by John Harris
‘“Telegram seen and noted,”’ he quoted. ‘“Passed to Wertz for action and returned to Minister Eckhardt. Enough to start another war on this side of the Atlantic.”’
‘Where did you get this?’
‘Fausto Graf’s papers.’
‘I want a copy.’
When Midwinter had gone, Slattery looked up at Atty. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Though the date’s about right, there’s no proof at all that the telegram he refers to is telegram 158. It might be a reference to something else entirely. Still, it’ll suffice. We’re not exactly amateurs at dirty tricks ourselves.’
Atty grinned. ‘’Orrocks would approve,’ he said.
When Midwinter reappeared two days later, he looked as though he didn’t know whether to cheer or commit suicide.
‘It’s out,’ he said. ‘The full story.’
He placed a sheet of paper on the desk. It was a copy of the headlines in the Washington newspapers. ‘Germany Seeks Alliance Against US,’ they said. ‘Japan and Mexico Asked to Attack US.’
The indifference with which three-quarters of the United States had regarded the war in Europe was shattered. The uproar over the sinking of the Lusitania was nothing compared with the new wave of indignation. Germany was actually proposing to attack the United States itself, setting a neighbour to stab her in the back, and the German-Americans who had been against the war suddenly decided they were American after all, and that they couldn’t be loyal to both countries. Those newspapers with German owners and German names, which had come down heavily against the telegram, now actually began to consider changing their titles, while the shout of fury that came out of the threatened territories in the south and west even drowned the indignation in the north. The picture of hordes of Mexicans and Japanese led by German officers was enough to give people nightmares.
For the first time America was one nation and war fever suddenly began to sweep the country. Parades, with torches and brassy martial music, beat through the streets into the night. Churches prepared special military services and their choirs marched behind huge Stars and Stripes as preachers extolled the virtues of a ‘holy crusade’ until they seemed half-witted.
The United States seemed to be rolling up its sleeves, and the news put out by the New York and Washington newspapers was all repeated in the journals of the Mexican capital. It was possible to see men standing on corners engrossed in what the papers said, gossiping, arguing, even quarrelling. Mexico had never sided with the gringos but they were well aware that they were now witnessing a shattering event.
Packed into the chamber, Congress heard President Wilson declare that the world must be made safe for democracy and that America must fight for the principles that gave her birth. The uproar that greeted the words could be heard in Europe.
‘Though she might not know it yet,’ Slattery observed, ‘Germany’s just lost the war.’
The office was quiet as they digested what had occurred. Rising from his chair, Slattery opened a bottle of champagne. What had happened was a world-shaking thing. America, who had always isolated herself from Europe, could never, try as she might, claim isolation again.
Midwinter was the first to leave. As he vanished, Slattery took a cab to the Avenida Versailles. It was a month now since he had returned from Chihuahua, a month since Jesús’ death. It had not been an easy month.
The house was silent and the street was deserted except for an old man begging with a few halting tunes on a trumpet. As Slattery entered there was no sign of Magdalena. Then Pilar crept from the kitchen and lifted her eyes to the stairs.
Magdalena’s door was open and she was sitting on the bed. On the floor alongside her was a newspaper. Her face was expressionless and Slattery could see the headlines, bold against the white sheet. ‘America Joins The Allies. US Decides To Fight Germany.’ She was mourning a lost heritage, a lost history, a lost background. Though she knew at last what she was, what her future was, she suddenly no longer had a past because the country she had been taught to revere was now an enemy. What had happened had made her someone else, a different person with different traditions, different hopes different ambitions, a different way of life.
Without a word, Slattery sat on the bed alongside her and gathered her in his arms. The room was silent except for the ticking of a clock. Then a door slammed downstairs and, unexpectedly, the old beggar with the trumpet opened up just outside. The sound came, high and thin like all Mexican trumpets, shattering the stillness. He was playing ‘La Cucaracha’ and Slattery was suddenly reminded of old Apolinario Gomez García and all that had gone before.
