At first, everything culminated in the word “North”; but almost
immediately the whirling traffic on the south going rails had to be
considered also, as it grew in volume. How he managed it, I do not
know; but he seemed to have some sub-conscious faculty of drawing a
balance-sheet of the traffic at any moment; so that he knew if he was
sending too much North or too little South. Personally, I imagine
that he owed his success to a power akin to that of the professional
chess-player who can play a dozen blindfold games at one time.
Everybody has the faculty of mental visualisation developed in a
greater or less degree; but in Grogan, as far as traffic was concerned,
it seems to have attained supernormal proportions. I believe that he
actually “saw” in his mind the whole of England covered with his trains
and motor fleets and that he had by some means established time-scales
which enabled him to calculate the moments at which any train or fleet
would pass a series of given points. It was, of course, an immensely
more difficult affair than blindfold chess-playing; but I think it
clearly depended upon cognate processes.
Congleton, the Shipping Director, had a much easier task. For him there
was no trouble of blocked rails or interleaving traffic. His main
difficulty arose from berthing accommodation, which was a comparatively
simple affair. Most of the food-supplies were transferred North on
board ship; and a certain amount of the shifting of population was also
done in this way, especially the removal of the Glasgow inhabitants.
I can only give the merest outline of these great operations; for
the details are too intricate to be described here. Nordenholt’s
first step was to commandeer most of the public halls in the country,
which were then fitted up with partitions, etc., in order to convert
them into temporary dwelling-places for families. Thereafter, he
began to move his Nitrogen Volunteers into the Clyde Valley step by
step; and simultaneously, under the Billeting Act, he evicted the
local population to make room for his men. There was a considerable
outcry; and at times the military had to be employed to persuade the
reluctant to move out of their homes; but after the first few cases of
obstruction had been dealt with firmly, the people recognised that it
was useless to protest. Edinburgh was also treated in the same way; for
Nordenholt had planned to occupy a belt of country running from coast
to coast. He had to find room for a population of five millions; and it
was evidently going to be a difficult matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account