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The Kidnapped Prime Minister -
a Hercule Poirot Short Story (Hercule Poirot),
by Agatha Christie.
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This seems the second work of the author set in time period circa WWI .
"One evening after dinner — I will not particularize the date: it suffices to say that it was at the time when “Peace by negotiation” was the parrot-cry of England’s enemies — my friend and I were sitting in his rooms. After being invalided out of the Army I had been given a recruiting job, and it had become my custom to drop in on Poirot in the evenings after dinner and talk with him of any cases of interest that he might have on hand.
"I was attempting to discuss with him the sensational news of that day — no less than on attempted assassination of Mr. David MacAdam. England’s Prime Minister. The account in the papers had evidently been carefully censored. No details were given, save that the Prime Minister had had a marvellous escape, the bullet just grazing his cheek. I considered that our police must have been shamefully careless for such on outrage to be possible. I could well understand that the German agents in England would be willing to risk much for such on achievement. “Fighting Mac,” as his own party had nicknamed him, had strenuously and unequivocally combated the Pacifist influence which was becoming so prevalent.
"He was more than England’s Prime Minister — he was England; and to have removed him from his sphere of influence would have been a crushing and paralysing blow to Britain."
Churchill? The description fits, but not the timing, an allied conference towards the end of WWI.
As to the mystery,
" ... Now for Daniels. There is not much against him, except the fact that nothing is known of his antecedents, and that he speaks too many languages for a good Englishman! (Pardon me, mon ami, but, as linguists, you are deplorable!)"
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May 07, 2021 - May 07, 2021.
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