He'Kirya Military Headquarters
Tel-Aviv
"Bad news, Yoni," Arik said to his son, "There will be no Portugal for you."
"Somehow, I felt that would be the case," he said. He was only moderately disappointed; he had no expertise in flying, himself, and was not qualified to make judgments on engineering regarding any aircraft, much less autogyros. "So, back to the unit, then?" he asked.
"Actually, something else," Arik said. "We're received word that there is going to be a major Communist rally in Ashkelon. Word just recently got out. Apparently, some big luminary from the Soviet Union will be visiting. Rumors say it could be Leon Trotsky himself."
"What do the Communists want with the Yishuv?" Yonatan asked. He was not afraid of the Communists, nor did their family even have a problem with Communist ideals, and in fact a great deal of the Yishuv had been colonized based on emigres from communist and socialist groups seeking to expand their live sin the new-old land. What they
didn't want at the moment was someone rocking the boat for the sake of rocking the boat. The Yishuv was still a fledgling entity in many ways, and at the mercy of the Sultanate's humor. The railroad track-laying and factory work had not yet begun; it would be easy to pull the rug out from underneath them if the Sultan was insulted.
"They are out here, working hard, and trying to build a new place for themselves, same as anyone else," his father said, "To an extent I cannot blame them. I am even sympathetic to some of their ideals. Treating working people with dignity, well, it's the ethical thing to do. But we're worried that people will get riled up and do something crazy. Ever read Emile Zola?"
Yonatan blinked at the sudden change of subject. "Who?"
"Emile Zola, a French writer. He wrote a whole series, a couple dozen books, about a family in France. One of the most famous is a book called Germinal. In it is a Russian expat called Souvarine, who intends to fight for the rights of workers with violence and sabotage. He takes an idea with sympathetic beginnings and turns it into a violent monstrosity."
"So you want to make sure that no... Souvarine... comes to the fore in Ashkelon," Yonatan said. "Very well. When do I leave?"
"Tomorrow morning," Arik said, "You are not undercover, feel free to tell people whatever you want if they ask. They are not an enemy, they are our fellow citizens. We just don't want someone to get all wrapped up in revolutionary fervor and do something crazy."
"Okay,
aba," Yonatan said.
"Good. Now make your plans and get ready to go. I have a meeting with the rest of the military leaders about some new rifle they wants us to look at. We may finally get rid of those old 1888-pattern rifles."
Yonatan left, and promised to stop by the house to have dinner with his mother. Arik didn't know if he was going to be back in time or not. He went instead to the central meeting room which served as an ersatz government assembly hall in the absence of a purpose-built capitol building. A government meeting was just breaking up, and the military leaders were waiting to use the hall as the politicians were closing their notes and talking aloud.
"So we are going to publicly accept the Mongolian apology, then?" Ze'ev Jabotinsky asked.
"We are," the Prime Minister, Itzhak Ben-Zvi said. "I can think of no better way to refute that maniac's rantings than to invite a Mongolian delegation here to consider opening a trade mission with the Yishuv."
"Do we even have anything to trade that the Mongolians will want?" Jabotinsky asked.
"We don't know yet," Ben-Zvi replied, "I know nothing about Mongolia or Mongolians, except that they used to scare the hell out of both Russians and Chinese. And the Russians and Chinese may be at war soon, so maybe the Mongolians would like a nice, safe out of the way place to store vital records or buld things for them. Our population is small, but we have many people who are unemployed or under-employed, especially a lot of engineers and researchers."
The politicans were getting ready to leave, but Colonel Ariel Shaham listened carefully as they walked out.
"What about that airplane research in Portugal?" Jabotinsky asked.
"We will send someone from the Air Force. I'll get with David about that," he said as they walked down the hall. Finally, the military leaders filed into the room.
"What was that all about?" Arik asked the commander of the Haifa garrison.
"That Freedom Conference thing," the man replied, "A Mongolian back-bencher got into some damnfool anti-Semitic tirade; now the Mongolians have written a letter of apology. It reached us at the same time that the Sultanate demanded an apology for the insult to us."
