Chapter 286 London Replies

“From the very beginning, when Alan came back from British India that time, he bluntly said that if British India became independent, it would be better to sell it as a package, and the only concern was that the country could not unify a consensus on British India.” Edward Bridges lit a cigar, lightly exhaled and continued, “Of course this is an old problem in our country, the ruling party and the opposition party will never form a consensus without something big happening.”

“Maybe that’s democracy.” Norman Brooke gave a couple of dry chuckles, “I just wonder what the Prime Minister would think of it, so far the great Prime Minister isn’t as much of a pedantic socialist as people think he is.”

“At least not entirely.” Edward Bridges duly added, “Certain aspects are still debatable.”

“Well, is the idea to be a little more direct and conciliatory, or do we get permission to acquiesce to Alan’s testing the waters at the edges?” Norman Brooke muttered to himself with a hard look on his face, “That way of handling it is a little more certain.”

“I can see that it can be straightened out.” Edward Bridges thought for a moment, “Our Prime Minister is going crazy thinking about money.”

“That’s what I wonder about, there’s a large amount of money that I don’t know where it’s going, apart from the NHS.” Norman Brooke was full of wonder when he spoke on the subject, “I don’t want to accuse the Prime Minister of being financially opaque, but where has this money gone?”

“Norman, don’t concern yourself with this.” Edward Bridges watched the other party lust for words, and finally cautioned Norman Brooke not to delve into it.

The Alloy Tube Program was currently still in top secret, along with the Prime Minister there were no more than five people who knew about it, Edward Bridges happened to be one of them, Norman Brooke, although he was already regarded as the successor of the Cabinet Secretary, was also among the others who did not know about it.

“Honestly, if this gets done, I can see Alan being knighted for his merits.”

In order to prevent his successor from thinking too much, Edward Bridges brought out Alan Wilson as a shield; knighthoods were a favorite discussion among civil servants, and Norman Brooke was no exception.

“If his father hadn’t lived to see the end of the war, a knighthood would have been long overdue. But it would have been very inappropriate age-wise if it had been placed on Alan.” Norman Brooke said from a completely neutral point of view, “Of course, I’m not being greedy, the credit belongs to all civil servants if we get out of the war quagmire as soon as possible, and Alan’s telegram envisioned it that way.”

“Including, but not limited to, you and I ……,” Edward Bridges said with a wry smile.

“Exactly. Glory to all the gentlemen of Whitehall.” Norman Brooke paused at this and said, “How on earth are we going to do that!”

“Sometimes it’s possible to share some of the glory with the political parties, how does the Prime Minister’s political advisor lean? Not pedantic socialists are they? I to really don’t have a lot of contacts.” Edward Bridges nagged to himself.

Compared to the iffy Cabinet Secretary, Norman Brooke was very close to the politicians, and even once drew a lot of criticism for being too familiar.

While Edward Bridges was not too clear on this issue, Norman Brooke knew a lot about it, “I know him to a certain extent, a gentleman with a flexible moral bottom line.”

“Very well then.” Edward Bridges, in a good mood, downed the rest of his whisky in one gulp, rose with a flourish, and departed under the reverent gaze of the Whitehall civil servants dining in the dining-room.

This does not delay everyone, and afterward in the same reverent gaze to eyewitness Norman Brooke again, Whitehall civil servants have to pay attention to so many points, the leaders, although there are differences, but all in order to advance the work.

The reason for the disagreement is that the leaders are in different positions and have different work priorities. We should fully understand the intentions of the leaders and try to come up with a proposal that takes them into account.

If one of them is the immediate leader, the views of the immediate leader should be followed first.

We can work when one leader has made a request and the others have not yet done so, so that there will not be any disagreement.

If the matter is not urgent, it can also be postponed until all the leaders have harmonized their views, so that work can be carried out.

But when it comes to special events, Whitehall is expected to be efficient and responsible, and to remove any possible threats.

National events require the prime minister and ministers to make decisions, but everyone naturally has a way of having the country’s decisions overlap with their own expectations.

In fact, Prime Minister Adderley’s biggest problem was money, which was now simply a known thing in Whitehall, as evidenced by the Treasury Secretary’s bitter, stinking face on a daily basis.

Edward Bridges and Norman Brooke, on the other hand, each used their own methods, with Edward Bridges calling a meeting of Cabinet Secretaries to discuss the current financial problems.

The financial problems had always existed, it was just that now a meeting was needed to focus on them.

