Chapter 644 – I’m a Clown

“I deeply agree! What Sir said makes so much sense.” Alan Wilson agreed in a I’m one of us tone, “But for most colonies, finding their own value is the most important thing for the Resident Commissioner, and Xiangjiang has conditions that the average colony doesn’t have.”

“See, for us, the most critical part is finding the problem.” Grantham said meaningfully, “Let’s see who can find the most critical problem.”

“Oh, Honorable Sir, let’s change the subject.” Alan Wilson nodded and said borderline, “In fact, for us overseas civil servants, the place where our interests come from depends on the territory under our administration, not London, which is ten thousand miles away. On this issue, I am in agreement with Sir.”

The British civil servants in Heung Yee Kuk tended to scorn the London bureaucrats for dictating to the Governor and the policies implemented in Heung Yee Kuk in an attempt to retain greater autonomy. The Hong Kong Governors and officials also recognize that London has never looked at Heung Kong from a commercial point of view, and that their autonomy would be lost, or even abandoned, should Heung Kong one day become an economic albatross for London.

Therefore, the Governor of Hong Kong are focusing on improving Hong Kong’s economic self-sustainability, on the one hand, to highlight the importance of Hong Kong to the British trade and commerce, on the other hand, to increase the bargaining chips to resist London’s meddling in internal affairs.

As for respect for the Cabinet, well, there is, but not a lot. The British Empire to cultivate the root of the officials, in this issue, not as a local as a booster, but as a rival.

For Alan Wilson, he needs Xiangjiang as a transit point, anyway, he can sell rubber to the Soviet Union, naturally, he does not care to add another country, and even if he does not sell, Indonesia will also sell.

Instead of this money being made by Sukarno, it would be better to enrich Malaya’s finances.

Alan Wilson mentioned that Whitehall had made predictions that trade with China could reach the figure of 100 million pounds within five years. Of course this is the amount of trade, not profit. But £100 million is certainly not chump change.

“The heads of Whitehall, after all, see more clearly than those foreign administrators.” Ge Lianghong listened and said approvingly, “After forming a complementary trade, I believe that Xiangjiang’s income will also increase greatly. The only doubt is that perhaps our allies will be unhappy because of this.”

“Of course we have to take our allies’ attitudes into consideration, but I don’t think it will be a big problem.” Alan Wilson replied absentmindedly.

It wasn’t just the financial benefits of Xiangjiang’s unique location over a complete stranger’s enemy, either. Did they really think that Asia’s spy center was a fake?

One thing Grantham saw very clearly was that sooner or later, Xiangjiang would return to Chinese rule. As for the whimsical autonomy of some politicians, or a city-state, it was simply impossible to realize.

Since it is definitely impossible to retain, it is better to do a little good deed to make good karma. Only before coming, Ge Lianghong invested in education.

Because of the increase in population in Hong Kong, with the increase in the number of schools, the demand for teachers was also increasing. However, the only school in Hong Kong, the Lo Fu Kwok College of Education, was unable to meet the demand, and as a result, Grantham set up the Grantham College of Education in September. Grantham had been proud that the new teacher training college was named after him.

“But then again, there are advantages to the two places working together; Heung Yee Kiang has a unique geographical location. And Malaya has the resources, if the trade can be expanded. Both places will be developed.”

It was also because he saw this that Ge Lianghong accepted the invitation to come to Kuala Lumpur this time, instead of coming over for a vacation.

On the issue of dealing with the native land, Allen Wilson and Ge Lianghong had the same stance, both agreed that the land under their rule should be developed, and that the world’s number one populous country should not be treated as if it did not exist.

Regarding the fight against smuggling behavior, it is a unanimous consensus, both the South China Sea does not exist smuggling behavior. Are legal normal trade, the Royal Navy Pacific Fleet can testify.

“All in all, Xiangjiang doesn’t have to do anything, there is already enough profit.” Alan Wilson said with an old sense of humor.

As for direct management experience, it is also something that British Malaya should learn from, compared to Allen Wilson as a commissioner.

In fact, Ge Lianghong as the Governor of Hong Kong has more power, the Governor of Hong Kong has both executive and legislative power, in addition, the military power and the police are also in the hands of the Governor of Hong Kong. He could do whatever he wanted in Hong Kong and would not be constrained.

The Governor of Hong Kong has both executive and legislative powers. In addition, military and police powers are also in the hands of the Governor. In Hong Kong, the Governor can do whatever he likes without being constrained.

So Allen Wilson is the one who has to get Ge Lianghong’s approval in order to ride on the coattails of the world’s number one populous country, and there is simply no getting around it.

