Chapter 1562 The Man Behind the Prime Minister

The British Army currently had over eight hundred Chieftain tanks left, which had been retrofitted with Chobham reactive armor, and could be given to the Iraqi Army in a batch by switching to Challenger tanks, which would also optimize the British Army’s own equipment, but the hundreds of tanks that had been evened out would still not be enough for a war.

Army quantity is no less important than quality, especially in the face of the enemy is also not weak, the production line of Sheikh tanks has been replaced by the Challenger, and the UK will not give Iraq to reopen, so in the quantity of this aspect, Iraq also needs another seller. Alan Wilson also did not hide, a country can not be no think tank, it is not as good as he directly opened his mouth to sell good, indicating that a major country can solve this problem, the production capacity is enough to allow the Iraqi Army to complete the filling of the line.

Faisal II could not help but stand in awe of the British Cabinet Secretary in front of him with a new understanding, Allen Wilson in the foreign relations in the midst of the general play the sincere card, since the help will be envisioned in every aspect, this time passing through London Faisal II got this treatment.

“Purchases to England to be settled in dollars, and military sales to the East in pounds.” Alan Wilson came up with another suggestion, the Kingdom of Iraq, as a monarchy and pro-British country, does not have a hard and fast rule that oil exports should be settled in dollars, and eggs are not put in one basket.

The current foreign exchange reserves of the Kingdom of Iraq are divided into two parts, roughly equal in numbers, which is the usual approach in many countries, except Canada in the Americas.

The UK certainly does need dollars, but Alan Wilson feels that a certain major country should need pounds, there’s little reason for that, it’s just how he sees it.

Getting the pound should surely only be done by investing and trading where Britain still has influence, which is nothing more than the Middle East, East Africa and the Commonwealth countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Through the import of pounds to a large country, you can also borrow the scale of production of others to promote the development of the countries of the pound group, so he suggested so to Faisal II.

Britain has its own use for the dollar, and a major country has its own use for the pound, each has its own use without delaying the other.

After the matter of military procurement is finished, is the preparation for war, Alan Wilson suggested that the current year should be stockpiled list of war materials, a total of three pages to Faisal II.

Then there is the Navy’s battle plan and blockade action plan, pinch Iran’s stronger war potential than Iraq, which has been said before, to cut off foreign aid at sea, of course, Britain can help, anyway, and Iran’s relationship is already like this, but the UK can not blatantly pull the plug, blockade of other countries’ overseas transportation is in itself an act of war, the UK is going to do so, and what is the difference between entering the war?

Since not to participate in the war, this work should be Iraq itself to do, so he got up to the Eagle class this one during the Second World War, the only British heavy aircraft carrier warships sold to the Kingdom of Iraq.

The Iraqi navy has experience in the use of aircraft carriers, a Middle East blue water navy, and the Egyptian navy based in Zanzibar Sultanate, the use of experience is not a problem.

This a number of war preparations, so that Faisal II’s ambition to alleviate a lot of Alan Wilson each aspect of the proposal, on behalf of an input, although the United States has expressed full support, there are a number of material supplies, but that is said to be very general.

Which is like the London side of the list item by item, tell him what kind of cost to fight the war, but the good thing is that spending money is not the whole story, and finally entered the next item how to morally kidnap the Arab world.

“The shaking of the Arab world stems from the abolition of King Pahlavi, and the Kingdom of Egypt took in Pahlavi based on this mentality, and now most of the Arab world is still a monarchy. Since His Majesty the King is already prepared to raise his arms, he has to really capture the psychology of the monarchs and adopt the moral kidnapping approach, calling on the Arab brothers to contribute with their money and power, uh, it can be done, but Your Majesty don’t say that this is what I suggested.”

Alan Wilson coughed softly to ease the tense atmosphere twice, making Faisal II also couldn’t help but laugh out loud before continuing, “Since it’s all the Arab monarchies that are threatened by the output of the Iranian revolution, in terms of military spending Iraq should stand on its feet and let the Arab brotherly countries share some of the expenses.”

Faisal II couldn’t help but nod his head as well, and was about to say something when Allen Wilson then added, “Make sure you talk about this before war breaks out. That’s money, not a blank sheet of paper, just a verbal agreement doesn’t count, what if people back out afterward? So it has to be negotiated before, and countries like Saudi Arabia especially should be treated that way.”

“Especially since Saudi Arabia is a pro-American country, isn’t it? Sir.” Faisal II replied with a smirk, “Unlike the rest of us, Saudi Arabia is completely pro-American on one side of the Arab world. Much like the original Iran, Britain would like to see the Saudis unleash some ill-gotten gains.”

“To say nothing of the fact that I’ve always thought that Iraq was far more suited to be the leader of the Arab world than Saudi Arabia.”

Alan Wilson responded ambiguously, “Internal trouble, Iran is that external trouble, doesn’t mean Saudi Arabia isn’t that internal trouble, can’t fight one and let the other take advantage.”

From the oil crisis, Saudi Arabia by virtue of the world’s largest oil production, from the original small transparent status, become more and more water. In the current Arab world, it is not the same as before, as long as you say something, surely no one listens to the country.

