Chapter 378: The Crown Prince’s Wedding

“To can’t say it’s promised anything, mainly to promote the Brussels Treaty Organization countries unity, the internal reason is the domestic current financial deficit can still be considered serious, military spending on the ruling party is still debatable.” Alan Wilson began to Bibi chatted, “foreign policy, pulling together the allies of the aspect to consider ……”

“Say something understandable.” General Mountbatten frowned, “There’s no need for this mushy nonsense at home.”

“Deficits inevitably lead to cuts in military spending, and worse, no new warships in service.” Alan Wilson changed his attitude and said, “As an admiral, I believe that the honorable Governor you must have something to say.”

“It is so!” Admiral Mountbatten’s face was serious, this could be a really serious matter yet.

Mountbatten’s biggest dream was to be a naval minister like his father, it was well known that Britain’s military expenditure distribution had always been the navy taking the lead, cutting military expenditure was usually cutting the navy’s military expenditure, “Is it serious?”

“Now that the Labor Party is in power, it can also be said to be very serious.” Alan Wilson honestly said that it was not simply a matter of the Conservative Party and the Labor Party, if the country’s financial problems were great, both the Conservative Party and the Labor Party would have done it.

To go on and on it becomes the old question of who sells the country more between Labor and the Conservative Party, when the Conservative Party was the opposition party, it was again against disarmament and the reduction of military spending, but the result was the same when it came to power.

As a Navy Admiral Mountbatten, as soon as he heard the issue of reducing military spending, especially naval military spending, became solemn, in the final analysis this hit him in the sore spot, because he is really an active military, or a Navy Admiral.

On the subject of I really have a cow, the submissive Admiral Mountbatten lowered his voice and said, “How does Prime Minister Adderley feel about this?”

“The opposition is not resolute.” Alan Wilson, thinking back to how Prime Minister Airdrie had behaved in Brussels, gave a sort of affirmative answer.

“That’s a resolute non-opposition. The Nelson class battleships, right, have been sitting on the sill for over a year.” Mountbatten nodded to himself, “What’s the point of keeping them, they’re already behind the times and still cost a lot to maintain, what’s wrong with leasing them if Saracha is willing to do so, it’ll be a cost saving in terms of finances and manpower. And since there are financial difficulties, the Navy should take the initiative to come up with a self-help plan, that’s no problem, right?”

“Of course there’s no problem, the Navy can look out for the country, what’s wrong with that.” Alan Wilson was like an answering machine, casting rainbow fart magic on his father-in-law from multiple angles and high intensity.

Navy to think for the country, urgent people take the initiative to come forward, reflecting the hundreds of years of guarding the British Empire’s Royal Navy bear.

Obviously General Mountbatten is to have this bearing, just take the time to come back to participate in the Crown Prince’s wedding, by the way, this matter is very reasonable.

So there is no problem, Allen Wilson heart relieved, in fact, this matter is actually not very difficult. Only this difficulty is not big for General Mountbatten, for him this civil servant is still very difficult.

The aristocracy actually have to be divided into what kind of aristocrats, after all, even within the aristocracy there is a gap between rich and poor. But obviously Mountbatten was considered a very powerful figure within the current imperial noble class.

Mountbatten’s father had been the Minister of War of the Navy, and was already very influential within the Navy, so as long as he utilized this network well, there was a great possibility of success.

As for Alan Wilson really did not, even if the words are the same, but what Mountbatten said and what he said, in the effect is not the same, there is no way, the reality is so.

November 20th, is the day of the wedding of Crown Prince Elizabeth and her fiancé Prince Philip, for the subjects of the entire British Empire, this is a day that has been waiting for a long time, no matter whether it is the noble celebrities, ordinary citizens, or overseas civil servants, they all pay attention to London through various channels.

Even for Canada, Australia and New Zealand, this day was called a universal celebration.

The affection between the several autonomous territories and England had not yet been washed away by time, and the entire pages of the newspapers of the major autonomous territories were filled with the news of Crown Prince Elizabeth’s wedding, with praise throughout, hoping that it was a good omen that would pull England out of the haze of the World War.

Even today’s cabinet of prime ministers and ministers, the opposition party members of parliament have expressed good wishes, embassies are not to mention, the wedding of the century to express blessings.

Westminster Cathedral is even more celebrities gathered, waiting to give their blessing to the future heir of the empire.

Before the wedding, George VI had enthroned Philip as Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioni and Baron Greenwich.

The King of Iraq, Crown Princess Juliana and Crown Prince Bernard of the Netherlands, as well as the Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Princess Elisabeth of Luxembourg, were there in person.