‘La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque la falta, porque no tiene
Marijuana que fumar…’
Even played by a tattered old man with no skill, it evoked a flood of memories and had a brazen shout that suddenly seemed like a rallying call to thousands of fresh young men with dreams of glory to go and die in a new war. Magdalena seemed to sense what he felt and clutched him more tightly.
He sighed deeply. ‘It’s been decided for us, Magdalena,’ he said quietly. ‘For better or worse, America’s in.
Epilogue
Though it was over for the Germans in Mexico, the turmoil was by no means over for the Mexicans.
Orozco was dead. Huerta died in 1916, still a prisoner of the Americans. With treachery reaching a fine point of ingenuity, Zapata was assassinated for Carranza in 1919 by an officer who gained his confidence by pretending to desert the First Chief. He offered proof by sending his men against their unsuspecting Carrancista comrades at the town of Jonacatepec, and, as further proof, he had all his prisoners shot. Impressed, Zapata turned up for a meeting but, as the bugles blared, at the command ‘Present arms’ the guard of honour raised their rifles not to salute but to murder Zapata and his escort.
Carranza himself was assassinated in 1920. Finding himself running out of friends, he set out by train for Veracruz, the coaches stuffed with treasure stolen from the National Palace. Forced to take to horses, in a primitive village called San Antonio Tlaxcalantongo, he bedded down for the night in a one-room hut, and just before dawn his own escort murdered him and stole everything he possessed, even his blue-tinted spectacles.
Villa followed him in 1923. He had arranged an amnesty for himself and his followers and, engaged in farming in Canutillo, was working as he had promised to improve methods and provide education in the nearest town, Parral. After attending a christening, he was returning home when his car was ambushed. His widow claimed Obregón was behind it.
Obregón, the agnostic who had permitted the sacking of churches, did well for Mexico. After one term of office as president, he was succeeded by one of his followers and was re-elected himself in 1928. Unfortunately, he had not allowed for the hatred of the country’s religious fanatics whose lives had become so heavily restricted, or for the fact that one of them might be prepared to give his life for Christ. He was attending a political banquet in a suburb of Mexico City when a young artist, pretending to be sketching the notables gathered there, showed him his drawings and asked him to pose for him. As he turned and smiled, he was shot five times in the face and died in his seat, only sixteen days after he had been re-elected.
The question of the peasants’ land and the foreign holdings which had concentrated the minds of so many leaders was not settled until the late thirties when the then president grasped the nettle all the preceding leaders had feared, and declared the peasants could have their land and that all oil and minerals in Mexico belonged to the Mexicans. It turned out to be easier than expected.
The Germans returned in the thirties with their Nazi organisations but they were no luckier than their predecessors, though, when in 1942 the Mexican government declared war on the Axis, it left the Mexicans thunderstruck. What, they wondered, were they doing pointing their guns with the Yanquis instead of at them?
Synopses of John Harris Titles
Published by
House of Stratus
Army of Shadows
It is the winter of 1944. France is under the iron fist of the Nazis. But liberation is just around the corner and a crew from a Lancaster bomber is part of the fight for Freedom. As they fly towards their European target, a Messerschmitt blazes through the sky in a fiery attack and of the nine-man crew aboard the bomber, only two men survive to parachute into Occupied France. They join an ever-growing army of shadows (the men and women of the French Resistance), to play a lethal game of cat and mouse.
China Seas
In this action-packed adventure, Willie Sarth becomes a survivor. Forced to fight pirates on the East China Seas, wrestle for his life on the South China Seas and cross the Sea of Japan ravaged by typhus, Sarth is determined to come out alive. Dealing with human tragedy, war and revolution, Harris presents a novel which packs an awesome punch.
The Claws of Mercy
In Sierra Leone, a remote bush community crackles with racial tensions. Few white people live amongst the natives of Freetown and Authority seems distant. Everyday life in Freetown revolves around an opencast iron mine, and the man in charge dictates peace and prosperity for everyone. But, for the white population, his leadership is a matter of life or death where every decision is like being snatched by the claws of mercy.
