Chapter 342 – The New Head of the Civil Service

For the present, for the time being, the Congress party would not disturb the peace of the Governor’s House again for a while, and Governor Mountbatten, enjoying a moment’s peace, asked Alan Wilson and Sir Barron what they thought of the matter.

Sitting down to watch! Inevitably both Sir Barron and Allen Wilson replied so in their minds, and Sir Barron the Prime Minister spoke, “It would be better for the Viceroyalty not to take a stand at such a sensitive time. This is, after all, India’s own affair, and if we get involved, based on past lessons, the backlash from such interference will eventually come back to us.”

Alan Wilson’s role was much simpler, a look of mountainous admiration, and if words were still needed, it was only a thumbs up, “High, just high.”

“With British India taken care of, Burma is next. Our progress so far is that there isn’t much left either. It’s nothing more than the issue of international trade settlement in British pounds.” Alan Wilson flipped through the conditions sent from London, there are still many problems to be solved, of course, the most important among them is still the issue of the British pound.

As long as the issue of the pound sterling is resolved, the rest of the problem is actually not so important, the Viceroy’s opinion is to use the positioning of the Turkish state, in exchange for India’s independence to the pound sterling settlement of international trade commitments.

This matter is London’s most important thing, if this era also has a petroleum currency, in fact, it is not the turn of the dollar. Most of the oil in the Middle East is still in the hands of Britain, there is no petrodollar, there will only be petrodollar.

But? The United States has a nuclear bomb, the United Kingdom is currently not, even if the first position, the national strength can not keep.

At this time the United States will not think of petrodollar operation, not only because the Breston Woods system itself is relatively favorable to the United States, there is another reason is that the United States is an oil exporter.

The landmark event in the conversion of the U.S. dollar to the petrodollar was the First Oil Crisis. Beginning with the repatriation of gold by Charles de Gaulle, the 1960s and 1970s saw a massive sell-off of dollars and a rush to buy gold and other hard currencies in the international financial markets, leading to a shaking of the dollar’s international credit.

The main reasons for the dollar crisis were: the weakening of the United States’ external economic strength, the deficit in the balance of payments for many years, the loss of a large amount of gold reserves, so that the dollar’s external credit guarantee was insufficient, coupled with the serious inflation in the United States, the dollar depreciated internally continuously.

In order to dissolve the selling frenzy guided by Britain, France and Germany one after another, before the first oil crisis, the London-New York financial group no longer take the dollar as a currency standard, the United States canceled the gold standard, the Bretton Woods system began to collapse, and all countries have to implement the floating exchange rate system.

In order to solve the dollar dilemma, Dr. Kissinger put forward the plan of “recirculation of petrodollar”, which essentially aimed at launching a huge blow to the world’s industrial growth, so as to rebalance the balance of power in favor of the financial interests of the U.S.A. and the U.S. dollar.

Of course, any adjustment comes at a price, and the US oil industry, which was already very powerful, was at the receiving end of this sacrifice.

In the 1970s, the U.S. imposed a ban on oil exports, preventing domestic oil from entering the international market and interfering with prices, and safeguarding the interests of Middle Eastern oil-producing countries in the aftermath of the oil crisis.

Until the ban was repealed by the King, the U.S. controlled domestic oil, either by not exploiting it or by controlling access to the international market, thus binding the oil-producing countries in the Middle East.

The Breston Woods system is still solidly in place, and the US is not yet guilty of making adjustments. At least twenty years, or the Breston Woods system plays a role, as for twenty years later, depends on the national strength of the United Kingdom is still how much left, if the colonies lost all the way, the current existence of the Middle East in the pound, or will be replaced by the U.S. dollar.

As long as the national strength and military power can not, the pound was finally eaten up by the dollar is inevitable, think about it, Alan Wilson still think that the nuclear bomb this thing is more important, is still on the earth is considered a powerful force of the Royal Navy, I do not know that by then there are still a few percent of the power left.

If it is still a few broken ships, the United Kingdom still can not avoid the end of being a follower. This kind of thing is like this, anyway, Alan Wilson thinks, who have are not as good as their own, can have the right of autonomy, who wants to go to be a follower?

Britain and the United States in the blood is thicker than water, he a British also do not want the country to become a subsidiary of the United States, in turn is best.

Afternoon time, Alan Wilson received a telegram transferred from Hyderabad, immobile white telegram put away, and then off work before going back to see, Fei Wenli dealt with the marriage, and now to the United States.

From the telegram among Alan Wilson can feel the love and affection of longing, Fei Wenli said in the telegram, is with the members of the girlfriends group to promote the film shot in British India, India’s daughter, every day is very busy.

