CHAPTER 18
‘I am very glad to see you again Zair Khidar. How was your journey?’ Colonel Statham asked.
‘It is very bad there in Turkestan I could barely get through but luckily for me these Bolsheviks accepted me as a poor merchant.’
‘Were you able to use the trains at all?’
‘Yes, otherwise I’d still be in Russia amidst all the killing that is going on.’
‘What have you seen?’
‘In Tashkent: dead bodies are left lying in the road; people are arrested on the street and not being seen again; goods can’t get into the city because bandits are raiding incoming caravans, so many businesses are closed. It’s like Persia was before the Russians and British imposed order on us.’
‘Some Persians don’t like that order,’ Statham said.
‘They do if they are merchants like me,’ replied Zair Khidar. ‘I stayed with my cousin in Tashkent and many of his friends, who did not know what I was doing there, told me without my prompting that they wished the British would invade Turkestan and bring order.’
‘Did you see any Germans there?’
‘Oh yes, some of the Germans in Tashkent, were not POWs, but were from Germany itself - one could tell by their smart clothes. These Germans were trying to buy cotton, according to some of my merchant friends. I saw many Europeans that I understand were POWs but I am not sure who were German and who were not – they were all so poorly dressed. What I do know is that some of these POWs are now fighting for the Bolsheviks.’
‘Do you know if the Germans who were trying to buy cotton succeeded?’ Statham asked looking up from his note book.
‘No, they have not succeeded, probably because everything is so shambolic in the town. I met a man called Compton who said he is the American consul in Tashkent. Compton asked me to give you this.’
The Persian took off his hat and removed a small piece of paper from its inside. Statham unfolded the paper and read it before placing it on the table in front of him. Statham thought for a moment, then picked up and re-read the paper.
Statham thought why would the Americans have a man there – nobody from India had said anything about that. Statham snapped, ‘are you sure this Compton is an American and a consul?’
The Persian looked taken aback by the colonel’s tone. ‘Absolutely! One of the cousins I stayed with knows someone in the Tashkent government. This person apparently told my cousin that Compton was an American and he had official documents that allowed him to be a consul in Tashkent. Nobody however seems to know why he is there.’
‘How did you meet him? What did you tell him?’
The Persian thought for a moment and sipped his tea. ‘The American was interested in cotton and the railway though he called it a railroad?’ Zair looked questioningly at Statham, ‘I thought Americans spoke English? Sometimes I could not understand his words.’
‘They speak a different dialect. You did not say how you met him.’
‘My cousin the cotton merchant introduced me as a traveller from Persia interested in trade. After a long time of talking I said I would be coming back to Persia. Compton asked if I could bring a letter to the British consul in Meshed.’
‘Thank you, very good work. I shall of course pay you for being such a good postman.’
Zair smiled in reply.
Once Zair had left and Statham had read Compton’s note he still found it hard to believe an American was interested in cotton. America grew tons of the stuff herself and of far better quality than any cotton grown in Russia – perhaps some disease was rife in their fields. The story was so strange it might just be true, Zair was a reliable agent. Statham would immediately despatch a report to India about the American and what he was doing in Tashkent - Simla could then decide if or what to tell London.
Grimes sat opposite Lord Surridge. ‘I have been doing some digging on Compton. The Foreign Office (FO) knows all about him. Seems he worked with our man in Moscow, Flockhart, in getting the Bolos to allow us to get into Archangel and stop the Huns advance in that area. Then for some reason the Bolos got unhappy with what he was doing, undercover secret stuff I’m told, and it was decided he needed to leave Russia. Perhaps because it was easier, the Bolos were told that Compton had died. He was smuggled out very much alive to London. He discussed various issues with our Foreign Office chaps before going on to Tashkent.’
‘What issues? Turkestan is our territory not the Foreign Office’s area of responsibility. Why haven’t they told us about this chap? Did your Foreign Office source say why not?’
‘No. This is what he told me about Mr Compton. He is part of the US Consular Service and served in Bristol in 1915 as well as other places in Europe. His role in Tashkent is anti-Central Powers in particular: stopping them buying cotton; stopping the use of POWs as a basis of a new army by getting them repatriated home; countering Germany’s claims to being the friend of Islam and trying to somehow stop the excesses of the Bolsheviks in the region. In other words he’s already doing what our proposed Tashkent Mission is aiming to do. The advantage as I and the chaps at the Foreign Office see it is that - America may be listened too by the Bolsheviks more than they would listen to us because the Americans are not seen as imperialists.’
‘How the Bolsheviks see America is totally irrelevant. There is no excuse for the Foreign Office not to tell us about this man, Compton!’ Surridge paused and narrowed his eyes, ‘why say he was dead?’
‘Ease his way out of the country is the answer to your second question. As for the first,’ Grimes hesitated, ‘they would not say. It has to be something which they see as residing in their area of responsibility, so clearly not his role in Tashkent. The only thing I can think of which might be of interest to the FO is that Tashkent is on the railway and it’s a possible route out of Russia for the Tsar. I hasten to add, my lord that is my deduction based on my reading between the lines of what I was told. Absolutely nothing was said directly or indirectly about any rescue of the Romanovs or by which route they could get out of Russia.’
Surridge inhaled noisily, ‘I didn’t think we were doing anything about him or his family. You’d think I’d be told, because of my status, if something was happening – too much secrecy in government these days. So people are being sent, like this Compton, to every conceivable route out of Russia on the off chance the Tsar can be rescued.’
‘Delicate issue this Tsar business, my lord that is for sure,’ muttered Grimes looking sad.
‘Well there is nothing we can do! Get a telegram off to India about this Compton just to let them know we know about him. Also send a note over to the FO saying now we’ve heard of this American consul Compton being in Tashkent - do they know anything else about him that we should know about?’