Mr. Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a
matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation. He received
Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an
earlier visit. To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to
be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.
"Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation," he said,
"bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you."
"I have found his lordship," Prince Shan declared, "one of the few
Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside
his own country."
The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.
"Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan," he
said. "They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the
promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our
friends. We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities. Lord
Dorminster would have me believe that there is a still more terrible
price for us to pay in the future, unless we change our whole outlook,
abandon our belief in the League of Nations, and once more acknowledge
the supremacy of force."
"Lord Dorminster is right," Prince Shan pronounced. "I have come here to
tell you so, Mr. Mervin Brown."
"You come here as a friend of England?" the latter asked.
"I come here as one who hesitates to become her enemy," was the measured
reply. "I will be perfectly frank with you, sir. I came to this country
to discuss a project which, with the acquiescence of China and Japan,
would have resulted in the humiliation of your country and the
gratification of Germany's eagerly desired revenge."
"You believe in the existence of that sentiment, then?" the Prime
Minister enquired.
"Any one short of a very insular Englishman," the Prince replied, "would
have realised it long ago. There is a great society in Germany, scarcely
even a secret society, pledged to wipe out the humiliations of the last
great war. Lord Dorminster tells me that you are to-day without a secret
service. For that reason you have remained in ignorance of the mines
beneath your feet. Germany has laid her plans well and carefully. Her
first and greatest weapon has been your sense of security. She has seen
you contemplate with an ill-advised smile of spurious satisfaction,
invincible France, regaining her wealth more slowly than you for the
simple reason that half the man power of the country is absorbed by her
military preparations. France is impregnable. A direct invasion of your
country is in all probability impossible. Those two facts have seemed to
you all-sufficient. That is where you have been, if I may say so, sir,
very short-sighted."
"Germany has no power to transport troops in other directions," Mr.
Mervin Brown observed.
Prince Shan smiled.
"You have another enemy besides Germany," he pointed out, "a great
democracy who has never forgiven your lack of sympathy at her birth,
your attempts to repress by force a great upheaval, borne in agony and
shame, yet containing the germs of worthy things which your statesmen in
those days failed to discern. Russia has never forgiven. Russia stands
hand in hand with Germany."
"But surely," the Prime Minister protested, "you speak in the language
of the past? The League of Nations still exists. Any directly predatory
expedition would bring the rest of the world to arms."
Prince Shan shook his head.
"One of the first necessities of a tribunal," he expounded, "is that
that tribunal should have the power to punish. You yourself are one of
the judges. You might find your culprit guilty. With what weapon will
you chastise him? The culprit has grown mightier than the judge."
"America--"
"America," Prince Shan interrupted, "can, when she chooses, strike a
weightier blow than any other nation on earth, but she will never again
proceed outside her own sphere of influence."
"But she must protect her trade," the Prime Minister insisted.
"She has no need to do so by force of arms. Take my own country, for
instance. We need American machinery, American goods, locomotives and
mining plants. America has no need to force these things upon us. We are
as anxious to buy as she is to sell."
"I am to figure to myself, then," Mr. Mervin Brown reflected, "a
combination of Germany and Russia engaged in some scheme inimical to
Great Britain?"
"There was such a scheme definitely arranged and planned," Prince Shan
assured him gravely. "If I had seen well to sign a certain paper, you
would have lost, before the end of this month, India, your great
treasure house, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually Egypt. You
would have been as powerless to prevent it as either of us three would
be if called upon unarmed to face the champion heavyweight boxer."
"It is hard for me to credit the fact that officially Germany has any
knowledge of this scheme," the Prime Minister confessed.
"Official Germany would probably deny it," Prince Shan answered dryly.
"Official Russia might do the same. Official China would follow suit,
but the real China, in my person, assures you of the truth of what I
have told you. You have never heard, I suppose, of the three secret
cities?"
"I have heard stories about them which sounded like fairy tales," Mr.
Mervin Brown admitted grudgingly.
"Nevertheless, they exist," Prince Shan continued, "and they exist for
the purpose of supplying means of offence for the expedition of which I
have spoken. There is one in Germany, one in Russia, and one in China.
The three between them have produced enough armoured airships of a new
design to conquer any country in the world."
"Armoured airships?" Mr. Mervin Brown repeated.
"Airships from which one fights on land as well as in the air," Prince
Shan explained. "On land they become moving fortresses. No shell has
ever been made which can destroy them. I should be revealing no secret
to you, because I believe I am right in saying, sir, that a model of
these amazing engines of destruction was first submitted to your
Government."
"I remember something of the sort," the Prime Minister assented. "The
inventor himself was an American, I believe."
"Precisely! I believe he told you in plain words that whoever possessed
his model might, if they chose, dominate the world."
"But who wants to dominate the world by force?" Mr. Mervin Brown
demanded passionately. "We have passed into a new era, an era of peace
and the higher fellowship. It is waste of time, labour and money to
create these horrible instruments of destruction. The League of Nations
has decreed that they shall not be built."
"Nevertheless," Prince Shan declared, with portentous gravity, "a
thousand of these engines of destruction are now ready in a certain city
of China. Each one of the three secret cities has done its quota of work
in the shape of providing parts. China alone has put them together. I
bought the secret, and I alone possess it. It rests with me whether the
world remains at peace or moves on to war."
"You cannot hesitate, then?" Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed anxiously. "You
yourself are an apostle of civilisation."
Prince Shan smiled.
"It is because we are strong," he said, "that we love peace. It is
because you are weak that you fear war. I am not here to teach you
statesmanship. It is not for me to point out to you the means by which
you can make your country safe and keep her people free. Call a meeting
of what remains of the League of Nations and compare your strength with
that of the nations who have crept outside and lie waiting. Then take
the advice of experts and set your house in order. You sacrifice
everything to-day to the god of commerce. Take a few men like Dorminster
here into your councils. You are not a nation of fools. Speak the truth
at the next meeting of the League of Nations and see that it is properly
reported. Help yourselves, and I will help you."
"Will you come into my Cabinet, Lord Dorminster?" the Prime Minister
invited, turning to Nigel.
"If you will recreate the post of Minister for War, I will do so with
pleasure," was the prompt reply.
Prince Shan held out his hand.
"There is great responsibility upon your shoulders, Mr. Mervin Brown,"
he said. "You will never know how near you have been to disaster. Try
and wake up your nation gradually, if you can. Call together your
writers, your thinking men, your historians. Encourage the flagging
spirit of patriotism in your public schools and universities. Is this
presumption on my part that I give so much advice? If so, forgive me.
Truth that sits in the heart will sometimes demand to be heard."
At the Prime Minister's request, Nigel remained behind. They both looked
at the door through which Prince Shan had passed. Mr. Mervin Brown
metaphorically pinched himself. He was still feeling a little dazed.
"Is that man real flesh and blood?" he demanded.
"He is as real and as near the truth," Nigel replied solemnly, "as the
things of which he has told us."