Corporal Cotton’s Little War
Storming through Europe, the Nazis are sure to conquer Greece but for one man, Michael Anthony Cotton, a heroic marine who smuggles weapons of war and money to the Greek Resistance. Born Mihale Andoni Cotonou, Cotton gets mixed up in a lethal mission involving guns and high-speed chases. John Harris produces an unforgettable champion, persuasive and striking with a touch of mastery in this action-packed thriller set against the dazzle of the Aegean.
The Cross of Lazzaro
The Cross of Lazzaro is a gripping story filled with mystery and fraught with personal battles. This tense, unusual novel begins with the seemingly divine reappearance of a wooden cross once belonging to a sixth-century bishop. The vision emerges from the depths of an Italian lake, and a menacing local antagonism is subsequently stirred. But what can the cross mean?
Flawed Banner
John Harris’ spine-tingling adventure inhabits the shadowy world of cunning and espionage. As the Nazi hordes of Germany overrun France, devouring the free world with fascist fervour, a young intelligence officer, James Woodyatt, is shipped across the Channel to find a First World War hero…an old man who may have been a spy…who may be in possession of Nazi secrets.
The Fox From His Lair
A brilliant German agent lies in wait for the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France. While the Allies prepare a vast armed camp, no one is aware of the enemy within, and when a sudden, deadly E-boat attacks, the Fox strikes, stealing secret invasion plans in the ensuing panic. What follows is a deadly pursuit as the Fox tries to get the plans to Germany in time, hotly pursued by two officers with orders to stop him at all costs.
A Funny Place to Hold a War
Ginger Donnelly is on the trail of Nazi saboteurs in Sierra Leone. Whilst taking a midnight paddle with a willing woman in a canoe cajoled from a local fisherman, Donnelly sees an enormous seaplane thunder across the sky only to crash in a ball of brilliant flame. It seems like an accident…at least until a second plane explodes in a blistering shower along the same flight path.
Getaway
An Italian fisherman and his wife, Rosa, live in Sydney. Hard times are ahead. Their mortgaged boat may be lost and with it, their livelihood. But Rosa has a plan to reach the coast of America from the islands of the Pacific, sailing on a beleaguered little houseboat. The plan seems almost perfect, especially when Willie appears and has his own reasons for taking a long holiday to the land of opportunity.
Harkaway’s Sixth Column
An explosive action-packed war drama: four British soldiers are cut off behind enemy lines in British Somaliland and when they decide to utilise a secret arms dump in the Bur Yi hills and fight a rearguard action, an unlikely alliance is sought between two local warring tribes. What follows is an amazing mission led by the brilliant, elusive Harkaway, whose heart is stolen by a missionary when she becomes mixed up in the unorthodox band of warriors.
A Kind of Courage
At the heart of this story of courage and might, is Major Billy Pentecost, commander of a remote desert outpost near Hahdhdhah, deep among the bleak hills of Khalit. His orders are to prepare to move out along with a handful of British soldiers. Impatient tribesmen gather outside the fort, eager to reclaim the land of their blood and commanded by Abd el Aziz el Beidawi, a feared Arab warrior lord. A friendship forms between the two very different commanders but when Pentecost’s orders are reversed, a nightmarish tragedy ensues.
Live Free or Die
Charles Walter Scully, cut off from his unit and running on empty, is trapped. It’s 1944 and though the Allied invasion of France has finally begun, for Scully the war isn’t going well. That is, until he meets a French boy trying to get home to Paris. What begins is a hair-raising journey into the heart of France, an involvement with the French Liberation Front and one of the most monumental events of the war. Harris vividly portrays wartime France in a panorama of scenes that enthral the reader.
The Lonely Voyage
The Lonely Voyage is John Harris’ first novel - a graphic, moving tale of the sea. It charts the story of one boy, Jess Ferigo, who winds up on a charge of poaching along with Pat Fee and Old Boxer, the men who sail with him on his journey into manhood. As Jess leaves his boyhood behind, bitter years are followed by the Second World War, where Old Boxer and Jess make a poignant rescue on the sand dunes of Dunkirk. Finally, Jess Ferigo’s lonely voyage is over.
