Children of the RAJ
Robert Duncan-Enzmann
The Raj – it’s short for Raja, ruler of the Indian Sub Continent, a jewel in the British Empire’s Crown.
The hands of English workers, miners, and seamen. English science, engineering, work ethic, and British genius at organizing built the greatest Empire of all time, the Raj.
Generations who survived the iron fists of the ice-ages developed England’s ethics. Its common law budded as the Magna Carta. English legal codes that respect individuals flowered to build this great Empire.
The Raj nurtures, grips imaginations, promises adventure, preaches fairness, and inspires its children. Children of the Raj belong. In strange places, none need introductions. They recognize each other at sight.
Today’s historians don’t understand the English Empire, the greatest Empire that has or can exist until the Parliament of Man rules Earth.
To be born a child of the Raj, the greatest, most splendorous community of all time, is wonderful. Belonging can’t be faked; you know if you are among those who will rule the world.
But will England rule the world? Has destiny foreordained this? The good things that are England were previously wasted by stupidity. In 1776 America reluctantly revolted. They really wanted to bring all of North America into the British Empire.
Can stupidity detour manifest destiny? In America’s revolt, General Washington commanded a minimum of 400 cannons on land. At sea, his privateers commanded over 20,000 cannons. The Americans wanted to conjoin their ships with England and together complete the English conquest of South America.
Had there not been an American Revolution, England in 1820 would have ruled an Empire including North America, South America, Australia, half of Africa, India, and much of China.
It did not happen.
South America, weakly Iberian, could have become English. Instead, it’s strongly Spanish and Portuguese. North America and the English continent have slipped out of the Empire.
Is it destiny’s path? Is this the will of God? Will history end with London dominating the planet? It’s 1914 the greatest Empire of all time has declared war. Every computation shows that this war must end swiftly. But it doesn’t.
It’s 1939. The Greatest Empire of all time has declared war again upon the same enemy. Every computation shows that this war must also end swiftly.
It drags out.
Imagining a World rule by London is now absurd. On Olympus, the Gods laugh at arrogance, stupidity, and ignorant hubris. In ten years, the Empire is gone.
Well, no, not really. It is not the Empire that’s gone; it is the men and women who could organize an empire that are gone. Their bodies are rotting in Flanders Fields. They are gone, and their children will never be born.
Some live, an insignificant number of lost souls. In under ten years, the Empire is gone. In twenty years, London is a slum teeming with poor, uneducable, sick immigrants from Earth’s pest holes. The British Isles are being colonized by people who now talk of founding free cities where they will have their own laws and languages, undisturbed by whites.
England’s fate lies veiled in an unknowable future. This s now, today, the Raj and its allies know they must engage in yet another war to destroy Europe. When it can, the Raj, the British Empire, proselytes children of white, variously bright, Northern Europeans. It welcomes them and tries to please, educate, and indoctrinate desirables in its values. Where it can’t, it suppresses the population.
There is no cynicism in this process. British values built the mighty Raj. British values are honest, fair, and the soundest the world has known to this time. This is why Raj is successful.
On Flanders Fields, future history balances on a razor’s edge. The dice of destiny roll. In weeks, the Raj might e replaced. In 1914, Germany, in weeks, may unite Europe and merge with the Raj – if they fail.
The British Empire shares nothing. It will either dominate the World or perish. It studies the matter and declares war, saying it is the War to End Wars.
The Raj Generals and Admirals agree it is the War to End Wars. They must do this. Daily the enemy population grows, its health improves, its industry booms, its citizens are better and better educated, and as millions migrate there to share in its ever rising standard of living – it cannot be tolerated. The world’s greatest Empire must go to war. One enemy and only one need be crushed.
If the leaders of the Raj are correct, then it is quite correct that it is the War to End Wars, for when it is over, they will rule the planet.
But is the enemy as weak as it seems? Can this enemy defy most of the world on the battlefield? Can anyone imagine that a nation of sixty million can successfully withstand a siege by empires that can draft cannon fodder from amidst two billion people? Of course not.
It is true. The War to End Wars must logically end with the Earth dominated by the Raj. They will, at the end of this war, hand a magnificent heritage to their children.