The entire wedding process will be followed by the BBC and a documentary will be produced for worldwide broadcast.

The Crown Prince arrived at Westminster Abbey to the accompaniment of an Australian band and was in a joyous mood as the wedding entered its climax. After the music was played, a composer read a hymn, and after the hymn, the cathedral played the wedding march.

Crown Prince Elizabeth left the cathedral, and the Duke of Edinburgh together to receive the cheers and applause of the citizens of London.

“God knows how I blended in.” Alan Wilson asked himself, he didn’t even know before that there were so many nobles in England, how come he usually couldn’t see any of them? Where did all these nobles come from?

Alan Wilson was also on a mission, he and a few civil servants from the Foreign Office were in charge of receiving the King of Iraq’s family.

Faisal II is the current King of Iraq, which was allowed to become independent in nineteen thirty-two. This made Iraq the first country to be formed after the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty.

However, the British still maintained military bases on its territory; after Faisal I’s death, Arab nationalists repeatedly demanded that the British leave Iraq, but the British refused.

Historically, Faisal II was overthrown in a coup in 1958, but it is clearly early days, and the still very young king is here to attend the wedding of the British crown prince.

Faisal II is now only thirteen years old and is attending school in England, but power is clearly out of his hands. Accompanying the king to London was Princess Badia Bent Ali attending the wedding and watching over the still very young king in the process.

Alan Wilson is mainly to communicate with this Princess Badia, the current rights and interests of Iraq to Nuri Said and the Regent is also Princess Badia brother in charge.

Casual conversation two sentences, Alan Wilson realized that this until Saddam was hanged Princess Badia.

Seems to be a little bit of Wu Zetian potential, he is just nothing to talk to Princess Badia, do a little reception work obligations.

There is no doubt that Alan Wilson always get rid of the key politics, but he is just a start, after that is Princess Badia’s personal performance time, said Iraq in recent years many coups, the king is still young, do not know how to face this complex situation of the country.

Listening to this king’s aunt Bibi chattering non-stop, Alan Wilson left and right thought, “The main problem is the army, the last few times have been a military coup d’état, indicating that the danger in Iraq comes from within the army. The hostility towards the royal family stems from this, so building a reliable army is a very urgent matter.”

“Precisely, military coups have occurred several times in recent years and are very disturbing.” Princess Badia looked at her young nephew and said, “Especially at this time of year!”

According to traditional customs including but not limited to the Arabs, the current Faisal II is clearly not capable of being in charge of the government.

So the power of the state is in the hands of the prime minister, and the royal family is represented by the royal family of Abdullah, the regent. Iraq’s royal family and Jordan’s are family, both descendants of the Hashemite family that was ousted by the Saudi royal family.

“The Foreign Office has actually talked about Jordan and Iraq, and many of my colleagues have had their say.” Alan Wilson said as he thought, “Considering the kinship between Jordan and Iraq, the two countries should maintain a certain degree of closeness. But no amount of closeness between the two countries can solve the anti-royalist ideology of the army. In fact, this matter is from a religious point of view, the majority of the people inside Iraq belong to the Shiite sect, while the royal family and the army both belong to the Sunni sect, leaving aside what the majority of the Shiite population thinks, first of all, the fact that the army, which is now predominantly Sunni, is opposing its own king shows that the problem is really serious.”

“It seems that the British Empire also sees the seriousness of the problem.” Princess Badia sighed softly, “There is no solution.”

“A guard loyal to the royal family is needed. Since the problem stems from the army, and it is an army that believes in the same things as the royal family, and since both the army and the royal family are in the minority, yet they still oppose the royal family, it means that at least some of the Sunni officers in the army, who have confidence in the control of the situation after the coup, must be made to have no confidence.”

Allen Wilson said this with a twist of words, “I don’t know Your Highness, have you heard of the story of Louis XVI and the Swiss Guard? Maybe we can draw inspiration from it. Since the army itself is a minority in the beliefs of the Iraqi nation, then in supporting a minority as a royal-only guard to check and balance the army, it might be possible to strike a balance.”

This would have been what Alan Wilson was going to use against Egypt in his report to Prime Minister Adderley, but the Arab world is all pretty much the same now, and there are quite a few Middle Eastern Christians in this day and age, proportionally no smaller than the Coptic proportion in Egypt.

The historical trend of Christians in the Middle East is that the further back the fewer they are, in the eighties there were nine percent of Christians in Iraq. Less than three percent were left when the U.S. invaded Iraq, and a little over one percent by the time of the second Iraq war.