Chapter 619 Passing the knife to the United States

With an idea in mind, Alan Wilson once again frequented Whitehall, in fact, he really had something to chat with Whitehall, such as chatting with Edward Bridges, the Chief Civilian Officer and Permanent Under Secretary to the Treasury, about the progress regarding the fight against smuggling in the Fragrant River.

The fight against smuggling has been fruitful, through the line of Xiangjiang, British Malaya and the British mainland. Corresponding to the call of the American allies, thanks to the work of the Royal Navy, the proceeds of stolen money must of course be disposed of by confiscation.

The progress of the work, to the great relief of Edward Bridges, borderline spoke, “Perhaps our trade with China can be increased to 100 million pounds in another short period of time. Or perhaps a focused crackdown on smuggling would reduce the loss by 100 million pounds.”

“Sir Edward, I think this is to be expected, the key lies in the protection of our military strength, this fight against smuggling, not to be hindered by enemies or allies.” Alan Wilson replied knowingly, “Realize that there are times when the hearts of allies can be more vicious than the enemy.”

Edward Bridges nodded approvingly, expressing his favorable opinion of the promising future star prediction.

The so-called bottom line was that even if the United States was now richer and more powerful than the United Kingdom, it relied on the accumulation of the past hundred years. Britain’s overseas industries are still quite large. This can be seen from the two and a half billion pounds of assets among a certain big country.

Although Changgong had been knee-jerking to the United States and had signed a series of friendship treaties to that end that dwarfed even the Qing Dynasty, it didn’t change the fact that it was Britain that was the number one investor in a certain large country.

From a monetary point of view, it is the British pound that is the life and death enemy of the dollar, the British pound area within the imperial preferential system. Is the Americans have been to eradicate the object, British India’s independence, and Nehru’s negotiations are also to continue to India’s imports and exports in pounds as a condition.

If compared with 1945, the current proportion of the pound in the world settlement market is of course smaller. But it is not really that much smaller, first of all the sterling area still exists.

Another very important reason is that the world’s dominant currency does not change naturally. Even if there were 30 million square kilometers of the British Empire than the United States would have been able to separate itself from the complete British Empire back in the 1930s.

But the dollar is still only the currency of the United States, and is just as much suppressed by the British pound to a single-digit share of world settlements. The so-called argument that a country becoming the world’s largest economy internationalizes its currency is laughable.

This ridiculous argument Alan Wilson always heard in the past life, before World War I, the United Kingdom totaled only eight percent of the world, industrial output also accounted for only thirteen percent, but its currency is a solid international currency; until now, the British economy accounted for the proportion of the world further reduced, but the pound is still the premier international currency, the share of settlements is not a lot less than the U.S. dollar.

Before World War I, the U.S. economy has been one-fifth of the world, industrial production accounted for one-third of the world, but failed to achieve the internationalization of the local currency. It can be seen that the international currency status can not be automatically transferred without the financial and debt crisis of the international monetary sovereign and the challenge of the country’s endeavor to have two points together.

The current pound is still second only to the dollar share of the international currency, the future period of time the dollar wants to gnaw down the pound area will certainly be more brains.

In fact, until the oil crisis in the seventies, the pound still occupied one-fifth of the world’s settlement.

This was still the result of the accelerated withering of the sterling area after the Suez Canal War, when Britain was forced by the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Suez Canal War struck the UK in that it really showed the world that the UK, was no longer really a player on the same level as the USSR, and that had it not been for a series of subsequent actions by the UK, the pound might not have lasted until the seventies.

Want the pound to go back to the peak again, unless the United Kingdom can be the United States down, and is necessary to the United States down in the form of war.

On the contrary, if the pound wants to immediately become a general currency is also simple, or through the war, challenge the United States or the Soviet Union and then defeated, the pound immediately worthless.

And as we all know the current British national strength is unable and the United States and the Soviet Union to come to a both high and low and life and death of the war, so the United Kingdom has only one choice, to prevent any possible make the United Kingdom lose face of the war appeared.

For the UK, maintaining inertia can keep the pound in its current position, if it takes risky moves will only accelerate the decline of the pound’s position.

“How to use over the incense river to expand trade, you in Malaya is not far away to keep an eye on a little.” Edward Bridges said this turn of phrase, “Whitehall are rumored all over, you and Pamela to be married, the date is set no.”

“It’s just set for August, the exact time hasn’t been decided yet. I’m not here to report back to work.” Alan Wilson politely answered Edward Bridges’ doubts, and then said, “I hope that my colleagues from Whitehall will be able to come along at that time, knowing the connections of the Mountbatten family, it puts me under a lot of pressure.”

“I’m sure my colleagues are willing to help.” Edward Bridges was painfully approving, even if it was on top of the proceeds from the smuggling crackdown.

