Chapter 151: Trying a Partition

Interested? What kind of interest? Alan Wilson thought so in his heart, the history of the Dutch-Indian War, Britain was involved in the war, it seems that this decision has not been affected, the British army is still going to participate in the war.

Sure enough, Edward Bridges directly said, “Dutch East India and British Malaya are adjacent to each other, once the wave of independence breaks out, it will certainly have an impact on the stability of the British colonies, so the Cabinet’s decision is to first land on Java before the Dutch army reaches it, and maintain the situation to wait for the Dutch army to arrive, the same way as in Vietnam to wait for the French army to arrive. ”

Alan Wilson exclaimed, what does it mean to be the big brother of a colonial empire, at this time the British Empire was it. It seems that in 1945 this time period, Britain is still trying to pull these colonial empires a hand.

But then a step contraction evolved into a step contraction, to the time when Wilson came to power as prime minister, almost almost lost the colonies, considering the independence of the Dutch East India, may have an impact on Malaya, Britain decided to help the main force has not yet arrived in the Netherlands to play the first.

Helping France to stabilize Vietnam and the Netherlands to stabilize Indonesia, Alan Wilson recalled history as if the British Empire had not been so sincere for hundreds of years.

After the war, Britain did not fail to recognize the danger of a possible exit, and likewise did not fail to make efforts, just because the British Empire is the largest colonial empire in the plate, it is inevitable that when the contraction of the time to look forward and backward not decisive enough.

Sometimes the opportunity is only once, missed, never again, although after two world wars, Europe suffered serious injuries, next to the United States and the Soviet Union eyeing, but for the vast third world, is still untouchable behemoth, depending on whether you can make sober trade-offs.

Alan Wilson thought so when Edward Bridges continued to narrate, “the cabinet side also decided a thing, within a year will be trusteeship of Italian Somalia independence, and France to discuss this matter, after all, a part of Somalia is still in the hands of the French, we have to obtain the understanding of the French.”

Italy had invaded British Somaliland and Abyssinia during the Second World War, merging them with Italian Somaliland and Eritrea, also an Italian colony, to form Italian East Africa.

At the end of the Second World War, the former Italian Somaliland was decided to be temporarily placed under British trusteeship.

Now Italian Somalia is in British hands and as for the part that belongs to France, it is actually a place called Djibouti.

First of all, the luck component, Djibouti is located in the Horn of Africa, the west coast of the Gulf of Aden, an area of only 2.3 million square kilometers, from the geographic point of view, Djibouti is just in the node connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, strangled in and out of the southern end of the Suez Canal, an international strategic road. Most passing ships are resupplied in Djibouti.

“Independence? Isn’t that too hasty? The local resistance is no match for our forces.” Alexander Cadogan was a little anxious at the sound of it, “There is absolutely no need for this.”

“It is to make Italian Somalia independent, not British Somalia in our hands. This will split the Somali peninsula along the way, and when British Somalia becomes independent, it will logically become two countries.”

Edward Bridges corrected unhurriedly, making clear the cabinet’s position on Greater Somalia as a whole, not to make the whole of Somalia independent, but to make the part of Italian Somalia that was there before, the first to become an independent country.

“Honorable Cabinet Secretary, I must say that the decision of the Cabinet meeting was very visionary. We can say without hesitation that once Greater Somalia becomes independent so soon, it may generate some unrealistic ideas, as is currently the case with a group of native elites in British India, and such dangerous ideas should be curbed.”

Upon hearing this, Alan Wilson immediately gave a bardic rainbow fart that the move was very visionary, while also stating that he had a minuscule amount of shallow opinion on the Somalia issue.

“Lo and behold, our energetic Alan, has an opinion on the matter as well.” Reaching for a glass of whiskey, Edward Bridges nodded with a light smile, “It’s about the partition of Somalia, allowing the independence of Italian Somalia.”

“Including, but not limited to, the Somali issue.” Alan Wilson was flattered to receive the Cabinet Secretary’s glass of wine, did not expect to have his own share, eloquently said, “The partition of Somalia is definitely a good idea, which may solve a great burden on the British Empire, we can let Italian Somalia first become independent, and in the process, of course, we must allow the local British civil servants to get the share that belongs to the British Empire, and now The country needs an injection of money, and I’m sure the local tribal chiefs, are very much cause to buy the dominion of a piece of territory for some paltry amount of metal.”

