Chapter 454: Heavy Responsibilities

“These are too many options, and the self-governing territories and the royal domains, aren’t they similar?” Prime Minister Adderley took the revulsion that Norman Brooke had brought over, and it was consistent with the one that the Colonial Secretary had brought over, which was nothing out of the ordinary.

“In fact, my colleagues agree that the self-governing territories option is superfluous. It would be more appropriate to retain only the crown territory option.” Norman Brooke sniffed and went further, “It would avoid the self-governing territories, a stripped-down colonial designation, and would be more conducive to the long-term connection between Newfoundland and the mainland.”

“Is that so? But the idea of the Canadian side must be considered as well.” Edley nodded knowingly, still mentioning the importance of Canada’s relationship with Britain, after all, after the United States had choked off the loan, Canada had provided a twelve billion dollar loan to help tide Britain over, and he hadn’t forgotten that so quickly.

“Honorable Prime Minister, we are, in principle, of course, focusing more on the Canadian relationship. The colonies in general can be ignored, but the exception happens to be Newfoundland, which was the first overseas territory of the British Empire and the starting point of the global empire. It has always been on a par with Canada, and the local population is very much averse to the incorporation of Canada as things stand now.”

Norman Brooke said with a heavy face, “That would be very difficult, if pushed too far it caused a backlash from the citizens of Newfoundland, would they choose to join the United States?”

Prime Minister Adderley’s expression tightened, and he immediately spoke, “London has never, and has never at all, thought of using any kind of coercion to force Newfoundland to merge with Canada, and London respects the public opinion of Newfoundland ten thousand times over.”

“Except to join the United States!” Norman Brooke added after the Prime Minister had finished his sentence, “Of course the current situation shows that the possibility of Newfoundland joining the United States is very low, mainly because of the two factions of restoring the self-governing territories and merging with Canada, of which the former occupies the main position, but once restored to become a self-governing territory, and Newfoundland’s population can not fully afford the diplomatic and domestic affairs and military of a country, so transforming it into a Crown Territory is a compromise of sorts.”

“Is that so?” Edley listened to Norman Brooke’s statement and fell into deep thought.

Norman Brooke, on the other hand, plainly watched the prime minister’s thinking from the sidelines, he never thought that prime ministers and ministers were superior, even if these ruling parties were elected by the people, but in reality the elected government was no different from civil servants, and the power all originated from the monarch.

For in the final analysis, Norman Brooke believed that the establishment of the British civil service was based on the system of delegation.

Powers are conferred by the monarch, and these powers are obtained by grant. Coupled with the balance of political power between the elected government and the political parties, the powers which are already derived from the monarch’s authorization still need the approval of the ministers before they can be implemented.

The Cabinet Secretaries are nominally only “councillors”, and their powers are so limited that they can only return to the executive.

This is why the long-term planning of the Cabinet Secretary is often not recognized as “leadership planning”, in their eyes, these politicians see the grandeur of the administrative program is just a longer period of time.

However, this historical legacy of administrative long-term planning also gave the British civil service a strong sense of identity with the past glory of the empire, and this was often reflected in the native officers who were incorporated into the senior civil service in the colonies. It can be said that the Great British officials are the ones who are most nostalgic for the imperial era.

In other words, whoever was the cabinet secretary had to find a way to keep as many overseas territories as possible, even if they were not colonial, even if they were only loyal to His Majesty the King, and anyway, the democratically-elected government came from the King’s mandate.

Only by retaining as many overseas territories as possible would civil servants have enough battlegrounds to fight with these elected governments, and as for what these overseas territories were called, it didn’t really matter, call them whatever you want, there’s nothing wrong with calling them royal territories.

Unlike his predecessor, Norman Brooke does not just accept one-sided regulation by ministers, but also believes that Whitehall also has the power to regulate ministers, and the two can not be achieved without each other.

When Norman Brooke left 10 Downing Street, the four options for the Newfoundland referendum became three more. Conversion to a Crown Dependency, amalgamation of Canada, and maintaining a sending government, that is, maintaining the status quo and continuing to maintain the colonial status.

Only two of the three options were actually operational: merging with Canada and becoming a Crown Dependency. Even Norman Brooke himself was not convinced that the Newfoundlanders liked the idea of remaining a colony.

“Then, Makins, I’m counting on you in this matter.” Alan Wilson paused at that, “Is Lord Sheffield, not a man to be trusted?”