Alas, the Empire isn’t perfectly able to predict the consequences of their War to End Wars. It savages Europe to yet again balance the power. In Flanders, Raj and its allies will once and for all destroy Germany. The British Empire offers Germany terms: “Following absolute unconditional surrender German population will be reduced, Austria will cease to be a nation and Central Europe’s industry will be set back a century. Never again will such people imagine they are citizens of a World power. ”
This is the War to End Wars. Is it possible this war will destroy the Raj? No, it is impossible. The British Empire cannot even be weakened. Its size is colossal. But more significantly, the troops on the front lines will be from the Russian, French, and Italian Empires with empire troops from Australia, North America, South America, Africa, and most of Asia under the absolute rule of the Raj.
This will end with uncontested World rue by the British Empire. A short, brisk, occasionally bloody contest with a worthy foe which regretfully must perish, and it will be over. At long last, one power will totally dominate the globe.
Germany must lose in two to three months. They have no nitrates. They cannot produce ammunition without nitrates. But German chemists extract nitrogen from the air.
France and its Empire alone can crush the Germans. They can field four to five soldiers for each German. But the Russian Army is shattered at Tannenberg and Tarnow.
The Germans in Tanganyika must fold in days. Their army has but 480 whites and perhaps 20,000 blacks. British French, Belgian, Portuguese field over 600,000 whites and a million blacks. In the Cameroons 130 Germans las a year. 500 Germans in South West Africa last two years keeping a million men off the western front. But in Tanganyika the Germans last for years, shattering all attacks.
The Germans on Tsingtao Peninsula China must fold in days. They have less than 1,000 Germans and perhaps 50,000 Chinese troops. Blockaded by the Japanese, Russian, British, and French far Eastern fleets, without aircraft, they should surrender in days. The Japanese army is excellent. For once allied with the Chinese, millions are available to assault the German lines. With total command of the air and sea, landings will be easy. The Tsingtao war will end in days. Millions of Japanese and Chinese bodies will be available to fight on the Western Front. But in Tsingtao, Germans fight two years, mauling several empires.
Who are these upstarts?
Peculiar people like the Germans imagine they can challenge the benign justice, the splendid laws, the tolerance, and fair play of the British Empire!
Only the British Empire has the right to be a World Power. The Raj will rule all peoples. Imagine Germans trying to unite Europe! They are unsophisticated, unimaginative brutes that need discipline, are prone to Arrogance and unspeakable cruelties. Products of domineering homes where children are savagely beaten. Such people need guidance. Could the Raj be in trouble? Is not the ultimate stupidity to: Don’t believe your own propaganda.
Germans, Austrians, and their allies proselyte as skillfully and sincerely as does the Empire. Perhaps even more so, In Africa and China their colored troops are vastly more loyal to the Kaiser than are colored troops of the Raj. German law, education, and social services are universally as good and often much better than those of the Empire.
And those who know both sides know that customs, usages, laws, and family life are close to identical. It’s the modern tragedy of the Peloponnesian Wars. The bitterest wars are between ‘brothers.’ That is to say, those who are very much like each other. It is hard to hate someone very different from you. So if the war drags on, the best on both sides perish uselessly.
The Russian, Frenchy, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Indians die in the tens of millions. That is admitted by historians. Deaths run into hundreds of millions. That is not admitted by historians. North and South America pour ‘beef-on-the-hoof’ cannon fodder into the slaughter on the Western Front. So, at last, the Germans lose. The Raj wins the War to End Wars and rules the world.
Britain needs no bulwarks
No towers on the steep
Her forts are on the mountain waves
Her home is on the deep.
In 1924, threatening war, England forces America to scrap its super navy. It occupies Russia and occupies Central Europe – it rules.
But the rulers of the Empire? Its finest lie dead in Flanders. To bleed the Germans to death, 20,000, 30,000, and sometimes 50,000 of England’s finest died in a single day. The Germans, with no option but absolute unconditional surrender, fight to the death. Five million die on the Western Front trying to smash their lines. They don’t break until American cannon fodder pours into the lines.
One More Chance.
The British Empire is larger than ever. Warships pour out of its arsenals. There may be yet another war in Europe. Europe must not be untied under any government, any nationality, any way shape or form of Federation. Europe must not become a nation like the United States. A United Europe would be the greatest, best educated, best run state with richest resources of any area in the world.