But like he said, it’s good for everyone and Xiangjiang will benefit from it. Then the British civil servants in Xiangjiang are also naturally more the group that will benefit the most. When the time comes, they will also have more courage to mess around with London!

The two men talked about the rise, Alan Wilson asked for advice on the experience of direct management, “In fact, if the politicians in the country say what development plans, certainly three words do not leave democracy.”

“What do they know about governing?” Ge Lianghong taunted with a snort of laughter, “Democracy is simply a pejorative term in the midst of economic development, and our officials in Xiangjiang have decided that democratic politics is the thing that will drag down the local economy the fastest and undermine the security of the society and the political situation. If one day we want to mess up the economy of Xiangjiang, we can try democratic politics instead, and the results will definitely be very fast.”

“Honorable Sir, you are truly a prophet.” Alan Wilson’s admiration definitely came from his heart, the future is not the same as what Ge Lianghong said.

The two of them once again reached a consensus on the point that Xiangjiang can benefit, Xiangjiang is small in area and lacks natural resources, so the local living materials, agricultural products, energy and so on need a constant blood transfusion from the outside world. Xiangjiang’s live cattle, live sheep, live pigs, are even more completely dependent on the outside world. Overseas is also the main provider of beans, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, lettuce, mushrooms and other vegetables.

In short, without trade it is absolutely impossible for Xiangjiang to develop. So for the British civil servants in Xiangjiang, the extensive blockade of the so-called free world is itself the greatest insult to the public servants of the community.

The imperial civil servants themselves, by not joining in the smuggling, are already considered worthy of the British Empire’s training over the years. As for isolating Xiangjiang’s role as a free port for trade, that was not even to be thought of, and it would be useless to change as many governors as possible.

In the next few days, as the chief executive of the two places, Alan Wilson and Ge Lianghong talked things over.

Xiangjiang and Malaya not only in the economy can be through the division of labor, promote each other’s development. Politically in the face of London, more can take a common position, the two men agreed that the interests of overseas civil servants and the local officials think, is not exactly the same thing.

Because of hearing the Americans take the initiative to mention the need for peace talks, Alan Wilson took the Honorable Governor of Hong Kong to a church to express his prayers for peace, after all, war is cruel and no one wants it to last.

The prayer was done. The venerable clergymen yawned continually, completing the day’s task of praising God. They entered the sacristy one by one with a weary look on their faces like government servants who had mechanically completed their daily routine in a thousand different ways.

The zeal of these decent priests for religion, like the daily wear and tear of the clerical garments and stole they wore, faded away in the day-to-day chanting of hymns.

Among the clergy of the church there is also the common problem of public institutions in general: certain clergymen do not usually speak to each other, and some do not even greet each other when they meet. However, this is not easy for the average outsider to notice, because on the surface, they all pretend to be united when they are together. For example, when they meet, they always shake hands, gently pat each other’s shoulders, and even tell a few jokes or whisper into the ears of their coworkers.

Of course, there were some who were usually reticent to say anything, who finished their prayers and quickly left the church. There were also some who left without saying goodbye.

After finishing their prayers, the two continued their discussion around the topic of when peace would come. At this time according to the news coming from Whitehall indicated that America’s request for peace talks had been rejected.

It seems that the great God, recognizing at once such a hypocrite as Allen Wilson, had inflicted punishment at the critical moment.

“Oh, my God.” Allen Wilson felt a heartfelt pain at the shattering of the American dream of peace. But as an adult, he had learned to hide his sadness with a smile.

It would not have been a bad thing if things had ended here, but the next piece of news from Whitehall made him different in place for a long time almost as if he had been struck by lightning.

Grantham was very curious, could it be that Alan Wilson America had friends in it, and that was why he had been expecting peace to come?

“Oh, nothing!” Allen Wilson hesitated, or the Soviet Union in the move to build a wall around West Berlin, informed Ge Lianghong, this kind of thing should not be hidden.

“The Soviets’ move is too bad.” Ge Lianghong accused with righteous indignation, “This is a kind of pressure on us.”

“Maybe so!” Alan Wilson responded absentmindedly, the construction of the Berlin Wall coupled with the fact that West Berlin’s connection to the outside world had been broken had caused the citizens of West Berlin to be thrown into a panic, with many of them fleeing out of West Berlin.

But this was actually not a big deal to Allen Wilson, it could be said that it had nothing to do with him. But he clearly remembered that the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, after the Second Berlin Crisis.

In any case it should not have appeared at this time, besides him, there were only two possibilities, the first was that there was a person like him in this world in the opposing camp, which was unlikely.

There was another possibility, that he had spies with him! Alan Wilson thought of this with a deep sense that the Joker was himself.