The Cotton Spies

CHAPTER 56

  The ‘I thought you might want to read this, Lord Surridge.’ Grimes held a piece of paper in his outstretched hand.

  The tone in Grimes’ voice made his Lordship stand up from his chair and grab the paper. He read it quickly then put his hands on his hips before looking at Grimes with a shake of the head. He read the paper again in case its contents had somehow magically changed. His lordship walked over to the wall and banged his head against the wall gently a couple of times before turning to Grimes, who had a look of “I can’t believe it either,” on his face.

  ‘Tell me Grimes; do you think if I bang my head against a wall that I will knock any sense into it?’

  ‘No.’

  Surridge snorted and held out the paper, which was a copy of the telegram that Harris had received from Barber concerning the engagement by British troops of the Bolsheviks. Surridge held the paper as though it had leprosy. ‘If you had said yes I think I would have gone straight over to the War Office lined them all up and bashed their heads against the wall.’

  ‘You might damage the wall, Lord Surridge.’

  Surridge raised his eyebrows and gave Grimes a look of exasperation before saying, ‘actually, this is no joke though, Grimes. Supporting the local Trans-Caspia Russian Government in Baku against the Turks is one thing. Fighting on behalf of the Trans-Caspia Government against the Bolsheviks, who are the current unofficial Russian Government, in Turkestan is quite another matter.’

  ‘The War Office should have talked to us before they told Simla that Meshed could make the decision to provide Trans-Caspia with military support against the Bolsheviks. A Brigadier-general should not be making what are in effect strategic decisions.’

  ‘No, Grimes, they bloody well should not!’

  ‘I am surprised that you did not hear about the War Office passing responsibility over to Meshed in this matter at your last Eastern Committee meeting.’

  ‘Probably thought starting a possible war with Russia was very minor stuff. What were they thinking letting Barber of all people have this responsibility?’

  ‘What about how it will impact the Tashkent Mission?’

  Surridge’s anger dissipated as he remembered. ‘Good point. Well I suppose they will be declared persona non grata and expelled to Kashgar.’ Surridge frowned, ‘there is a problem - these Bolsheviks do not appear to follow normal rules. They might treat our chaps as hostages or even worse as spies.’

  ‘Surely, they would not dare!’

  ‘My dear Grimes any group who can murder their legitimate ruler, the Tsar, and all his family including women and children can murder anyone.’