Alan Wilson had almost forgotten that he had helped to amass material that would enhance India’s international influence. If politics interfered with art in Hollywood as well, the documentary would surely have won awards, except that it was hard to estimate what awards it would have won.

He felt that it would be best to wait until after the independence of British India before releasing the documentary, so that it would not interfere with the current work of British India.

Regarding the rumors of a marriage breakup, Vivien Leigh said that she had dissolved her marriage with Mr. Oliver, and that although there were occasional twists and turns, it was a peaceful breakup, and that the rest of the time Vivien Leigh would dedicate herself to the affirmative action movement, as well as philanthropy. Of course, she has not given up her movie career either.

Finally, she said she was in a state of confusion in her life, and very much hoped to get Alan Wilson’s physical guidance.

When she saw this, Ellen Wilson simply could not control her own hot heart, immediately for the Great British Treasure guidance. Unfortunately, now British India is not finished, can only be expressed in the reply letter, British India one day can not leave the teachings of Ai Zhongtang, involving hundreds of millions of people’s future, now really can not go.

Viceroy’s residence is calm as usual, the congress party side is still in the reconciliation and separation, understanding and quarrel. At the center of the storm were several important leaders of the Congress and Ali Jinnah.

But Gandhi was undoubtedly in the center of the storm, Alan Wilson had a small wish to see the saint ascended to heaven before leaving British India, I do not know whether this small wish can be realized.

Late at night, Gandhi sat on a straw mat and lamented to his niece Manu, “Now I am all alone. Even Nehru thinks I am wrong. They think that peace can be restored once the partition of India is over, and it seems to them that I have become a little confused as the years go by. They may have been right in what they said, while I was fighting in vain in the dark.”

Manu looked at Gandhi and said, “Don’t think so much. The others have abandoned you, there’s still me, you took me from death, I won’t leave you, even though all your devotees have left you.”

Gandhi gave a long hush, “Soon I may go back to the West in spirit and will not experience this calamity myself, but if the sufferings I fear come to India and jeopardize its independence, then posterity should know the bitter pathos of a windswept old man whenever he thinks of these unfortunate calamities.”

Alan Wilson did not know that Gandhi even had this kind of request, if he knew it he believed that the saint’s wish will certainly move the heavens, but he is not dare to move to get rid of this saint, but can create some opportunities to give people who want to shock the world convenient.

Religious conflicts are all big brother do not say second brother, he believed that Gandhi proposed to let Ali Jinnah management after independence of India this news, will certainly cause a lot of people hostile.

At this time in London, there was also a very important change for the British Empire civil servants, Edward Bridges officially stepped down from the position of Cabinet Secretary, the head of the civil service of the British Empire became Norman Brooke.

In fact, back before the Second World War was over, Norman Brooke was already a powerful figure in the Whitehall civil service. This time Edward Bridges actually did not retire completely, but became the head of civil service in name, but the actual power and not so much the head of the civil service, this operation in fact Alan Wilson is quite familiar with the Mapp duo.

Edward Bridges was merely stepping down from his position as Cabinet Secretary, and was still a long way from real retirement.

But Alan Wilson was not familiar with the new Cabinet Secretary, and consulted Sir Barron for that purpose.

“There is no difference, for us officials, we can’t say that stability is greater than everything, but it is certainly much more stable than the politicians who come and go, and Sir Norman has also been working in Whitehall for a long time. And Sir Edward has been in contact with each other for a long time.”

Sir Barron thought for a moment and replied, “It’s hard to say what would be different, other than Sir Norman being closer to the politicians, the rest shouldn’t change.”

Just as the two were discussing the changes in the top echelons of London, Norman Brooke’s first telegram as Cabinet Secretary was sent in by the Commissioner’s Secretary, Edel, and Sir Barron took the telegram and read it, while saying to Alan Wilson, “The candidate for the Deputy Prime Minister of British India has basically been decided to be Nehru. It will be officially announced in a few days!”

“Just take a look, I told you that there is no change, it’s just a change in the front and back position of the two men’s signatures.”

The telegram had been sent in the joint names of Norman Brooke and Edward Bridges, with Norman Brooke’s name at the front and Edward Bridges’ at the back.

Alan Wilson took the telegram, looked at the contents, and spoke, “Before the official appointment, should we take the initiative to contact Nehru, we can sell Nehru a favor.”

“It’s like we’re contributing to the matter of him being the Deputy Prime Minister of British India, right?” Sir Barron stifled a laugh, “He knows our British politics.”

“Precisely because of that understanding!” Alan Wilson said unperturbed, “We have nothing to lose by pretending that we have contributed to the affair, and claiming so.”