Chapter 150 A Meeting of Unity

“When Goa belonged to Portugal, not even the Mughal Empire had been established, and the Indians had no reason to, and could not, take him from Portugal.” Olivia was righteously indignant, while stating, “I trust the British Empire to take the lead in this matter and defend the just rights of the civilized world of Europe.”

This man was probably unaware that the opinion in London of giving up British India was now gradually gaining the upper hand. Of course Alan Wilson can not tell the other side, just said, “long before the establishment of the Mughal Empire, Goa has belonged to Portugal, today present in the countries are aware of this fact, which we all recognize. But when it comes to the Indians specifically well, the issue is a bit more complicated, especially for the Indians, many Indians say that India has existed since ancient times, and that Goa may not have been a part of the Mughal Empire, but it may have been a part of the Peacock Dynasty.”

“What kind of bullshit logic is that?” Olivia looked indignant and disgruntled, “Is there any more shameless logic than this, what those dirty South Asians think.”

Allen Wilson silence, this is just the Indian version of since ancient times. Since time immemorial this kind of argument has never been self-talking, used to persuade their own people to support. It has to be said no matter how bullshit it is!

Generally are intercepting the greatest interests of the time point for exposition, so the Chinese version is from 1820 of the largest version of the map began, although the Han and Tang dynasties in the western region is also under the control of the central government, but seldom proclaimed, in fact, China also knows to take one or two thousand years ago to proclaim too much bullshit.

But India this kind of Indian national conditions in line with the Indian since ancient times, it is a little too shameless, almost equivalent to the current Iran, taking the Achaemenid dynasty shows that Iran should rule the Middle East.

But it seems that during the Pahlavi dynasty, Iran did focus on promoting the glory of the Achaemenid dynasty, showing that it wasn’t a set of numbers with the Arabs, and presenting itself as America’s Middle East proxy.

Leaving aside the Iranian issue, Olivia’s strict statement of Portugal’s position on Goa was useful at this Brussels conference, of course it was, and after making her position clear, the delegates of various countries showed solidarity with Portugal’s claim, expressing strong support for Portugal’s claim to the Overseas Territories.

In the final analysis, this is not only Portugal a country to face the problem, this is the current time, participate in the meeting of all the countries are faced with the problem, the Netherlands, Belgium have expressed support for Portugal, even Spain has also expressed the position, all eyes are focused on the British and French representatives.

Ouch! People’s hearts available ah! Allen Wilson understands in his heart, in the colonial issue is the most united issue of the conference participating countries, but did not expect such a smooth start.

For a time Alan Wilson has a kind of hanging six countries seal of feeling, first put to death the Soviet Union, and then destroy the American empire, the British Empire will continue to be great, leading the world for a hundred years of vision.

However, to give support to Portugal this matter, has exceeded the authority of Alan Wilson, he could not give Olivia want to support, after the meeting was adjourned and the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cabinet Secretary, to get the Foreign Secretary and even the Prime Minister’s first permission to do so.

What British India needs now is stability, and anything that destabilizes British India must be done with caution.

“As for Portugal’s claim, we understand it morally, and the support of the countries has been gratifying.” Alan Wilson, as if immersed under the banner of a united Europe, said wistfully, “We cannot go down the same old path of the past, after the two world wars, there is a long overdue unity in Europe, and with this unity, I believe that at this critical point in history, we will be able to find a way out for Europe to continue to prosper.”

Warm applause sounded, Allen Wilson took a deep breath, finally barely passed the test, avoiding a statement on Portuguese Goa, although the issue of Goa may still be mentioned, but after this meeting, there will be time to discuss, you can take out a response program.

Alan Wilson took the initiative to greet the Portuguese representative Olivia, but almost did not round back, barely after passing. Finally ushered in the savior of the Dutch.

Dutch representative George Almand actually want to be the first to speak, just did not expect the British representative of a polite, was the Portuguese representative seized the opportunity to lead out of the Goa problem, now it is not easy Goa problem is over, they immediately can not wait to stand up.

Than other countries, the Netherlands has the greatest expectations for this meeting, because Japan has not formally surrendered, the Dutch East Indies Indonesians have declared independence, and now the Netherlands urgently need the support of the countries of the Brussels Conference. At the same time, troops were mobilized to go to Dutch East India to suppress it.

Sukarno and Hatta signed the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the establishment of the Republic of Indonesia, and the news had already reached Europe. The Dutch delegate, George Almand, on the one hand attacked Japan, which had become a defeated country, and on the other said that Holland would never sit idly by and would guarantee the sovereignty of its sacred territory.

