Chapter Three
23 Lawton Terrace, 24nd December, 21:57
The SS* 'Jaguar' Saloon pulled up to the kerb slowly as the mists of night started to close in. George Secker stepped out into the grim night accompanied by his assistant Tom Jenkins, the junior man passed a beige file over they walked up to the entrance as the inspector glanced over the file.
“Archibald 'Archie' Carter, hum... tell me again Jenkins why we're here?” he asked as he passed the file back
“Well sir, he a servant at St James Palace and hasn't been seen for the three days since the explosion” Secker cut him short by knocking on the door, after a few minutes that were spent in fruitless waiting he produced a set of lock picks and let himself in.
“Well, I think we can see that no ones been here for a day or two” Jenkins said dryly tapping a half full pint of, now obviously sour, milk “Ok, lads search the place” following his words five members of special branch entered the house and began searching for evidence.
The search went on for some time but little was found save for the 'usual' trappings of an obviously single man. The place had been left in a hurry if the half drank pint had not shown that the newspaper that had been thrown onto the chair did. The two MI5 agents proceeded up the stairs and into the bedroom, it was quite spartan in appearance, with only a desk, rug and bed.
“Lift that rug up will you tom?” his assistant duly knelt and pulled the rug from it's place in the centre of the room “look sir!” he said, excitement running down his spine “these floorboards have been up recently”
“Yes tom, go get an officer with a hammer or crowbar, or something”
Jenkins sprang up and headed into the next room for assistance. It was the work of only a minute and a crowbar to get the aforementioned board up. It revealed a veritable 'treasure trove' of items. First pulled out was a wad of Sterling the the value of several thousand pounds, then a collection of tickets both train and ferry from London to Dublin, but that was not the start prize, that was given to the coils of detonator wire, small remnants of explosives and various other bomb making equipment.
“Bingo sir! We've don it” Jenkins almost whooped with joy
“Have we Tom?” his superior quizzed him
“Well we have everything here, it's pretty obvious that he was the one who made the bomb and he has obvious links with Ireland, perhaps even the IRA!”
“Yes, but don't you find it a little odd? I mean it's just too dammed neat” the man bent down and picked up a piece of paper that had fallen as the evidence was taken out of the floor, it read, Warehouse 7, London wharf.
“I expect that we shall find even more evidence of the 'Irish conspiracy' there two, come on Jenkins lets go before the trail cools any more."
It was as if Secker had foretold the future, when they arrived at the warehouse it was filled to the brim with Irish Tricolours, bomb making equipment and a string of documents that named numerous people. The names were, on closer inspection, also found to be prominent members of the Irish Republican Army, that had split with the 'government' forces over the treaty that had left Ulster in British hands. Perhaps of more concern there was also the names of one or two junior ministers in the Irish government. The MI5 agent was not happy about the results, and he made a point of saying so to his superior Sir James in there meeting.
“Don't be so stupid George” he had said “you have solved the case and so quickly too, that will be a feather in your cap I can tell you. This will be presented to cabinet in the morning, of course we better let the foreign office and PM know straight away.”
10 Downing Street, Christmas Day, 10:00
The cabinet was not happy they had been dragged away from their family's on the worst day of all, the one day a year they thought would never involve politics. They were aware of the importance, however, they would never have been disturbed if it had not been so. It did not come as too much of a shock then, when Sir William delivered the news.
“Yesterday night I was called out of the blue by MI5, they have successfully identified the plotters that detonated the bomb on the 21st.” Sir William paused to take a sip of water, it had been a long night after all. “It seems that a man by the name of Archie Carter was the ring leader for a group of Irish republicans who were seeking to kill the King and his ministers” he surveyed the room and saw the collection of amazed faces, he pushed on “It also seems that the Irish government may be involved so they may not be willing to give up the plotters who have fled back to Dublin, also as you all will know there have been suspected links between the IRA and the Soviet Union, investigations are still proceeding. What I need now gentlemen, are options, Austen?”
“Well sir, myself and the foreign office have been over our options and had discussions with the relevant bodies, the joint chief of staff advise that they can have a full naval blockade of Ireland in a matter of hours, that air forces can start to operations over Ulster in an hour or so and the army can be ready to go into operations in a few days” the Lord President was cult off abruptly
“You can't be serious, were not really talking about war with Ireland are we?” Samuel Hoare blurted out, expressing what many others were thinking. At this point Eden couched for attention and waded into the conversation.
“No, it is of course no what we want, but we must be prepared Samuel he purred, I have drawn up a ultimatum to be delivered to them. Our officials in Dublin are confident that the Irish will not hand over the men otherwise, as that may cause the men to implicate themselves, however, we are confident that they will soon fold to this.” Eden paused as he handed out a draft ultimatum;
1. To suppress any publication which incites to hatred and contempt of the British Empire;
2. To remove from the military service and the administration in general all officers guilty of propaganda against the British Empire, names of which were to be provided by the British government;
3. To accept the collaboration in Ireland of organs of the British government in the suppression of the subversive movement directed against the territorial integrity of the empire;
4. To take judicial proceedings against the accessories to the plot of December 21st who are on Irish territory, with the help and direction of organs delegated by the British government;
5. To immediately arrest four named persons implicated by the preliminary investigation undertaken by the British Empire;
6. To furnish the British Empire with explanations regarding statements from high Irish officials both in Ireland and abroad, who have expressed hostility towards the British Empire; and
7.To notify the British Empire without delay of the execution of these measures.
The cabinet, with a heavy heart passed the 'Christmas Day Ultimatum' as an extraordinary measure to the King for royal assent with an expiry date of the 1st January 1937. It was duly assented to and delivered to a shocked Irish embassy on the same day. It was not a surprise when the Irish government sent a response on the 29th accepting all but clause four, which they argued was an affront to their sovereignty. The response was leaked to the papers which said with great glee that the 'murder of our Prime Minister was just such an affront to our sovereignty'.
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* Shortly after the war in our time line, the company known as SS Cars (Swallow Sidecar) would, for obvious reasons, change their name to Jaguar
