Tai-Pan by James Clavell

Author:James Clavell
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction - General, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780385292184
Publisher: Dell Publishing
Published: 1983-04-13T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

* * *

Longstaff had his back to the door and was staring out the main cabin windows at the mail packet. Struan noticed that the dining table was set for four. On the desk were many official dispatches. “Morning, Will.”

“Hello, Dirk.” Longstaff turned and stuck out his hand, and Struan saw that he looked younger than he had for months. “Well, this is curious, isn’t it?”

“What?” Struan asked, knowing that it must be the Russian. But he let Longstaff have the pleasure of telling him. Too, he wanted to hear Longstaff’s evaluation, for though Longstaff was out of his depth in Asia and useless as Captain Superintendent of Trade, Struan knew Longstaff’s views on European diplomatic affairs to be incisive and extremely knowledgeable.

Ever since Struan had settled the immediate problem of Aristotle and had seen Robb take him aboard safely, he had puzzled over the reason for the Russian’s arrival. He found it strangely unsettling but did not know why.

“You won’t have heard yet, but we’ve an uninvited guest.”

“Oh, who?”

“An archduke, no less. A Russian archduke, Alexi Zergeyev. He came on the mail packet.”

Struan was suitably impressed. “Why should we be ‘honored’ here in Asia?”

“Why, indeed?” Longstaff rubbed his hands together happily. “He’s joining us for lunch. Clive’s escorting him.”

Clive Monsey was Longstaff’s deputy captain superintendent of trade, a civil servant by profession and, like Longstaff, a Foreign Office appointee. Normally Monsey’s duties kept him at Macao, where Longstaff maintained his permanent headquarters.

“There are some interesting dispatches too,” Longstaff was saying, and Struan’s interest heightened. He knew that none would contain the formal approval of the Treaty of Chuenpi and the appointment of Longstaff as the first governor of the Colony of Hong Kong, because the news of the successful conclusion of the war would just be reaching England.

Struan accepted the sherry. “The Middle East?” he asked and held his breath.

“Yes. The crisis is over, thank God! France accepted the Foreign Secretary’s settlement, and there’s no longer any fear of general war. The Turkish sultan’s so grateful for our support that he’s signed a commercial treaty with us canceling all Turkish trade monopolies, throwing open the whole Ottoman Empire to British trade.”

Struan let out a yell. “By all that’s holy! That’s the best news we’ve had in many a long day!”

“I thought you’d be pleased,” Longstaff said.

The longstanding crisis had to do with the Dardanelles, the strait that was controlled by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. It was the key to Mediterranean Europe and a perpetual casus belli among the Great Powers—Britain, France, Russia, Austro-Hungary, and Prussia—because the Dardanelles was a shortcut for Russian warships to enter the vital Mediterranean, and also for warships of other nations to enter the Black Sea and threaten the weak underbelly of Russia. Eight years ago Russia had compelled Turkey to sign a treaty which gave Russia joint suzerainty over the Dardanelles, and international tension had been acute ever since. Then, three years ago, Mehemet Ali, the French-supported upstart soldier-pasha of Egypt, had launched an attack on Constantinople, proclaiming himself Caliph of the Ottoman Empire.

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