“Very well.” Edward Bridges nodded gratefully, “The partition program was inspired by chance when I recently saw, the material coming out of British India from Arizona and Nehru, it seems that I did not make the decision …… oh, wrong advice.”

“Decision making is all about politicians, we are just loyal implementers, naturally mistakes cannot fall on us. And politicians are chosen by the citizens, if politicians make mistakes, doesn’t that mean that the citizens of the great British Empire make mistakes again? So there is no mistake on the part of all.”

Alexander Cadogan spoke eloquently, showing that civil servants have never been a group that makes mistakes, and when they do, it is surely the democratically elected politicians who are at fault.

“In the midst of the process of freeing any Somali from independence, if the Italian Somalis are unable to develop for their own reasons and live worse than they did before independence, there is surely no responsibility of the British Empire in this matter, and even if there is responsibility, it is the Italians who are responsible for it. Moreover, Haile Selassie I, that Emperor of Ethiopia, seems to be tenable if he wants the Italian Somalia, which independence will only bring, to bear the losses caused by the plundering of Ethiopia in the midst of the Italian war.”

Does the Somalia thing have anything to do with Ethiopia? Of course it does, the Ogaden is part of the Somali region in eastern Ethiopia, an area of about 180,000 square kilometers, also known as Ethiopian Somalia.

Once Italian Somalia becomes independent and does some stirring, war will probably break out, especially since Haile Selassie I can be said to have great prestige in Africa after his restoration in Ethiopia.

Like many resistance forces in the midst of World War II, Haile Selassie I likewise chose to be in exile in London after Ethiopia was occupied by Italy, and Britain certainly has that influence over Ethiopia.

“Once Ethiopia invaded after independence from Italian Somalia, on a moral level, the British Empire could be burdened.” Listening to Alan Wilson’s words from beginning to end, Edward Bridges said meaningfully, “Although the war between these two African countries has nothing to do with the British Empire essentially.”

“The British Empire has given the Somalis as much freedom as possible, and one must always learn to live independently. We have taught the Africans what we can, and if we get into a war, it is only the Africans’ own problem.” Alexander Cadogan followed suit, expressing consistency with the cabinet secretary.

Then the natural progression of what happened after Somalia was that Italian Somalia became independent and then was impoverished by Italian exploitation and caused invasions from neighboring countries. British Somalia was like living in paradise in comparison.

Even if in the distant future, British Somalia becomes independent, British Somalia will not merge with Italian Somalia because of the emergence of mature local decision makers under British administration.

At the end of the report, Edward Bridges suddenly seemed to remember something and opened his mouth, “News has come from the Far East about the handling of the Japanese navy, and both the British Empire and our close ally, the Americans, have agreed on one thing, to destroy and blow up and sink all Japanese naval warships above the cruiser level! All unfinished warships and submarines are to be cut up by electric welding.”

“That’s a shame, many of the warships are still considered powerful.” Alan Wilson said with a look of regret.

“This matter is the final decision of Britain and America!” Alexander Cadogan saw Allen Wilson’s reaction and added, “Allen, just think about it. Those remaining cruisers, battleships and aircraft carriers, if retained, are to be distributed according to the program on the European side. The remaining battleships and carriers of the Japanese Navy, in case the Soviets want them, will we give them or not? That’s why the large warships must all be destroyed so that the Soviets have nothing to say.”

“Keeping only some thousand-ton destroyers is no threat to the Royal Navy. So it’s better to destroy all the large warships of the Japanese Navy! The rest of the rags can make a magnanimous gesture and let the Soviet Union as well as China pick whatever they want, and the British Empire will never object.”

“Honorable Sir Edward, Sir Alexander.” Alan Wilson’s mind moved, not suddenly wanting to have an internationalist seizure and fight for something for the Soviet Union and one of the Asian powers, but thinking of the unfinished submarine in Hamburg, which he wanted to sell to Junagadh Tuban.

After saying it, Edward Bridges’ face changed, selling the completed German submarine was no small matter, but the Hamburg shipyard was a British-occupied wealth, and Britain had the right to deal with the matter independently, and other countries could not interfere.

“Alan, Junagadh Tubang you say? Is it rich?” Seeing that Edward Bridges didn’t say anything, Alexander Cadogan understood and opened his mouth to ask a question.

“It is not a question of being merely rich or not, it is of the rare kind.” Alan Wilson gave a detailed description of Junagadh Tupa, “Junagadh Tupa’s strength is firmly in the top three among the Tupas of British India.”