Can’t fight or can’t fight, but through the wealth accumulated by the oil crisis, so that Saudi Arabia has gained the right to speak, not to say that and Egypt and Iraq ranked among the three giants of the Arab world, and Syria and Yemen, such as the traditional military powers are still equal to each other, but where Saudi Arabia’s army is a little stronger, the right to speak will be even greater.

Poor is in the Middle East war against Israel in the middle of nothing to contribute, although the launch of the oil crisis, but compared to the battlefield in the fight of several Arab countries, some of the bottom line.

The supernumerary minister, Alan Wilson, has informed Faisal II of the problems that may be encountered in this war, as well as the envisioned responses, and it is up to the king to make the decision whether or not he still wants to fight.

Honesty is a quality of supreme authority, and he would not have concealed the conversation between Margaret Thatcher and Faisal II, but it still shocked the female prime minister, “You actually suggested the sale of heavy aircraft carriers?”

“What’s in that? It is said that those who learn from me live like me. A service like the Navy has its own idiosyncrasies, and a nation that uses British warships will never defeat us. The Prime Minister’s spending on almost every aspect of housing, education, energy, employment, transport, foreign aid and industry has only been cut by four billion pounds a year. If the war had been fought, Iraq could have added to Britain’s fiscal balance for just over two years of departments, and we could have done a lot with that money; it would have been needed for layoff re-employment programs, and even the internal optimization of the British military.”

Alan Wilson didn’t mention the sale of a million apartments, as a total of two billion pounds back wasn’t nearly as much as the former.

The Eagle class aircraft carriers were, after all, built during the Second World War and certainly work today, being heavy weapons for ninety-nine percent of the countries in this world, but embarrassing for Britain.

Margaret Thatcher and the former Prime Minister if there is a difference, is never had an idea of military spending, but instead Alan Wilson repeatedly opposed to the government to go down on military spending Cabinet Secretary, this time ready to optimize Britain’s military power.

Mrs. Thatcher wanted to say something, Alan Wilson directly took out in the past ten years in the middle of the opposition to the reduction of military spending minutes, Mrs. Thatcher a look of that all right, said, “If if there is the right price of course, but to ensure that it can not become a threat to the United Kingdom.”

“I don’t want war to break out either, but the decision is in the hands of King Faisal, and can only do what it takes to steer the preparations in a direction favorable to Britain.” Since the Prime Minister wouldn’t read it, Alan Wilson brought the minutes back for filing, while declaring that he was a pacifist.

Mrs. Thatcher ignored all this going on, she had her own business to attend to, declaring that the reforms of the United States following the United Kingdom would not solve the problems of the United Kingdom itself, and that he would have to deal with the opposition within the Conservative Party first, especially since there was opposition within the party in the face of the pressure of public opinion on the delayed progress.

While the whole of Britain’s marveled at the grand spectacle of the Crown Prince’s wedding, Mrs. Thatcher’s first cabinet meeting after the wedding was faced with a siege of cabinet ministers.

Ian Gilmour, the Secretary of State for the Treasury, picked up on former Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s famous line: “No matter how tempting your strategy may be, you must always be concerned about its consequences” to deride Margaret Thatcher and remind the government of the urgent need to formulate a good political strategy rather than an economic program.

Francis Pym, the Defense Secretary, argued that the army of unemployed was the trigger for social unrest and that the government should not be concerned only with curbing high inflation.

Peter WALKER, the Agriculture Secretary, advocated going back to the old ways: stop raising taxes and solve the employment problem by expanding government investment.

Lord Hailsham, the Chancellor, simply used the historical examples of the Führer’s usurpation of power by taking advantage of Germany’s high unemployment and President Hoover’s austerity policies in the United States, which led to the decline of the Republican Party for thirty years, to sound alarmist.

Trade Minister John Nott derided the Treasury’s program as “at best the work of an imbecile”. Even the Home Secretary, William Whitelaw, who was a confidant of Margaret Thatcher, played the role of a fence-sitter at the Cabinet meeting.

The Employment Secretary, James Pryor, clashed head-on with Prime Minister Thatcher at the meeting over trade union reform.

Alan Wilson also participated in this meeting, directly prevented Frank as the permanent undersecretary of the Treasury to speak, his own stand on the position of Mrs. Thatcher spoke, “in a cabinet reshuffle has been imperative, the ruling party should not have such a wide range of differences, which will affect the implementation of policy.”

The words came out, the cabinet ministers’ fire immediately focused on the cabinet secretary general who opened his mouth, when Whitehall can interfere in the cabinet meeting?

The chaotic cabinet meeting, although the accusation was made by the cabinet secretary-general, but Mrs. Thatcher knew that it was directed at herself, angrily shouted, “This cabinet meeting ends here.”

The only two people left in the empty conference room were the Prime Minister and the Cabinet Secretary, and after a moment, Mrs. Thatcher said, in a tone of loyal non-absoluteness, “You’re right, there’s going to be a Cabinet reshuffle.”

“That’s true, but it’s not always going to be like this.” Alan Wilson, who stood firmly behind the Prime Minister, spoke reassuringly, “I heard that Galtieri visited the United States and talked quite well.”