Sovereignty? Alan Wilson almost laughed out loud, he was under the impression that European countries talked about human rights. In this era, it turns out that European countries are also talking about sovereignty, sovereignty is sacrosanct.

After George Almand spoke, it was the Belgian representative who spoke in the capacity of the host, appealed for some unity, and then introduced the situation of the Belgian Congo, which is also the only important Belgian colony.

Belgium’s colonial path was particularly late, with Belgian colonization of the Congo beginning at the end of the nineteenth century. King Leopold II of Belgium tried to convince the Belgian government to support the colonial expansion of the Congo at that time.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the violence of the local indigenous people led to many revolts due to the violent exploitation by the foreign colonizers. The Belgian government then established formal colonial rule and effective control over the Congo region.

Came late exploitation ruthless, Allen Wilson than the Belgian Congo is the impression of Belgium’s chopping hand punishment, in the Belgian Congo created more than 10 million disabled people, visible the more small countries, once there is a chance of chicken and egg, the more will not leave any room for error.

However, the Belgian government has stripped the king of his power of life and death over the Congo, the chopping of hands has been decades ago, the colonial evil is being diluted by time. Behind the independence of the Congo is the shadow of the United States and the Soviet Union, just for the fight for the Congo, it is clear that the United States is skillful.

And now the British Empire’s inner thought is that the Brussels conference to participate in the six countries, can clarify their own scope of operation, and to a certain extent to give the other can take care of the friendly allies, as much as possible to support.

Spanish conference delegates opened their mouths to speak, the attitude is much more modest, for the ambiguous relationship between General Franco and Germany and Italy during the war, although the meeting of British and French delegates did not mention, but the Spanish delegates know very well, not to mention does not mean that things have not happened.

On the contrary, Britain and France just feel that there is no need to attack now, so the Spanish representative first expressed the goodwill of Britain and France, Spain is now indeed on thin ice, not to mention the attitude of Britain and France, the United States have the heart to take out Spain.

And America’s rival, the Soviet Union, hated to eat Spain as much as the United States.

Spain even almost joined the Axis in World War II. In order to draw Spain in, the U.S. satisfied Spain’s appetite and gave Spain enormous aid in exchange for Spain’s neutrality.

However, after World War II, the United States naturally could not swallow this bad anger and had to settle scores with Spain in the fall, ready to clean up Spain.

There was also a personal reason, the Catholic faction in Spain, not only hostile to the Republicans, but also hostile to the Protestants, which made the Protestant-dominated U.S., especially President Harry S. Truman, furious.

As for the Soviet Union, Spain sent tens of thousands of volunteers during the war to form the Blue Division, Spanish soldiers dressed in German uniforms to follow the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The Blue Division were all elite soldiers selected from the Spanish army, they were all combat experienced veterans, and the Soviet Union was a blood feud.

The reason why Spain participated in the Brussels Conference this time is that the United Kingdom vigorously facilitated, France is still closed and Spain’s border, the history of the Marshall Plan, the European aid countries, there is no Spain, the same Spain in the United Nations, the Soviet Union in the United Nations, once aroused fierce opposition.

If it were not for the Brussels Conference, which was to gather the few remaining colonial powers in Europe, Britain would not have been kind to Spain.

Franco was simply a predecessor of Cardazzo, who had upset Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France all at the same time in 1945, and surprisingly had come out all in one piece, preserving Spain’s interests.

After the representatives of the various countries had expounded their views on the protection of the interests of the colonies, the time had come to the afternoon.

On the afternoon of September 14th, the talks on the Brussels conference, referring to the economic reconstruction of Europe, appeared in the Belgian newspapers and soon caused reprints in the participating countries.

In the eyes of the citizens of the countries in the conference, this was a meeting of Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Portugal and Spain, discussing post-war reconstruction and economic recovery.

But the representatives of the countries in the conference site, the whole talk is colonial, involving post-war reconstruction and economic recovery in the first day of the meeting, limited to the British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, at the beginning of the meeting of the speech.

After the first day of the conference, which gave the countries of the conference some idea of each other’s attitudes, Alan Wilson left immediately after the end to find Alexander Cadogan to report back, and together the two relayed the proceedings to Cabinet Secretary Edward Bridges, and clarified their replies to quite a few questions on the subject.

“We’ve just gotten word that the Soviet Union has announced the start of post-war reconstruction.” Edward Bridges spoke slowly, “It seems to be the same goal as us, to recover from the trauma of the war first.”

After saying this for no apparent reason, Edward Bridges added, “The Prime Minister has already said that he has expressed great interest in the Dutch military operations.”