"Most of the governments these days are more enlightened than in the past," Arik said. "Maybe the Mongolians will bring more business to our humble territory. So. A new rifle? What is this about?"
In front, David Ben-Gurion, the Defense Minister got ready to give his briefing. "It's been a fun day for politics, gentlemen," he said as the officers all settled in. "We've had some good news lately, with the railroad and the ship-building orders, and now that we will have see some economic growth, there's been something I have been wanting to deal with for some time. Rifle standardization," he said, and he flipped back the cover on his first poster. It was a poster of the Yishuv itself, with the cities in bold lettering. Next to each city was a small silhouette of the type of rifle each city command used.
"As you can see, most of us are using the German
Gewehr-88 bolt-action rifle," Ben-Gurion said. "An excellent rifle for its time, but it is old and showing signs of age. Most of the ones we have were surplus to begin with, and we got them for almost nothing so the Germans could empty out their stores.
"But that was a few years ago, during the first few
aliyot, and more recent immigrants, expecially those from America, have funded the purchase of the M1903 Springfield rifle from America. These are superior rifles in every way, but they are few in number and expensive to import. What we need to do is standardize our rifles, and that means we will buy the latest from the Germans, the
Gewehr-98 from Mauser." Ben-Gurion flipped back the cover for his next poster, which showed the comparative advantages of the three rifles: G88, G98, and Springfield.
"We need to replace the G-88 with one of these two," Ben-Gurion said. "And we already have a strong trade partnership with the Germans. The Springfield is a rugged rifle, but the Mauser rifle is lighter. From an infantryman's perspective, that counts for a lot, especially during long marches in an army that is not motorized. The cartridge is lighter, slightly, than the 30.06 Springfield, but it has about the same knockdown power and reaches a bit father."
"Not only that," Ben-Gurion said, "But the Mauser-98 takes the 7.92x57 ammo we already have on stock." The small collection of officers that Arik knew to be 'pro-Springfield' frowned. They knew that this day was coming, but they'd hoped to either convince the government to buy Springfields as the universal service rifle for the Yishuv-- or at least forestall the day they had to give up their Springfields.
"The 7.92 in that size," Arik added, "Is also useful in the MG-15 machinegun, which is something we might want to consider as a replacement for our collection of different machineguns throughout the Yishuv."
"The Lewis gun and the Vickers are much better than the MG-15," said Colonel Yosef Gernstein, of the Tzfat garrison. "If knockdown power is a concern for you."
"Yes, but the MG-15 is only twelve and a half kilograms," Arik pointed out, "The Lewis gun is only slightly heavier at 13 kilos; the Vickers weighs in at 15 kilograms and can be as much as 23. The MG-15 is lighter, uses the same cartridge as the -98, and can more readily be mounted on aircraft."
"The ammunition is also usable in the Spandau heavy machinegun, the M-08," said Yifal Silbermann, the leader of the Jerusalem garrison. "We are seriously lacking in machinegun capacity overall, really, and standardizing would be a good way to expand capacity while saving money in the long run."
"If we could convince
Mauser Waffenfabrik to open a munitions plant here..." Arik said.
"One thing at a time, Arik!" Ben-Gurion said with a laugh.
The following note is sent:
To the Mongolian Foreign Office
To the people of Mongolia, we bid you greetings.
It is on this day we have received diplomatic telegrams from both the Mongolian leadership and the Sultanate of Egypt with regards to the most unfortunate words used by the Baron Roman Ungern von Sternberg. Suffice to say that the note of apology from the Mongolian government on behalf of the Baron is of great relief to us and, we feel, sufficient to heal the pain caused by this outburst. After discussion, we of the Yishuv feel that this is a reflection of the Baron himself and not that of the Mongolian people, with whom we have no historical quarrels.
That said, let us propose that a Mongolian trade delegation visit the Yishuv and discuss the possibility of opening relations between our realms. We can think of no better way to refute the old ways of thinking than to encourage positive contact and commerce together.
A copy is also sent to Wazir ud-Daula [Minister of State] Abbas ibn Kareem aal-Filisteeni.
