British Prime Minister

The British Prime Minister is the senior political authority who transforms the search for a possible assassin of Charles de Gaulle from a limited request for police assistance into a full-scale British investigation. Though physically exhausted and nearing the end of his premiership, he gives Bryn Thomas sweeping powers, insists on cooperation with the French authorities, and makes clear that a British passport will not shield a credible suspect from detention. His intervention joins personal loyalty to political resolve, while the unresolved lead concerning Charles Calthrop shows how much of the investigation still rests on uncertain information.

Identity and Introduction

The Prime Minister is not named in the account. He first enters the investigation through the request for assistance that a senior French detective had telephoned from Paris. When he summons Thomas, he already understands that the French are seeking help identifying a professional assassin who may have been hired by the OAS to act in France. Thomas clarifies that the French had asked for possible identities without explaining the reason. The Prime Minister draws the implication himself: if the authorities want to identify such a man, they fear he may be intended to kill Charles de Gaulle.

His appearance makes the meeting feel less like the arrival of an untouched source of power than the intervention of a man under strain. Thomas sees drooping, tired eyes and an expression marked by exhaustion and sadness. The narration connects this weariness to the recent political scandal that had nearly brought down the Government, as well as to the burdens of office. An operation is approaching, and retirement from leadership seems close. The Prime Minister is therefore presented at a moment when private frailty and public authority coexist: the body appears spent, but the decisions he makes are decisive.

The Order to Investigate

The Prime Minister does not treat the French request as a routine exchange between police forces. He identifies the likely stakes before Thomas can offer more than an inference, and recalls that Charles de Gaulle has already survived six attempts on his life. The threat is not abstract to him. He tells Thomas that de Gaulle is his friend and that anyone who presents a danger to him, including a person operating from Britain, must be stopped.

His instructions give the inquiry unprecedented reach. Thomas is to receive whatever facilities his superiors can provide, without limits on expenditure or manpower. He may recruit anyone he considers useful and consult official documents held by any department that could advance the search. The order also requires unreserved cooperation with the French authorities. These are not merely resources for Thomas to request as the investigation develops: the Prime Minister directs that they be made available and personally assumes responsibility for authorizing them.

The order is conditional as well as expansive. Thomas may stop investigating only when he is absolutely satisfied that the sought-after man is neither a British subject nor operating from British shores. If Charles Calthrop, or any other British passport holder, can reasonably be considered the suspect, Thomas is to detain him. National jurisdiction becomes a test the inquiry must clear, not a reason to leave a possible British connection unexplored.

Political Suspicion and the Calthrop Lead

The Prime Minister also warns Thomas that some people holding positions of authority in Britain would not be troubled if the investigation proceeded without energy. Thomas is genuinely surprised and says he knew nothing of this. The Prime Minister does not identify the people or explain how the information reached him; Thomas can only suspect that it relates to the remark. The exchange introduces a domestic political obstacle without resolving its source. The Prime Minister's response is to counter possible obstruction with personal orders, broad access, and an explicit demand for vigour.

That resolve does not make him careless about evidence. When Thomas reports that the name Charles Calthrop has emerged from an old rumour, the Prime Minister cautions against wasting the French investigators’ time on an unsubstantiated claim dating back two and a half years. He tells Thomas to continue the search, but to alert the French and track Calthrop down wherever he is only once the available information gives the rumour substance. The instruction balances urgency against the risk of allowing an old, unverified report to harden into a false lead.

Thomas’s account of the rumour concerns whether Calthrop was involved in the affair of General Trujillo, and whether the man they have been trying to trace is the same Calthrop who was in the Caribbean in January 1961. The Prime Minister’s answer keeps both possibilities open: if the identities do not match, the investigators are back to the beginning. Rather than treating suspicion as proof, he sets a threshold for action while insisting that the inquiry continue. He then asks for Mr Harrowby, and the authorities Thomas needs are to be issued at once.

Character and Narrative Role

The Prime Minister’s intervention makes the British investigation an institutional counterpart to the French effort. In France, Claude Lebel receives authority to organize his own office, obtain information, and mobilize supporting services; in Britain, the Prime Minister creates comparable latitude for Thomas, but adds the weight of direct political command. The investigation’s reach depends not on a single detective’s ingenuity alone, but on officials willing to release records, personnel, and jurisdictional powers.

His character is defined less by sustained participation in the hunt than by the consequences of one concentrated meeting. He is tired, conscious of a changing political world, and near the end of his leadership, yet he acts with clarity when the possibility of an assassin on British soil is put to him. His friendship with Charles de Gaulle gives the danger a personal dimension; his warning about unhelpful figures in authority gives it a political one. The resulting orders carry both concerns into the police work, while his caution over Charles Calthrop prevents determination from being mistaken for certainty.