holding one. I hope that
Toby remembers to bring me back a falafel or something more
substantial to eat.
“What’s the story with this place?” I ask, already nervous that
we’re alone.
Antony looks around as if seeing it for the first time.
“I think it belonged to an Arab family that supported the
Occupation and fled as soon as the uprising started. Naturally,
the Arabs looted it. Mind you, there may not have been too much
to loot. The Arab way is to have beautiful carpets, and then line
the walls with mattresses to sit on. In any case, it took our
comrades a few days to make it back from Kut and by the time
they moved in, the place was empty.”
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Chapter Twenty-Three
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Chapter Twenty-Three
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So this is it.
It’s too much all at once. My legs feel weak and I just want to
curl up and die somewhere. But Toby is grabbing my hand and
heading out the door, as if it’s just another challenge. As if this
doesn’t change everything.
And as if hurrying at this moment will make a difference. It is
not just a quick bus ride back to Canada.
Believe in Allah. Follow his direction. He will give you your leader.
The words of a Bedouin sheik in the Iraqi desert come back
to me.
And now I know. Concerned Citizens or not, Toby will
support the best man to bring Socialism to Canada.
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Chapter Twenty-Five
We are back in Toby’s room. The guildies are all here, crowded
into his room, eager to share everything we missed.
The Crown Prince, thanks to all his drama, is a magnificent
orator. The press loves him. He’s pale and thin, like the hungriest
of his subjects, and talks of crushing all who oppose the
sovereignty of Canada.
“But it’s all talk!” I say. “He can’t defend Canada against the
Americans and the Germans!”
“But that’s the whole point,” says Toby. “He’s talking and the
people are listening.”
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This is Toby’s victory! He’s worked years for this! The only
reason the Crown Prince could persuade the people so easily is
because Toby, and those like him, have prepared the way.
And Toby will be left out of this new world order.
Actors, artists and authors surround the Prince. Plays,
painting, and poems now all support the Prince and his gentle
revolution. They’re all winning the hearts of the people.
Entertainment. It’s the one thing Toby never considered. He
always spoke to people’s minds, persuaded them with the
righteousness of his cause. Now the artists are persuading them
with emotion.
And Toby isn’t even upset. He says it’s Socialism’s moment.
And it only takes a moment for everything to change.
The guildies are heading out. Everyone seems to be in the
streets these days. I hang back. I just want to sleep and not wake
up. Toby is right in the middle of the group but then he turns
back and sees me, still on his bed.
“Catch up with you guys!” he calls out. They hardly hear him.
He comes and joins me on the bed, holding my hand. He
knows. I know he does.
“Felicity, try to see it for what it is!” He squeezes my hand.
“It’s come upon us! Everything we dreamed of!”
My dreams were a bit different.
“It’s not his rightful throne,” I say, knowing how I must sound
to Toby.
“It’s a non-issue at this point,” says Toby. “The King has
abdicated in favour of the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince is
renouncing his position. He’ll be the first Prime Minister of the
Socialist Republic of Canada.”
“How did that come about?” I demand. “The Socialist
Republic of Canada? Did anyone vote on it?”
Toby smiles. “He announced it and everyone’s going along
with it.”
“Then he’s still talking like a king’s son!”
“You see the irony. I see the irony. But it’s happening! That’s
the important thing! Don’t you see, Felicity?” He stands up.
I do, but I don’t want to admit it and Toby is forced to sit
down again.
“But why? Why should you stand by the great poet Prince?”
“Because the Party stands behind him,” says Toby simply.
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Epilogue
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Chapter Twenty-Five
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Chapter Twenty-Five
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The End
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Other novels by Jennifer L Armstrong