Untied Europe is incompatible with England’s planet wide role. England cannot allow this,
The Good War, WW II, is fought by the people of the World come together as the United Nations against an enemy so depraved, vicious, and utterly dishonest that only unconditional surrender will satisfy us.
Of course, we are not fighting the enemy people, we are fighting the scum that lead them. This is The Good War. Unconditional surrender is directed at enemy leaders. When we win The Good War, we will reeducate the enemy people.
To be sure, our enemies are very unpleasant people. That is an understatement.
They are lunatics.
History will testify to the criminal insanity of our enemies. But alas, though we write the histories and its quite right that our enemies belonged in rest homes or asylums rather than in government, we cannot look at ourselves. We are so good that our terms are covenants. Like the Bible, we are so good that God himself is on our side.
History has a way of creeping out over the centuries. The people’s enemies were lunatics, but ours was a scenario about the criminally insane, for the criminally insane, by the criminally insane. And we are part of the play just as our enemies are.
War songs are popular. Wars are fought by children. They grow up in the wars but can’t escape during the wars.
God is having a bad dream.
And at the end that pagan, Pandora, listening to many little voices and opened her box saw what flew out and quickly slammed it shut. The one last creature begged to be released. She thought: Everything else is so bad that just one more can’t hurt significantly. And he’s got such a nice voice. She released the last little critter named Hope.
The East African Campaign
England’s almost beaten. Mussolini declares war.
Barry said to Jim, We’re almost finished. But two months have passed without them attacking.”
Jim said to Barry, “We are losing. They are advancing in Egypt and outnumber us heavily. When Suez falls, India follows. Egypt and India are revolting!”
“Egypos (Egyptians), Indian beggars, and Eytes (Italians) are utterly revolting!” sneers Barry, adding with disgust, “You see a woman drawing water from a canal to cook with, upstream from her a guy’s shitting in the canal, downstream another woman is washing clothes.”
Jim saiid to Barry, “Italians in Libya outnumber our Egyptian army five to one. Their navy will soon cut the Mediterranean in half. When Malta falls no ships can sail between Gibraltar and Suez. We will have to sail around Africa. Over 200,000 Italians in Ethiopia!”
Bob said, “To strike north toward Suez, but Albanians and Greeks beat the shit out of them. Germans from Crete would beat us.”
Barry said, “Be glad the Germans aren’t in Ethiopia.”
Jim said, “We may retreat to South Africa.”
Bob said, “I’m not worried.”
Jim said, “You should worry!”
Barry said, “They have a huge battle fleet, a population as large as Germany’s a huge army and they should sweep over us!”
Bob said, “We could lose the war in England. It is bad in England, real bad. If the Germans concentrate on battering us from the air we will lose in six months to a year.”
Jim said, “Spain and Turkey might con in on the German side.”
Bob said, “But the USA is coming in on our side.”
Vast Skies Long Distances
Something’s happening. We have got supplies, more men, and four airplanes. We build wooden airplanes to fool the Italians and camouflage the real ones. The Italians aren’t fooled. The pilot waggles his wings, flies, and drops a wooden bomb on the wooden airplanes we put out as camouflage. On the wooden bomb he wrote: Bafungoola!
The war is getting mean again. The new fellows tried to sharpshoot the Italian pilot. He circled the field and thumbed his nose at them. I wonder who he is.
Supplies, more people, petrol, armored cars – AND LETTERS! The first in many long months.
Bob reads his letter.
“You remember my plants on the window? I love to grow things. On the back of the last page are pictures of two blossoms – Heather and Holly.”
He thinks, “Blossoms of Heather and Holly?” and shuffles to the last page. “Things like that don’t really blossom.”
Lura, almost knowing what his thoughts will be has written, “Yes, Holly and Heather do ‘blossom’. Here they are – identical twins already four months old. Dressed in pink! (The photo is painted in color. The faces look like potatoes.)
“Heather and Holly are girls names, because they are girls. The artist colored the photo in with real oil paints. He is terribly clever. I traded him something to take the photos and color them. I so wanted you to see them.”
“They are ours! We get to keep them for years and years! Anyhow, I don’t want to ‘send them back’ wherever back may be.