On the question of when the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, already more than a year later than in history, would appear. Edward Bridges’ look was very serious, indicating that the United States was very forceful in stating that Germany could not continue in this form forever.

“This is a very complicated matter, Sir Edward, and as far as I know Hokkaido in the Far East is still occupied by the Soviet Union. If we ignore the protests of the Soviet Union and form a Germany that favors the free world, we will have to take a hard line on Germany. Then it may be that we will be hit hard on both the Soviet-occupied part of Germany and Hokkaido, haven’t the Americans considered this?”

“Perhaps the Americans have considered it, but the Americans assessed it and found the consequences bearable.” Edward Bridges sighed and said, “The Americans are now thinking differently again from five years ago. It’s more confident, one could even say arrogant, than it was five years ago, whether it’s the ruling Democratic Party or the Republican Party in opposition.”

Alan Wilson frowned slightly, he did not agree with Edward Bridges. If the Republicans would still run Eisenhower as their candidate, then the current United States would still be sane.

Don’t look at McCarthy is a Republican congressman, but in fact the Republican and Democratic Party tendency to appear change has just begun.

Although Eisenhower was a military man and a high ranking American general in the World Wars, Eisenhower was arguably the last generation of traditional Republican presidents.

During Eisenhower’s time, the situation between the United States and the Soviet Union did not get much worse. Even at the end of Eisenhower’s term, Americans believed that Eisenhower had not served to contain the expansion of Soviet influence.

It was even said that the U.S. lost more during Eisenhower’s time than it did in the entire Second World War.

During Eisenhower’s tenure, he did not express much undying hostility toward the Soviet camp; instead he focused on building up the United States domestically, as traditional Republicans would have it.

Eisenhower was the driving force behind the construction of the Interstate Highway, which standardized road signs and design standards for American roads and led to an unprecedented series of scientific research and exploration, including the simulation of fires in tunnels.

Although Eisenhower was a rare senior general in the U.S. military to be president, but did not make moves to cause radicalization of the international situation. A more famous action that also fell on Britain was the Suez Canal War.

“Could it be that Truman is paving the way for the Democrats to salvage his sagging approval ratings? Keep in mind that MacArthur had Truman in the dust when he returned home. Now it looks like a military bigwig and a president are kind of a toss-up.” Alan Wilson said uncertainly, “Is that a possibility?”

“It’s a possibility, this politics thing.” Edward Bridges gave a bitter laugh, “It’s the same in all countries, and it’s the same in the United States.”

“The Germans have a saying I agree with, national competition is about who makes fewer mistakes.” Alan Wilson sighed, he had a feeling that the result of his multiple efforts was that NATO did not appear and the Federal Republic of Germany was not formed. The situation on this side of Europe was not so tense compared to the same period in history.

But this apparent cooling of the situation seemed to be about to disappear, and the volcano that had put the plug in place might delay its eruption even more violently.

Throughout July, Alan Wilson is preparing for the wedding at the same time, there are two other things is the peninsula into the rhythm of fighting and talking, as well as the European side of the U.S., Britain and France, the three occupied areas of the negotiations are stepping up.

The most resolute is still France, which combines the two issues of the merger of the occupied territories and the military alliance. René Plivin, President of the French Council of Ministers, launched the Plivin Plan. The plan included the establishment of a European Defense Community by the countries of Western Europe, with each country providing troops to form a European Army; the German coalition government that was formed joined the European Army, but was not allowed to act alone, and was not allowed to set up a ministry of defense, a defense force, or a staff headquarters.

The Germans, in order to reorganize the coalition government at an early date, approved of the French plan, as long as the merger of the occupied territories how to do.

But the plan was disliked by the Americans, who saw it as France trying to get rid of the United States.

Alan Wilson, who had gotten the latest developments from the Foreign Office, suggested to Sir Ismay, the Foreign Office’s permanent undersecretary, “The biggest headache for France right now is that the combat response in Vietnam is very strenuous, so let’s communicate with France and get it to give up the Previn plan in exchange for letting the U.S. increase aid to France to stop the expansion of communism in Vietnam. We do, after all, need the American garrison to hold off the Soviet ground forces.”

“Or we could offer to broker a deal between the US and France, offering US aid to French military operations in Vietnam in exchange for French concessions; sometimes Britain needs to be more forthright in its efforts for allied solidarity.”

Alan Wilson jumped at the chance to pull the U.S. into Vietnam, and if it was done, not only would it help France, but it would also get the U.S. involved in Vietnam along the way.

It was like killing two birds with one stone, before the Korean War war was over, Allen Wilson had found the next battleground for the United States to reflect the majesty of the world’s hegemony.