A CONFERENCE OF THE POWERS by RUDYARD KIPLING

From 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales by Jon Hagadorn

May 3, 2026 · 33 min

About this episode

The episode narrates a chance meeting between an English writer and three young army officers, leading to discussions about their experiences in warfare.

The story (Summary by The Kipling Society) at 1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales "I" tells this story, in which his rooms in London (Kipling lived during this time in rooms in Villiers Street, next to Charing Cross Station) are the setting for a chance meeting of an eminent English writer Eustace Cleever (or 'Cleaver' in the footnote to "Slaves of the Lamp — II" in Stalky & Co. ) with three young army officers just arrived on leave in London from service in India and Burma, 'Tick' Boileau, Nevin, and 'The Infant', an impressively large young man. The three have read and deeply admired Cleever's book, set in the Infant's county ( 'all my people live there' ), and their enthusiastic questioning leads Cleever to drop from the manner of 'the pundit caste' into colloquial speech — and to realize that, much as he knows of the English countryside and country people, he knows nothing of the Subaltern of the Line. As they begin to tell him a little, he remarks: 'the whole idea of warfare seems so foreign and unnatural, so essentially vulgar . . . ' "I" explains quickly that all three have 'seen service' which leads to Cleever's demanding that they tell him about it. Whereupon the Infant…

People in this episode

Host: Jon Hagadorn

Topics covered

warfare
literature
cultural exchange
British army
storytelling

Keywords

Rudyard Kipling
Eustace Cleever
Burmese jungle
warfare
literature

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Slaves of the Lamp — II, Stalky & Co.

Places: London, Burmese jungle