10.3 Strange Brew

Officer Gold, Ali Takhan and Defence Minister Rock sat impatiently in the garden at Hakra House. Lance Corporal Moosa Manik entered through the gate with two envelopes. He passed them to Gold, “Two sets with the negatives.”

“Let me have one set and give the rest to Saeed,” ordered Gold.

Three examined those large black and white, 8R prints. Those images were sharp and clear with a white border to frame the cards. Mosanic balanced the contrast each and every negative individually, in total sixty prints. He spent the whole night developing them, put his professional touch to it, all by himself.

Sayye Saeed picked a magnifying glass to begin his examination. He was reaching a conclusion when the three top officials walked in. “Getting at something?” asked Gold.

“Of course. And I missed it. How stupid of me!” cried Saeed, “When they mentioned about another copy of the Agreement, I looked into some of the material and I found those photocopies sent by the Governor of Ceylon in 1944 of the Lease Agreement bears a typeset to tally with the Commonwealth Agreement signed nine years later in January ’53. In other words, they come from the same typewriter.”

“So?” uttered Officer Gold.

“Lease Agreement couldn’t be typed in Colombo if it was agreed at Gan. This script on the ‘nakal and asl’ in the photographs is from a different typewriter.”

“Is it typed at the High Commission?”

“I doubt. Typed correspondence from the High Commission is different.”

“The Commonwealth Agreement was signed at Queen’s Hotel in Kandy,” Defence Minister Rock told them.

“They faked it?” uttered Gold.

“It’s a fraud,” said Rock, “they probably took an advantage when HMS Mellow sank.”

“Lieutenant Nest Bert Gerard is a navy operative in Ceylon. This person we come not to know is Arthur Moyler. I will look into him,” assured Saeed.

“We have two pieces of evidence,” said Rock, “we can make an enquiry without mentioning that we found a lead. Why Gan Lease Agreement was typed on a typewriter that only exists in Ceylon!”

“Well, Minister, it is up to you,” Officer Gold said, “Get us word. Let’s go! Saeed, get in touch if you find anything new.”

They moved to go and the last person out of the door grunted, “Hoax! Mellow didn’t even wreck!”

Saeed was shocked to hear those words from Takhan and took his eyes away cynically to stop his gaze at the photographs lying on the table. He picked the photograph with the letters ‘HMS Mellow – J136 27^th March 1944’ that appear on a close-up image of a package. He stared down at it for a long moment when Mosanic spoke to disrupt, “Eh! They took your word for it. Are you sure about this typeset?”

“What?” mumbled Saeed.

“Typewriter!”

“Oh yes, you can detect a typewriter.”

Afterwards, the central government in Malé was angered that they called Dirk Wyse Dwire and directed to terminate hiring locals to work at Gan Island immediately until an agreement could be reached and without disclosing a fraudulence had been discovered. The government sent a delegation to Ceylon to meet the High Commissioner officially appealing to the British Government to act aptly on a matter of internal urgence.

Nevertheless, the British ignored these demands as the base was in full swing of development. Instead, they retaliated by increasing the wages of the local workers.

Leaders in Addu learned about these appeals and threats. Ever growing cry for freedom grew loud and promptly united by three southern atolls that included Fua Mulak and the Suvadives. Troubles escalated.

The central government stopped relocation. By and large relocation cost was borne by the government in Malé. Then they placed another demoralising request on RAF to fund the government police force in the region in order to curtail mounting troubles. The British ignored all these requests.

On the other hand, the Maldive Government denounced their inaction and demanded independence. In December 1958, the Maldive Government took over the liaison office in Gan and declared that Maranga House was government property. The liaison office was actually under the responsibility of the British High Commission in Ceylon established in collaboration with the Maldive Government and not an RAF fraternity.

The central government sent a team. Two based at Maranga House in Gan and the other two were cops. For some reason Shakir was spared from involvement.

At that point, the British Government compelled to reassess this disagreement called off Addu folks from working at the base. Costain Group contracted to build the runway and buildings called another large contingent of Pakistani workers.