The Mercenaries
Ira Penaluna, First World War pilot, sees his airline go bankrupt in Africa and grabs at the chance to instruct pilots in China. But Ira hasn’t reckoned on the beat-up, burnt-out wrecks he is expected to teach his students in, or on the fact that his pupils speak no English. Though aided and abetted by an enthusiastic assistant, an irresponsible Fagan and his brooding American girlfriend Ellie, Ira finds himself playing a deadly game, becoming embroiled in China’s civil war. The four are forced to flee but the only way out is in a struggling pile of junk flown precariously towards safety. Will they make it?
North Strike
It is 1939. The Royal Navy urgently needs information about German raiders. There is only one place to get it…the port of Narvik and only one man capable – Magnusson. A story of the daring, outrageous exploits of a spy rescuing British prisoners from the Altmark and swept up in to the German battle for Norway.
The Old Trade of Killing
Harris’ exciting adventure is set against the backdrop of the Western Desert and scene of the Eighth Army battles. The men who fought together in the Second World War return twenty years later in search of treasure. But twenty years can change a man. Young ideals have been replaced by greed. Comradeship has vanished along with innocence. And treachery and murder make for a breathtaking read.
Picture of Defeat
It is 1943 and Naples has been looted by the Allies and Axis powers alike, its priceless art treasures coveted by some of the most corrupt criminal minds in Europe. But under the orders of Field Security, Tom Pugh must save the paintings of Detto Banti, no matter what the cost. In this tantalising read, one man stands against a tide of wilful destruction and greed, trying to save a past for the people of Naples’ future.
The Quick Boat Men
Edward Dante Bourdillon is a man whose fate is linked to the oceans. His parents perished on the waves and, brought up by his uncle who owns a boatyard, Edward leads a life in love with the sea. That is, until he sinks his uncle’s yacht. Soon our hero is bound for Cape Town on an old tramp steamer. From earthquakes to shipwreck, it seems his fortune is turning sour until forgiveness and World War One looms on the horizon.
Ride Out the Storm
The Allies, faced with a shameful defeat, are
trapped between the onslaught of the mighty German army and the tumult of the ocean waves. Those that do not die face capture and surrender to the Nazis. But only nine days later more than a quarter of a million men have been rescued and placed safely on the shores of England, saved by an amazing assorted flotilla of barges, tugs, rowing boats and dinghies. This is the incredible story of a mass exodus across the Channel. John Harris tells the miraculous story of Dunkirk.
Right of Reply
Struggle, scandal and mutiny run riot in Right of Reply, set in the 1970s in a whirlwind of a political crisis. An invasion is planned by a convoy of British troop ships sighted off the coast of West Africa. A Khanzian base is at stake. The British claim sovereignty but sedition is in the air. Can the British government turn back before it’s too late? John Harris leaves us on tenterhooks.
Road to the Coast
It’s South America and a fugitive Englishman is caught in a military revolt against a tyrant. Harry Ash is a wanted man, fleeing the police and revolutionaries. After being bombed, he meets a beautiful woman, Grace Rodrigo, and steals a car to take her with him before realising they have a stow-away who could very well endanger their entire escape plan. John Harris pulls off a triumph of an action-packed narrative full of the kind of tension that will have you on the edge of your seat.
The Sea Shall Not Have Them
This is John Harris’ classic war novel of espionage in the most extreme of situations. An essential flight from France leaves the crew of RAF Hudson missing, and somewhere in the North Sea four men cling to a dinghy, praying for rescue before exposure kills them or the enemy finds them. One man is critically injured; another (a rocket expert) is carrying a briefcase stuffed with vital secrets. As time begins to run out each man yearns to evade capture. This story charts the daring and courage of these men, their rescuers and a breathtaking mission with the most awesome of consequences.