Krishna
The author himself is interesting. He was born the son of a mechanic in England and started writing poetry and stories since he was five! After World War II, disappointed that Churchill lost the election in 1947 and Clement Atlee became the Prime Minister he decided to emigrate to Canada (under dual citizenship) and settled in Toronto. He writes about various industries in depth and this is about the government “industry”. Naturally, he has chosen the Canadian Federal government as the focus in this book.
A call from the US President to the Canadian Prime Minister starts off this story. Arthur Hailey is known for his extensive research about an industry and is also known to write about it as if it is a potboiler. A lot of Canadiana is in the first few pages of this book about the Governer General, the Parliament Hill and the nebulous ties with the Queen of Canada who is the same as the Queen of England (then) and the need to keep her informed on governmental major events.
When the secretary learns that a reporter has gotten hold of the news of impending meeting between the US President and Prime Minister’s planned meeting, he requests the Prime Minister to preemptively announce the meeting with an innocuous subject as the purpose of it.
The Prime Minister James Howden, has a loving wife and is very popular in Canada.
The minister of welfare, Harvey Warrender, is openly insolent and James reminisces about the deal that he had made with Harvey several years ago when he aspired to be the Prime Minister of Canada, which was his life’s ambition. He made a sleazy deal with Harvey for the latter to withdraw from the leadership competition. He gave it in writing and Harvey can pull him down if he was fired.
The US deal is ostensibly about administrative stuff but in reality about US taking over some of Canada’s defense obligations. This subject so explosive that it is kept under covers. One reporter had gotten hold of the truth and was persuaded to hang on to the story.
A ship docks at Vancouver and the ship’s crew are inspected by the immigrations officer, as per the usual protocol. There is Henri Duvall who claims to have a dead English mother and an absent French father, papers of no kind, difficulty with English who has been refused entry in many ports, and to boot, a stowaway on this ship too.
Meanwhile Vancouver Post sends a reporter, Dan Orliffe and a photographer Wally de Vere to find and interview the “cruel” immigration people who did not let Henri in even for a Christmas celebration.
We learn that James Howden had a passionate relationship for a year with his secretary Molly. He broke it off after he was chosen as the leader of the party but had promised her that if he lost, he intended to leave politics, ask for a divorce from Margaret and wed Molly
Now Molly is involved with another minister, also married.
Arthur Hailey is not a thriller writer. Though I have read some of his works, this is the first book by this author that we are reviewing formally here. He takes various industries (airport, healthcare and others) and spins a yarn with the aim of making us understand the intricacies. This one is about government and cabinet (In this case, primarily Canadian federal cabinet).
The story was written in 1961 and after all these years, has lost some authenticity as the plausible scenarios did not come to fruition. For instance, it was the height of cold war and only 15 years since the WW II ended. The basic premise is that Russia is intent on aggressively spreading communism with the aim to make the entire world a communist utopia. There is a communist revolution that happened in India and a treaty signed between USSR and Japan. A war is more probable and USA expects that the battlefield for this was would be Canadian soil and want to take over the defense capabilities of the militarily weaker ally.
Meanwhile the stowaway’s plight has become an international scandal given the Vancouver Sun exposure being picked up by the world media.
To control the outcome, Senator Devereux wants to find a young lawyer who does not belong to any party to represent the stowaway. His granddaughter Sharon remembers an old classmate of hers Alan Maitland. She invites him to the grandad’s mansion and Alan surprises him by saying that if he is accepted, he will do only what’s best for Henri Duvall but not what is politically expedient, the Senator agrees but his respect for Alan goes up and so does Sharon’s.
Alan interviews Henri and thinks he has a way to force Canada to accept Henri.
Meanwhile, the straight and unbending Kerval has been sent by the Immigration Minister who holds the Prime Minister hostage to a secret that can ruin the latter’s career. He is to take charge of the ‘Vancouver situation’ and Alan and he hate each other on sight.
The Prime Minister goes to USA and is interviewed on the tarmac near the waiting plane. Yes, I know. All normal stuff, verging on ‘boring’. In trying to provide a vibe for a realistic industry, like government here, and automobile industry and healthcare in other books, Hailey strives for the ordinary and this is not the kind of book you will pick up for a travel read.
Finally, Richardson knows from Molly the Prime Minister’s secret pact and is completely astounded.
Guessing that the American President “Tyler” needs this more than Canada, Howden audaciously asks for Alaskan plebiscite as the price for handing over the defense of Canada to USA.
Meanwhile Alan Maitland goes to the judge to ask for a preliminary hearing and is astonished when AR Butler turns up against him – he is a big deal in legal circles. The judge hears the argument (and is secretly in favour of Duvall being let in and impressed with young Alan Maitlands passion) and has to deny the case. However, he tips Alan off to ask for an investigation. AR Butler outmaneuvers him again by trapping him on a review that very day. Meanwhile the Senator invites him and Sharon and Alan find that they are attracted to each other!
The debate about the immigrant tops and rocks the parliament, mainly made worse by the aggressive and insensitive language of Warrander, much to the chagrin of Howden.
Brian Richardson does Jamie a good turn by blackmailing the recalcitrant Immigration minister into surrendering the evidence of their secret arrangement. He has seen a copy of it from Molly. One major threat is removed and another is brewing
Against protocol, the judge tips off a friend who informs Alan for a way out and he gladly takes it. When Henri Duval is freed, it makes major news and even pulls down the rating of the government, enough to lose power if an election was called at that time.
Many things happen with Warrander, and the Henri Duval situation. The ending is left deliberately ambiguous a little bit and I think it is the best option given the storyline.
The story is interesting, but not exhilarating. There are no great twists or turns but the lives of the people and the momentous decisions involved are all told well enough.
6/10
— Krishna