Chapter 797 – Thoughts of the Secretary of State for the Sea

The general election a month ago had scared the Labor Party, which had been in power for nearly a decade, out of its wits, but ultimately it was already considered to be in the past.

Airdrie set a record for Labour’s winning streak against the Conservative Party, certainly a great achievement for a party that was far younger than the Conservative Party, but no one expected that Airdrie’s first order would be to make Mountbatten the First Sea Minister.

In terms of status, Mountbatten becoming First Sea Lord was of course logical, and Airdrie was happy to fulfill Mountbatten’s dream, but at the same time he was at a loss for the stubbornness of the Navy’s old-school admirals, and wanted to find someone to hold the admirals down. Mountbatten was most suitable.

Aidley is actually just ten years younger than Churchill, this year has also been seventy-one years old, the current British facing the future of the problem, in fact, the Labor Party can not be said to be calm internally, Aidley Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary Morrison’s early years of grudges, is almost an open secret of the Labor Party, Aidley can accept anyone to become the future leader of the Labor Party, on Morrison can not be.

But in front of Mountbatten, Adderley showed no such concern and exhorted the new First Sea Lord, “Lewis, do you have any views on the future development of the Navy? I’ll be blunt, too, with the threat of nuclear war, there’s been some controversial talk among many about the existence or non-existence of the Grand Fleet.”

“Is that so?” Mountbatten pretended to have a sudden realization and said with a careful tone, “So …… what exactly are the aspects?”

Adderley told Mountbatten, “I think the Treasury is no longer interested in the Navy. The Navy is third among the services. And there has always been skepticism about whether the Navy could be useful in an age of nuclear war. Even the generals of the other services have that opinion.”

Even Field Marshal Montgomery, in a lecture at the Royal United Military Academy, said, “The navy can play only a small part in a world war, and in other periods it can do almost nothing.”

Mountbatten remembered the communication from time to time with his son-in-law, who was far away in Kuala Lumpur, and had also talked about the status of the navy more than once, and after a moment’s contemplation, he spoke, “The question of the navy’s status is a macroscopic one, and in terms of its status it depends on whether the UK is a global power, or a role that exists only as an insignificant player in Europe, and in the case of the former, the importance of the navy can be addressed through the structural optimization, and can play a role in conjunction with the other services. If the latter, the navy is indeed useless.”

“As for the optimal development of the navy, we certainly need to find a way to build a navy that is sufficiently threatening and does not look bloated. Other than that, three and a half billion pounds of overseas assets will need the protection of a globally projected navy.”

“I almost forgot, your son-in-law is the Deputy Secretary General of the Overseas Assets Management Board.” Prime Minister Airdrie nodded, Britain could not hide from Mountbatten how many state-owned overseas assets it now had.

“The Navy can also be a more stealthy launch platform. I am referring to the role of nuclear submarines.” As if he had been thinking about this for a long time, Mountbatten laid out the two cornerstones of the navy’s positioning.

The Navy could only get others to recognize that Royal Navy ships could in the future be carriers of large swimming rockets before other matters could be brought to the fore.

The second cornerstone is to ensure that support is provided to amphibious strike forces on missions to protect British interests around the world.

Whether it is any of the three Joint Warfare Commands in the Near East, Middle East or Far East, the Navy will be needed to play its part.

“That’s why one of the first things I did when I took office as First Sea Lord was to visit the United States to talk about nuclear submarines.” Admiral Mountbatten added, “Only if we have a credible counterforce will we be able to comfortably reduce the size of the surface fleet. The best way to counter submarines is to develop them.”

The submarine threat that Mountbatten was referring to was the Soviet nuclear submarine. The Soviet Union’s nuclear submarine had already begun construction, the second nuclear submarine to do so after the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus, and the information was already in Britain’s possession.

The first generation of Soviet nuclear attack submarines, known to NATO as the Red October class, or N-class for short, was developed by the Soviet Malachite Design Bureau and built at the North Dvinsk Shipyard. This information is certified, the United Kingdom is the first to feel the brunt of the pressure countries, the United States, after all, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, which has the United Kingdom to empathize.

As a Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet Admiral, Mountbatten, of course, the development of the national navy know exactly, this is, after all, his love of the profession, will not be like other aspects of the mess.

“That, naturally, is more than good, but the United States, well, success is best, and the psychological preparation for not succeeding must also be done.” As soon as Adderley heard that Mountbatten had set his first task in office as having to talk to the Americans about nuclear submarine cooperation, his heart was still beating straight.

He was reluctant to say that the Americans were perfidious, but they actually were, as evidenced by the tearing up of the agreement after the successful testing of nuclear weapons.

