‘I didn’t set the club up just as a business venture either,’ she went on with a passion. ‘Although there’s always that aspect, of course,’ she was forced to admit. ‘I mean, if you’re a businesswoman you’re not going to throw good money after bad just because you feel sorry for blokes, are you?’

‘Of course you’re not.’

‘It would have solved a lot of problems, that club,’ she said. ‘But there you go,’ a shrug of resignation, ‘it got knocked on the head after just one night. And all because of a couple of stitched-up farmers’ wives who didn’t like blacks, or so I’m led to believe. They put in a complaint, I was told.’

‘Yes, they most certainly did.’ He’d heard all this from Hank Henry, but he was enjoying hearing her version as well.

‘We’re a strange mob, we Aussies,’ Val said thoughtfully, appreciative of the Texan’s avid attention. ‘We like to pretend everyone’s equal here, but they’re not. Our blackfellas are treated like shit, always have been. We even had slave labour just like you Yanks, and not all that long ago either. “Blackbirding”, they called it. Pacific Islanders were kidnapped and brought here to work the Queensland sugar plantations. We grew fat on the labour of Kanakas for a good fifty years.’ She held up her glass by way of demonstration. ‘That’s where this comes from, Lyndon, the land of Bundy Rum.’ And she took another swig as if to emphasise the point.

‘So you see, we’re not really all that different, are we, your mob and mine,’ she went on. ‘We’ve been pissing on black people for years, the whole lot of us. And that’s exactly what’s happened with the boys of the 96th. At least that’s my opinion, for what it’s worth. Your blokes have been treating those young men appallingly. They’re good, honest boys, here to help us fight a war, and they’ve been treated like shit.’

Good, honest boys here to help us fight a war. Lyndon wondered whether Val knew of her own government’s initial reaction to Negro soldiers. He recalled his recent meeting with Roosevelt and Eisenhower, and Ike telling him about the White Australia policy. ‘When we first raised the prospect of sending Negro troops they said they didn’t want them,’ Ike had said. And he recalled Roosevelt’s reply when he’d voiced his own amazement and enquired of the outcome. ‘We said if no black troops, then no US troops,’ Roosevelt had barked. ‘Period!’

No, Lyndon thought, Val Callahan wouldn’t know that. Few civilians would. Governments don’t share their secrets with the public they represent, and certainly not in times of war.