His
tactics were ably seconded by Doctor Pestovitch, his chief minister.
Failing to establish his claims to complete independence, King Ferdinand
Charles annoyed the conference by a proposal to be treated as a
protected state. Finally he professed an unconvincing submission, and
put a mass of obstacles in the way of the transfer of his national
officials to the new government. In these things he was enthusiastically
supported by his subjects, still for the most part an illiterate
peasantry, passionately if confusedly patriotic, and so far with no
practical knowledge of the effect of atomic bombs. More particularly he
retained control of all the Balkan aeroplanes.
For once the extreme naivete of Leblanc seems to have been mitigated by
duplicity. He went on with the general pacification of the world as if
the Balkan submission was made in absolute good faith, and he announced
the disbandment of the force of aeroplanes that hitherto guarded the
council at Brissago upon the approaching fifteenth of July. But instead
he doubled the number upon duty on that eventful day, and made various
arrangements for their disposition. He consulted certain experts, and
when he took King Egbert into his confidence there was something in his
neat and explicit foresight that brought back to that ex-monarch's
mind his half-forgotten fantasy of Leblanc as a fisherman under a green
umbrella.
Pages:
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177