“It is all very surprising. Then it is so time consuming that the surprise sort of wears off. There is a sister (nurse) who was with us who I am glad is gone. She runs around saying clever things like ‘Clever girl, she had a baby.’ She blew her stack over twins. I wish to hell she would go away. I’m tired of all the jokes but mostly of this stupid war. How can anyone win a war.
“But you can go around and say to everyone: ‘Congratulate me, I just had twins with the help of my wife.’
“Four months old already, in just four months. They are lots bigger than they were, at first they were so small it was frightening. Now they are quite human. I’ll be glad when they are much more human.”
Auntie Henning is a great help. She is cheerful, does things willingly, does little extra things, teaches me and seems to love Holly and Heather. Holly is a few minutes older than Heather.
“But Auntie Henning has a calculating eye. She is a shirt tail relative by marriage. I don’t wholly trust her. Lura – that’s me – is always cautious.” Her Royalty uses the 3rd person when talking of herself!
In this letter is the name of a lawyer (barrister as they say here) who has copies of all my papers. The real papers are in a safety deposit box in our bank. It is way on the outskirts of London, so it likely won’t be bombed.
“Robert, there is another set of papers with Auntie Beth in Maine. I sent them to her and she acknowledged receipt.”
At last, England. Lura just shouldn’t be in England. But here she is, and now they are a year old.
It’s mean. It’s short. It’s over. The Duke of Aosta surrenders Ethiopia. Over 350,000 Italian POWs are off to South Africa boys, and be glad you’re out of the war. It is almost over in Libya. Just a few weeks, and it will be over. We don’t go there. We fly past then home by ship.
It should end in Libya, but doesn’t.
A General named Rommel appears. We heavily outnumber him but he tears us apart.
The Ites are finished off in Ethiopia. They shifted us to ferry command. Rommel’s in North Africa and just might finish us off. This ferry flight as usual is to England. All’s not so good in England, but what is good is that Bob has two weeks leave.
“Lura, you are a magician. Our one room apartment looks great.”
“Auntie often helps. Without her it would be impossible. We are Americans and would be better off there. Opportunities are much better and prices are lower than in Merry Old England. When the war is over we will get a Maine cottage with three bedrooms.”
Bob nods. That would be a dream. It is a dream. The war is not over.
Now Robbie, the water is all ready, towels are out, here are nice new clothes. Guess what! I have to go out, so you will have to bathe and dress your daughters.”
“What? I have to do what?”
“Yes. Now try it and have fun.
“Wait! I don’t know….”
Lura opens the door cutting him off.
“Bye. I will be back soon with Auntie and other surprises.”
Bob panics – “WAIT! Hey Lura! Just a minute!”
“Living dolls, a year old, bathe and dress them! Ain’t it fun!”
Holly and Heather look anxious. This is no ‘Auntie’. What sort of dreadful surprise is this?
“Who are you?” asks Bob, looking at one girl.
Either Heather or Holly answers, it is hard to say.
“Kitty.”
“And who are you?” he says to the other. “You must be either Heather or Holly, and this is getting difficult.”
“KITTY!” she screams.
“Oh! You want your kitties (colored washcloths).
He goes to work. He works hard, changing their nappies. Such a mess. He daydreams about a pill. He will invent it. It will cure all this nappies business. This awful mess will pass off as an odorless, colorless gas.
Lura was going to return in less than an hour. She has been gone most of the day. Holly and Heather are hungry. He feeds them. They wet twice more and are changed. Somehow he keeps them beautiful. And somehow it is fun and more and more interesting.
Is it possible that Lura stayed away deliberately?
Of course not how could she want to be separated from the twins, even for a moment.
“We’re here! Auntie is with me. We are a little late because Auntie needed hairpins.”
“HAIRPINS?”
“Bob,” says Lura with a good-natured smile, “Can’t do without them.”
Auntie pipes up, “Lura, oh dear, we may have to go back. These are not the right size.”
“O.K.”
Lura says, “Auntie Margaret, Bob has everything organized; the girls are dressed, cleaned, fed – stop teasing. I just wanted them to get acquainted. And that is what happened! They did!”
Soon Bob returns to the trenches of war. Too soon everything changes.