And Norman Brooke’s approach is to pull in the political adviser to Prime Minister Aidley by dredging up the relationship, although the political adviser belongs to the party and is not a civil servant, but the heart of the pursuit of progress is the same, today’s political adviser, it may not not be tomorrow’s prime minister, we must know that the current Prime Minister Aidley, but also used to do the former prime minister’s private political secretary.

The precedent is secure in 10 Downing Street, will not allow the later to follow suit?

Moreover, this matter of political advisers to bear the risk, far from being comparable to Whitehall, failure will not lose anything, success is likely to rise in the Labor Party, why not do it?

This time Norman Brooke and the ruling party has been too close relationship, then became the key to open the door of convenience, without much effort, let the other side agreed to help.

It was always harder to do the real thing than to wipe one’s ass, and if Alan Wilson had been the one to stir up trouble, Edward Bridges would have simply forged a report to the Prime Minister and filed the correspondence so that no one could find it.

Among the telegrams sent back to New Delhi, Edward Bridges, as Cabinet Secretary, responded by saying, “The train is also independent, but as long as you lay the track, it can only follow the established track.”

This sentence is very philosophical, Alan Wilson read it several times, probably this means, political parties are trains, but civil servants are the tracks, only the two are compatible to ensure smooth progress, really if you tear is the end of the car destroyed.

“Why can’t we just draw the curtains, shake our bodies and pretend the train is still running?” Alan Wilson thought of a famous Soviet joke, self-hatred is just a figure of fun, really hard to black Soviets.

Of course, the telegram also mentioned confidentiality, and that the current Commissioner of British India, Sir Barron, for the time being, there is no need to know about this matter, left to Alan Wilson to handle independently.

When there is a result, the cabinet will take the initiative to notify Sir Barron, the credit naturally also have his share.

Allen Wilson in a good mood, which even Joan Crawford felt, after all, the two have few friends in British India, always looking for someone to talk to, so and this young assistant commissioner to get along quite well.

If this relative isolation had lasted for a few months, there was no doubt that both men would have fallen in love with this man, and a love for each other would have existed over time. Whoever made this apartment where the two lived was familiar with Allen Wilson.

“It seems like today after work, the mood has become much better, what appeared to make you so happy.” Hedy Lamarr first opened her mouth to ask, and Joan Crawford on the side also had a face of curiosity.

Domestic matters naturally can’t be said to the two Americans, Allen Wilson opened his mouth to tease the two actresses and said, “I had a dream yesterday that I was ruling the world.”

“There’s everything in the dream.” Joan Crawford couldn’t hold back her laughter and opened her mouth to strike out without mercy.

“That’s a quote from your country’s president, Harry Truman, forgot to tell you one.” Before Hedy Lamarr could join in, Allen Wilson breezily opened his mouth to respond, “I was at the Potsdam Conference, and a lot of interesting things happened then.”

“Oh, yeah!” Hedy Lamarr and Joan Crawford’s eyes lit up at the same time, American politicians might not be as mind-blowingly impressive as the top monopoly capitalists, but to the two actresses, they were still people to look up to.

“Oh, you guys still like to pry into this kind of thing?” Alan Wilson skimmed his head and looked at the flower garden not far away.

The gardener was turning over the soil of the new flower garden, which stood close to the dovecote next to the gate. He was a mentally slow and foolish young Indian, a man who had led a quiet life and whose tongue was so large that it could not even hold his mouth.

He covered his face with his hands, gave Allen Wilson a deep, closed-handed salute, and then raised his shovel again, and shoveled vigorously and awkwardly, one at a time, into the dry earth, his delicate muscles twitching.

Although there were no Indians living in New Delhi, there had to be Indians working, and you couldn’t let the ladies and gentlemen of the British Empire do the grunt work, could you.

In the two female stars, Alan Wilson only opened his mouth to say some interesting things about the Potsdam Conference triumvirate, the beauty of the current, about how Prime Minister Churchill became Mr. Churchill, to continue to stay in the Potsdam Conference in the capacity of an adviser, but also become his tool to pull close and two people.

Hedy Lamarr and Joan Crawford laughed and laughed, and just then Bette Davis, full of complaints, appeared around the corner, just in time to see the scene.

“Bette, come and sit down.” Hedy Lamarr took the initiative to greet her, inviting Bette Davis, who was rarely seen these days, to come over.

Bette Davis shook her head slightly at the sight of Joan Crawford being there as well, and headed toward her apartment.

“What’s wrong with her?” Hedy Lamarr was a little confused, but then remembered that Joan Crawford was here, so of course she wouldn’t come over.

Feeling Hedy Lamarr’s gaze, Joan Crawford grunted softly, “Nothing to do with me, maybe she’s been dumped.”