But a thought if Mountbatten with good connections, or was rejected by the Americans, early death of Britain’s own research, the same is also a good thing, and did not open the mouth to block.

Nuclear submarines are really important to Britain, especially after the Soviet Union’s nuclear submarine intelligence was certified, the Cabinet’s support for the nuclear submarine program increased again. Adderley also hoped that Mountbatten would be able to make progress.

“The international situation is very confusing, with France retreating from Asia and India pushing for some kind of international conference that excludes the free world. Louis, you were the last British Viceroy of India, what do you think Nehru was thinking?” Adderley scratched his brighter-than-a-lightbulb head, displaying a typical British haircut.

Having lush hair like Mountbatten’s was a dream for many, not to mention that Mountbatten had more than that.

The word rich is rich to the average person! But for Mountbatten, it’s the richness of being rich that embodies him.

“Nehru well? It’s like this, we look amongst history for answers.” Mountbatten is also a master of words, while opening his mouth to pick up the conversation at the same time thinking, really express concern for India’s son-in-law.

He this British and Indian Governor General is also a figure of fun, after arriving in office to do the most things is to organize banquets in the Governor General’s residence, and India’s upper class people mixed a familiar face, his son-in-law is the one who has a deep understanding of India.

“Nehru enjoyed almost complete free rein in Indian foreign affairs. There were five main core ideas that developed in practice, independence, nationalism, anti-colonialism, internationalism and neutrality or non-alignment. They became the guiding principles of Indian foreign affairs. He was as wary of the United States because it believed that Kashmir should be independent.”

Nehru had visited the United States in 1949, though this visit did not aggravate the friendship between the United States and India, instead Nehru led the nationalization upon his return by taking back the Mysore iron ore mine, owned by U.S. Steel.

Mountbatten, of course, knew the ins and outs of this very well, because the Mysore iron ore mine was then sold by his son-in-law to U.S. Steel. But the underlying reason, again, was the US attitude towards Kashmir at the time of Nehru’s visit to the US.

When India and Pakistan were arguing over the ownership of Kashmir, the US pushed for Kashmir’s independence as the Switzerland of the East. Kashmir was considered to be strategically important as it was in the heart of Asia. This infuriated Nehru.

Adderley nodded his head to recognize the judgment of Mountbatten, he thought Mountbatten as the British and Indian Governor General should have such understanding.

But he did not know that there were other people who had such a realization, only always use the telegraph to contact his father-in-law.

Not long after, Mountbatten left 10 Downing Street, but did not go home, but rushed to the headquarters building of the Admiralty, the heart of the degree of urgency can be seen.

It would not be a dream come true without personally sitting inside the office where his father had once stayed.

Although when Prince Louis’s office window, now built a tawny building, blocking the sunlight coming from outside, but this does not detract from the good mood of Mountbatten, this is his dream position for many years, countless times in the dream time dreamed.

There were some who now questioned the status of the Royal Navy, but Mountbatten managed to forget the minor displeasure and devote himself to his first day as Secretary of the Navy.

“Mrs. Wilson, congratulations to your father on becoming First Sea Lord.” York Schweyer expressed his congratulations to the woman in front of him, and after several meetings, he also knew that Pamela Mountbatten, preferred to be called Mrs. Wilson.

Ike Keswick expressed it less obviously, “In today’s paper it says there was a communal clash in East Malaysia and hundreds of people died. Commissioner Wilson should be busy.”

“He’s not busy, he’ll be debunking the fake news in a few days and attributing its appearance to a plot by Indonesia or some other country to mess up British Malaya and stir up amicable communal relations.” Pamela Mountbatten maintained her ladylike sitting posture and said carelessly, “The fake news was also put out by the Executive Council.”

“Why?” York Schweyer said in great confusion, “And it took us by surprise that every major newspaper was talking about it. Who’s going to believe the papers after this?”

“Freedom of speech, stirring up communal conflicts, it’s better for the two main communities in Malaya not to get along too well.” Pamela Mountbatten laughed softly, “By the way, debunking fake news throws dirty water on Indonesia.”

Just then, the door to the room was pushed open, and the man behind the stirring up of communal conflicts appeared, followed by a Chinese face.

The two men were talking and laughing, glancing at the two guests from the Schweyer family, the Keswick family, Allen Wilson took the telegram out of his pocket, “A telegram from father to you, it’s about sharing joy.”

“Father obviously talks more to you than to me.” Pamela Mountbatten spoke with a slight grumble before she watched her husband and her guest go on their way, refocusing her attention on her own guest and continuing the set of trysts.

She felt that the two should be ready to compromise if they were able to come to the door again after their father’s promotion.