Results:
Yonatan Shaham will not go to Portugal, but will go to Ashkelon to observe the Communist rally there.
A system of modernizing and standardizing infantry rifles will adopt the Mauser
Gewehr-98 for Yishuv service.
Someone from the Air Force (yet to be determined) will seek permission from Portugal to see the gyrocopter experiments.
A diplomatic note is sent back to Mongolia expressing satisfaction with the apology, and inviting Mongolian trade reps.
*** *** *** *** *** ***
Yarkon River
Outskirts of Tel-Aviv
"Nice place," Emil Rathenau said, looking around.
"You suggested it," Andy reminded him. She was going through the picnic basket and approving wholeheartedly of what Emil had brought. Especially the wine.
"I had only gone past it on my survey," he said. "Once the construction gets started, the railroad bridge will go in right down there," he said, pointing downstream. "I suppose the area here will get built up."
"Shops and flats," Andy said with a shrug. "I hope they build more nice places to eat."
"Well, I don't know," Emil said. "I hope they keep some of this area unspoilt. It would make a nice place to picnic, after all." He laughed.
"So, how was the trip to Ashkelon? Everything copacetic?"
"It was," Emil said, popping the cork and pouring the wine. "They are overjoyed to get the work for the ships. It is a funny place; the whole town seems to be run by Communists, eh?"
"Commy-nists?" Andy said, her eyes wide. "You actually met some? Here? Says you!" She imagined fierce, beetle-browed Cossacks tearing up the town.
"There are a lot of communists living in the Yishuv," Emil said, "I thought they were all in the interior, in the
kibbutzen. But the town is organized by the labor federation, the, ah,
Histadrut," he said, struggling with the word.
"Wow, commies, right next door," Andy said. "What're they like?"
"Like anyone else, really," Emil said with a shrug. "They just have different politics, is all. I met a Russian fellow, an Arab, and a young woman."
"She pretty?" Andy teased.
"Actually, rather striking. Her family moved here from Russia as well; I think there's something between her and the other Russian fellow."
"So, they like the train idea?" Andy asked. They spread out their bread and cheese, and began snacking.
"They like it because it brings them work," Emil said, "The train will be how they get their supplies to town, and how they get their manufactured goods back out of town. Apart from that, I think they'd rather be left alone. The two men were nice, but the woman, she was not friendly to me at all."
"Well, good for me, then," Andy said with a mischevious sparkle in her eye. "Why she such a wet blanket to ya?"
"Because I represent 'capitalist oppression' to her, I guess," Emil said with a smile. "But she still gave me a flyer, though. They have a fellow coming to talk to them, a Leon Trotsky. I've heard of him, he's a big man in the Communist movement in Russia."
"What he's coming to give a big speech or somethin'? All about commy-nist politickin' , I suppose?"
"Oh, I think he's just going to rally them up, make them feel like they're an important part of the Communist international brotherhood or something."
"It kinda sounds like the Masons or somethin'," Andy said. "They got secret handhshakes and rings?"
"Well, if they have secret handshakes, they didn't share it with me," Emil said. "And I didn't notice any rings."
"So I guess you got permission for your railroad, now, from the Big Cheese in Cairo," Andy said, changing the subject. "So what ya gonna do now?"
"Well, the original plan was to go back to Berlin," Emil said, "But now I'm trying to talk to my boss to see if I can stay here in the Yishuv and maybe oversee the project."
"Ya know what? I think I'd like that," Andy said.
"I think I would too."
They kissed.
"When do you find out about if you can stay here or not?" Andy asked.
"I'm sending a telegram tomorrow to ask for instructions, and I'll ask then. I may have to go back to Berlin for a few days, but if I can stay here, I'll be back within a couple weeks, at most."
"You better write me some letters if you do go back to Berlin," she said with a fingertip pointed right at his nose tip. He kissed her fingertip and smiled at her.
"I will," he promised, "And you better reply to them. I will probably be able to send telegrams as well."
"Well, now ya done it, 'cause I'll be expecting that, now," she said.
"Count on it," he said.
***