02.1 Vultures from the West

Major Phyllis entered the room, “Good Evening, sir!”

“It happens to be four in the morning. Don’t you sleep, WW?” uttered Richard Whyte, Head of the Secret Service Intelligence, at the Secret Service Bureau known as MI6. “You are here on the right time. When you are retired to a place like Jamaica, it causes claustrophobia. Don’t you feel so?”

“Get used to it,” replied Major Phyllis.

“How long have you been in Ceylon?”

“Forty years.”

He asked, “Ornithology, your field, bird watching!”

Sixty-six-year-old major nodded.

“I am looking for a Lawrence of Arabia. What can you tell about the Coral Reef Atoll?”

“Maldive Islands,” said Major Phyllis, “I go there occasionally. Understand Divehi well and speak a little.”

“You have to relocate at Gan for me for a few years,” he tossed a folder, “For your eyes only!” On its cover it was written in capital letters, ‘SULTANS OF SWING’. “Turn to page 6 and read the paragraph underlined.”

“British trawler, HMS Mellow, a minesweeper, en route to Colombo, was torpedoed by a German sub, U-510, on 27^th March 1944. 23 crew members, 2 unknown passengers and a prince of Maldive Islands were lost along with the original documents of the lease agreement of Gan Island.”

“I will explain that to you,” said Whyte reaching for his coat, “over breakfast.”

“It’s early, sir!”

“I like to take breakfast before going to bed,” he insisted, “Shall we! Vauxhall Garden Tavern. I prefer to walk. Now tell me about the islands.”

Major Phyllis began, “Maldive Islands are ruled by clans. There are four distinctive Houses of Dynasties. A reign could last a few months. There is no referendum or a revolt. If people are unhappy, they set fire to the thatch huts. Fight is between the royal families. I do not know precisely how they do it but think of this for an instance.

“Queen Rehendi was queen. She does not wear a robe. She sits bare nude without a bodice. Ancient times. When she was overthrown, she married the reigning king. Think of how much attraction is drawn for him to marry her a rivalry. Then one night in bed she killed him and claimed back the throne.”

“Murder!” uttered Richard Whyte.

“With a dagger,” said Phyllis.

“Now the situation is, the sultan has proclaimed himself ‘king’, in other words, he becomes the sole ruler and the eternal royal family,” elucidated Whyte, “No more swing. There is a fiery disagreement building in the south. Britain wants to back the southerners. We are not getting involved in their intrastate conflicts as far as they could go. These are tiny islands and a small bunch of tribal folks. Don’t you say!

“However, the importance of keeping the base in Addu Atoll has come to our utmost priority. We lost the bases in Ceylon. We are losing Diego Garcia.”

“How come?” asked Phyllis.

“Americans are demanding the atoll to keep a base on lease for unilateral operation. And we have tentatively agreed to do so. The idea is, if we keep Addu Atoll in our hands, we can simply lease Diego Garcia for long term. Don’t you think so?”

“Pretty much so,” agreed Major Phyllis.

“This rebellion needs to be supported deftly,” he revealed entering Vauxhall Garden, “and this Cairo-educated Addu bloke who is supporting us has to be fiddled with gratitude. And you’re going to do the job at any cost. You have unique knowledge about these islanders. You are appointed as Adviser on Maldivian Affairs to the RAF in Gan responsible to the High Commission in Colombo. Whitehall sent a conversant commissioner. You have papers ready and the letter to Gan Commandant in Colombo.

“Listen!” Richard Whyte sat down beside a table, “Top brass brought this matter to my concern. Those demands by the Americans are overwhelming. And they will not stop from taking Diego Garcia. They want it deserted by 1960. That does mean we have to relocate the inhabitants to somewhere else. That’s a whole different issue up to them. Our concern is to secure the atoll and tactfully help the rebellion to win an independent state separate from the sultan. Tactfully, in a sense, if this plan fails, we keep the base under the protectorate with the sultanate.

“They are draining the mighty Indian Ocean over a tiny island not to sign a bloody agreement. One arbiter has said ‘we have been saying “yes sir” all the time and now let’s see what happens if we say “no sir”!’ They are very difficult to negotiate. We already have a lease agreement with the Maldive Government. But Virgo wants to dissolve it. He is the brainiac. He is smart, stubborn and witting. There is no way you can bend him. Don’t even think. In his strength are those young politicians playing for time. We cannot sit and watch them swing back and forth, ‘yes sir…no sir’. They have to sing ‘yes sir, yes sir’. Don’t you say!”

“Why don’t we arm the rebellion?”

“No, WW, no. That is what we are trying to spare. We must do it any other way possible without arming the rebellion. We are doing it everywhere and civil wars do not stop. These are simple indigenous tribal folks who never saw a weapon and never knew violence. They didn’t know of a war that took place in Europe and the Far East in the last decade. For them, war is watching the aircrafts fly over. We are currently building the base with or without an agreement. We don’t have to pull back. Under the protectorate, Article 4, we comply.

“There are many ways to do it. Now I will tell you about the fate of HMS Mellow, the sunken trawler. It is not in your folder. You don’t find it anywhere. What you read in the archives are simply not true.”

Richard Whyte told the story behind HMS Mellow as it actually happened.