for ourselves and the navy wallahs are our most likely first customers. Then, we’ll be in good shape to tackle the big rigids.’
‘What about China?’ the Admiral said, ‘their vast coastline, and borders with Russia? It would be an ideal patrol vehicle for those fellahs.’
‘Do you know Admiral Wong too? Listen,’ Mahoney said worriedly, ‘no government will buy airships until they’ve actually seen one. Demonstrated. That means you’re going to have to build one. Then they might not buy! And we’re stuck with a white elephant. Stick with the big cargo rigids, Malcolm.’
‘Have you’, Admiral Pike said frostily to Mahoney, ‘got fifteen million pounds?’
Mahoney took a worried breath. ‘O.K. … I’m only a shareholder; it’s your company, not mine. But please don’t go off half-cocked. Let me rework your brochures. Redcoat will print them up.’
The Admiral slapped him on the back. ‘That’s it, young fellah! Good to have you aboard! And I’ll buzz Down Under to talk some sense into old Ocker and Johnny Johnson.’
‘Wait.’ Mahoney said. ‘Until our literature’s perfect and you’re properly briefed, Admiral.’
‘Right-oh, good thinking! Meanwhile, what can I do? I’ll go and see those RAF fellahs, shall I, and talk them into giving us those hangars at Cardington. I know old Air-Marshal Thompson, used to play rugger against him. Hopeless at rugger, he was, couldn’t catch a pig in a passage, but he knows a bit about aeroplanes, I suppose.’
‘Excellent,’ Malcolm said.
When the Admiral had gone Mahoney said: ‘Malcolm, be careful of him. Don’t get talked into building a blimp unless a government has actually ordered it.’
‘We may have to.’
Mahoney shook his head. ‘Malcolm, it’s time we started on the Onassis principle. Go to places like China and Brazil to talk them into giving us a contract to carry their cargo, then go back to the banks.’ He added soberly: ‘Redcoat will finance the trips, by buying some of your shares. Buy yourself a new suit too.’
‘The pot calling the kettle black!’ Malcolm said.
Except it was much easier for Onassis. Tankers existed. Onassis could contract with the Arabs to deliver their oil and, armed with the contracts, go to the banks to borrow money to buy the tanker to carry the oil to earn the money to repay the bank.
‘But there are no airships,’ the Chinese girl interpreted.
‘There soon will be!’ Malcolm said. ‘I’m going to build them! Tell them that.’
They were in a panelled office in the Bank of China. Outside were the jampacked streets of Hong Kong, the teeming harbour, hazy in the heat. Mahoney watched the three communist officials. He suspected they understood English. Before they could reply he interrupted: ‘Gentlemen, we are not necessarily trying to sell China an airship. Interpret that please, Miss Li.’ She did. ‘We’re selling the service of our airships to China.’
Miss Li interpreted. The three solemnly smiling Chinese nodded. One spoke. ‘There are no airships,’ Miss Li interpreted.
Mahoney soldiered on. ‘China needs airships because its the size of the whole of Europe, with inadequate droads, railways, ports, insufficent ships and aircraft. With one thousand million people. You could be exporting more than the whole of Europe!’
Malcolm interrupted: ‘Near Mongolia, you have huge deposits of coal and iron. But you can’t mine it, because it’s so mountainous and you have no roads! You can’t afford to mine it, my dear fellow!’
‘Wait, please,’ Miss Li said, ‘I cannot remember everything.’ She interpreted. One Chinese spoke and Miss Li said: ‘How do you know this?’
Malcolm looked at her as if she were a raving lunatic. Mahoney trod heavily on his toe. ‘Because’, Malcolm beamed politely, ‘it’s in the public library. In the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Good Lord, they don’t think we’re spying, do they?’
‘The point’, Mahoney cut in, before Miss Li could interpret the last bit, ‘is that we could fly in your heavy mining equipment, your men, hover, and off you go. When your iron or coal is ready, we come back, hover, load it, and take it away, direct to your factory. No roads needed, no trucks, no ships, no airports.’
‘But who will fly these airships?’ Miss Li interpreted.
‘We will! If China wanted to buy an airship we would provide the crew, and maintenance, for a fee. Or we would train your crews. Or you can contract with us to deliver your cargo in our airship – which will be much cheaper than any other means.’
One Chinese said in English: ‘China has typhoons. Very dangerous.’
Malcolm shook his head. Mahoney said: ‘Aeroplanes and ships have to avoid typhoons too. Typhoons move slowly. Airships would fly away from them, or around them. If necessary, the airship can stay up there for days to keep out of danger. Aeroplanes cannot do that.’
‘But where is your airship?’
Mahoney groaned inwardly. ‘Now, if you look at page twelve of the brochure …’ It was an impressive, glossy booklet, in English and Chinese characters. ‘There I give actual tonnages of cargo China exported last year by air, and what it cost you.’
He paused for Miss Li to translate.
‘How do you know these figures?’
‘From the Far East Economic Review. Now, on the opposite page, I show how much less it would have cost China if you had exported that cargo by my airship.’
The Chinese studied the figures, spoke amongst themselves. Then looked at Mahoney inscrutably. He said, ‘And now, look at this.’ He produced a document. ‘Here is a Bill of Lading for cargo that Redcoat carried from Hong Kong to Europe only last month. You see what it cost for fifty tons. And whose cargo was it? China’s. Your government paid for it!’ He paused. ‘And here is another document. It shows how much less it would have cost you by airship.’
They studied the documents.
Mahoney took a breath. ‘Now, what we seek from China is a contract for us to fly her cargo at a guaranteed, attractive price for a specified period. Then I will build the airship to do the job.’ He held up another document. ‘Here is a specimen of that contract, Written in both English and Chinese.’
The Chinese said: ‘But how can you do it without an airship yet?’ Mahoney groaned. The Chinese smiled: ‘We will consider everything.’ He added: ‘In Peking.’ Then: ‘Maybe it is better if you build your airships in China?’
Mahoney was taken aback. In China? In a communist factory? The Chinese said, ‘Then we could see it.’
Mahoney’s mind was racing. The ramifications were enormous. As if on cue all three stood up. ‘Thank you,’ the official said. ‘We will write. Ho choi,