“Of course, Alan, I fully understand your plight.” Makins, if he were an Easterner, would have said that it would have been normal for a great man to have three wives and four concubines, but then again, even in England, it is normal for a man to have a lady of the same status as his wife, it’s not even a big deal.

Makins very understanding, just as the honorable crown prince husband Prince Philip, not also some affair rumors?

Alan Wilson although it is impossible to stay in London for too long, but as a person who values time, he in the Cabinet Secretary sifted down the three programs, handed over to the representative of Newfoundland, but still looking for Audrey Hepburn to go to the opera.

Even if he had never been interested in the so-called opera never, and always had been. Generally speaking the members who came to the opera regularly were an ordinary bunch of people, mostly living in the business district – stockbrokers, lawyers, auctioneers, whatever, many tough-minded but opinionated people like these, people who had little regard for the class to which they belonged.

According to the Soviets, this petit-bourgeoisie has a weakness, a dissatisfaction with the status quo but little possibility of revolution, only self-hatred about the current state of affairs.

At least now Alan Wilson understood one thing, Audrey Hepburn really like to see the opera, the surface try to pretend that nothing happened, but it can be seen that the heart is happy.

Naturally, Alan Wilson also pretended to be immersed in the appearance, but in fact thought of how to deal with the Newfoundland referendum approach, although he is not very old, long ago did not believe that a variety of political ideas with the guise of those who work for the people, the heart is clearer than many people, those political ideas are “garbage”.

But this does not delay, every time Audrey Hepburn can not help but applaud, have him the king of the audience empathy.

Accompanied by the applause of the opera house, the curtain fell, Alan Wilson grabbed Audrey Hepburn’s small hand to get up, but immediately seemed to remember what, with a complex gaze put down his hand.

It was time for this young upcoming offspring of the screen to learn the fruits of Greta Garbo’s words and teachings.

At least one point is not pretending, Allen Wilson now can not control the instinctive reaction, and there is no black protective color, red face who can see embarrassed, but also taut face as if nothing happened.

This also let Audrey Hepburn see out, although it has not been experienced, but she can feel, this man just showed the appearance, obviously like themselves.

Wearing a mask, Alan Wilson returned to normal, with the crowd slowly out of the theater, because the audience is a lot of relations, this holding Audrey Hepburn’s hand, it seems very normal.

A short corridor, was holding the hand of Audrey Hepburn several times to look at this unblinking man, the man’s palms sweaty.

“I’m returning to Newfoundland in the next few days for the referendum.” Walking out of the theater Alan Wilson spoke in a gentle voice, “There’s an opportunity I’ve secured for you, in a week’s time you’ll go to London’s Guildhall and see Makins, he’ll arrange for an image for you to audition for, the theme will be A Day in the Life of a London Girl, it’ll be published in a magazine, but of course it’s not a long term job, and a friend of mine has sought out a choral place in a West End choir. If you’re interested, you can give it a try, it’s not too strenuous, and it won’t delay you from planning for yourself.”

“Alan, you’re leaving so soon?” Audrey Hepburn wasn’t very happy, but immediately responded, “Thanks for your help, I mean, you seem to have a busy schedule.”

“Maybe it’ll be easier later, maybe that’s life, it happens some times.” Alan Wilson cocked his head and looked Audrey Hepburn in the eye, “We’ll always meet again, won’t we?”

Alan Wilson knew that he couldn’t eat hot tofu in a hurry, there were more important things waiting for him now, the relationship between the two heads of civil servants was no longer as sweet as it was at the beginning.

This was something he couldn’t reconcile, he just hoped that it wouldn’t affect his own scheming. In fact, psychologically, he supported Norman Brooke’s attempts to clarify the boundaries of ministerial duties and adopt checks and balances.

But things in the career path often have nothing to do with right or wrong, so it’s better to stay away.

But at least on the matter of the Newfoundland referendum, the two heads of the civil service were not at odds, and Alan Wilson got Norman Brooke’s amended version of the program, “I would have thought that the option of merging Canada would have been taken out.”

“Of course I wanted to do that, but London can’t make that decision.” Norman Brooke took a deep breath, “So this Newfoundland referendum thing, Alan, is up to you.”

“I will do my best.” Alan Wilson nodded his head, this time in returning to Newfoundland, it was a referendum. The future was still uncertain, and at this time, he was still unsettled in his heart.

“Allen, in fact, Edward and I do not agree in some places, but many places are still very much in common, such as ……” Norman Brooke said this and pondered for a moment, “He and I both think that you are a very reliable person, very trustworthy.”