TOAD TALE PART 6
"Enemies?" said Toad feigning surprise "I thought we'd just finished clearing that lot out from under their rocks!"

The Colonel stared at him for a moment and said, pointing to a chair and producing two glasses and a bottle of Scotch "Make yourself comfortable Hall after I've disenchanted you of your youthful delusions, you may be glad of a stiff drink. Of course I know you're nobodys fool but even so I doubt you're aware of how the cards are stacked against us.

The apocryphal man in the street may well be regarding his present circumstances with relief, having fought the good fight and apparently triumphed but the truth of the matter is sadly at odds with his comfortable delusions and thats what we here at the Service are not only aware of but pledged to overcome at all costs.

Fortunately for England not all the upper echelons are manned with fools, we have men like Churchill not afraid to voice warnings about what lies ahead. As First Lord of the Admiralty he did sterling work, for example in his encouragement of development of the 'landships' he called what we know as tanks.

Churchill took the first two steps to ensure full consideration for a project upon which he had set his heart. On the 20th of February, 1915, he formed a semi-technical committee under the Director of Naval Construction expressly to deal with it.

Five weeks later, when this committee had brought matters to the executive stage of experiment necessitating the expenditure of money, he took the second step—one for which he deserves the gratitude of the Army and of the nation. He sanctioned the expenditure of £70,000 pounds of public funds upon what was a speculative venture, Ernest Swinton was the father of the tank, but Churchill made it happen because of his vision and influence, even after he had been sacked from the Admiralty over the Gallipoli episode.

Of late Mr Churchill has been instrumental in bringing to our notice two names, an Austrian corporal one Adolf Hitler and an Italian named Benito Mussolini who has inspired the former with his 'fascist' movement of which you may have seen mention in the newspapers of late."

"Excitable bunch those Eyeties" observed Toad "About as much military use as tits on a bull from my experience." He'd had the misfortune to be ordered to take a couple of their airmen in tow to learn how the RFC did things. "So which of these men do you suspect are responsible for the school spy or spies?"

"Thats where things get a bit sticky, you see this Hitler chap at present seems to be a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness. However of late he's championing the cause of the German worker, the ordinary chaps who are very unhappy with their lot thanks to the French and their vindictive demands in the Treaty."

"No one bears a grudge like a Frog, that's a fact!" observed Toad who had plenty of wartime memories to draw on.

"Quite so, which is why we suspect its the Germans who are behind this damned spying but some of our technical secrets may well be benefitting the Italian aircraft makers judging by some reports on their progress. However my own suspicion lies with a shadowy cabal of industrialists whose existence I have yet to confirm."