Chapter 836 The Future of HMS Vanguard

In fact Mountbatten was only the head of the navy, and to concern himself with the affairs of the British forces in Germany was in a sense overstepping his authority.

But when did he not overstep his authority, when he was the fourth sea minister, he did all the things of several sea ministers. Now that he was First Sea Lord, he took care of all the British military matters as a matter of course.

“Alan, you are interested in the military?” Edward Bridges was pleased, and afterward listened to Alan Wilson’s question and answered, “It’s plausible in theory, transferring the cost back to the Germans, but it’s not obvious from the books.”

“So it is.” Alan Wilson nodded his head, in fact, for countries like Germany and Japan that had a good foundation themselves, the garrison was definitely making money. The inputs of garrisoning troops were visible, and the benefits were invisible.

Once the inputs don’t outweigh the benefits, France may not back down from it, but the odds are that Britain will leave the colonies behind.

This is why Alan Wilson feels that of the colonies currently still in hand, Nigeria is odds-on to be the next to be abandoned; too much population for little gain, and the withdrawn garrisons can still strengthen the military in other colonies.

Edward Bridges inquired about the trip to Africa as did the cabinet secretaries who had delicate relations, Alan Wilson could only repeat most of it but there were new complaints, “The people in Northern Rhodesia complained to me about problems with the local borders and asked if I could talk to the Belgians, what a high compliment.”

Those Slavs, Mihajlovic, were unhappy about the border between Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo. There is a salient in the south of the Belgian Congo that inserts into Northern Rhodesia, and this one salient is 50,000 square kilometers in size.

Because of this prominence, Northern Rhodesia was almost divided into East and West. If North and South Rhodesia had been merged, as Britain had previously thought, this would not have been obvious.

But the merger of North and South Rhodesia has become a wasted case, and with North Rhodesia developing on its own, this protrusion is very unpleasant. Mihailovich wanted to transfer the Belgian Congo, south of Lubumbashi, to the ownership of Northern Rhodesia.

The area may seem to occupy a small part of the Belgian Congo, but Lubumbashi happens to be very important, with two famous copper mines, Kipushi and Ruash, rich in copper, zinc, lead, cadmium, germanium, actinium, tantalum and many other metals, with large metallurgical enterprises in the immediate vicinity.

Let Allen Wilson shy a big face to find Belgium to ask, he has not been so big face. Allen Wilson can only tell Mihailovich, there is only one chance, that is, the end of the colonization of the Belgian Congo, there is a chance to get that piece of prominence deep into Northern Rhodesia, at this stage is not to think about it.

“Those Slavs are pretty greedy?” Edward Bridges laughed out loud after hearing this, and after a moment of silence, he said, “This matter can mobilize the Belgian expatriates in the Belgian Congo, Lubumbashi is the mining center of the Belgian Congo, and it must be a paradise for a lot of gold miners, once the colony can’t be sustained, those people won’t be willing to do so, and they can provoke the local whites to occupy that piece and merge it with Northern Rhodesia. ”

“And if that’s not enough?” Edward Bridges continued without waiting for Alan Wilson to speak, “You have to realize that the official language of Belgium is French, and many French consider the Belgian Belgian Congo to be a French-speaking cultural area. You have this realization, and then you look at the spheres of influence of the African countries, and you will see it differently.”

Alan Wilson was struck by the fact that if Edward Bridges hadn’t reminded him he’d forgotten that Belgium’s official language was French and that there was no cultural separation between the Belgian Congo and French Africa.

From this perspective, together with more than two million square kilometers of the Belgian Congo, the French-speaking culture of Africa occupies half of Africa, thirty million square kilometers of Africa, France itself occupies half, no wonder the French-speaking culture of Africa is the mainstream of the English-speaking culture is an overwhelming advantage.

Seeing Alan Wilson in the middle of thinking, Edward Bridges only said, “Now you understand, the French influence in Africa, the Belgian colonies, only nominally does not belong to France.”

“Sir, I can’t believe I fell into the misconception of forgetting that the Belgians speak French.” Alan Wilson slapped his head, very embarrassed. He had the memory of the Rwandan massacre in his head, and knew that there was France in it.

But did not connect the memory to reality, ignoring that Belgium was a French-speaking culture, otherwise how could France influence Rwanda across the Congo, which was an independent Belgian colony?

“So this is something that the French could have helped in a certain sense.” Edward Bridges was pleased to be able to give Alan Wilson pointers; the young official didn’t know everything, did he?

“Thank you, Sir, I think that I leave much to be desired.” Allen Wilson was instantly much happier after treating the Belgian Congo as a French colony.

Not entirely happy about it, France’s roots in Africa were indeed quite a bit larger than Britain had.

After chatting for a while, he left Whitehall, in fact, Mountbatten is not idle, NATO’s North Atlantic maneuver has just ended, at that time he was still in Northern Rhodesia, and Mihailovich talked and laughed about it.

Currently Mountbatten is bouncing around for savings in military spending, trying not to let the Cabinet’s tightening of military spending, to the extent it can be optimized, affect the combat effectiveness of the Royal Navy.

Thinking about avoiding disarmament and freeing up some funds, it would be logical to send the domestic garrison to Germany. And that was not all.

After arriving home, Pamela Mountbatten has been busy preparing food, Allen Wilson naturally can not let his wife busy themselves, but also into the outing to play the hand, “Do not make my wife busy.”

“It’s not very busy, just met a few organizers of the women’s movement.” Pamela Mountbatten said as she boiled water, “Any interest in hearing about it? Those people are giving Makins a lot of trouble.”

“What’s there to hear? Is it still unconvincing?” Allen Wilson was interested and asked his wife what was going on.

“That’s not true!” Pamela Mountbatten mused, “Maybe some aggravation… By the way, dear, what do you think of them? Really untouchable?”

“Harmful in the long run, no matter how legitimate the ideas put forward.” Alan Wilson answered without thinking.

There was no such thing as women’s rights in his eyes, it was 100% women’s fists, and women’s rights and women’s fists were two sides of the same coin.

Women’s fists are responsible for making a mess, and women’s rights won’t stop it, it’s similar to the radicals and moderates of a religious group. The radicals make trouble, the moderates play nice, and the ultimate beneficiary is the whole.

Women themselves have little power, power is built on the basis of men’s patience, once the men do not want to tolerate the foundation will collapse.

European and American societies are a big deal, like Eastern societies that choose to lie down, and religious societies that choose to strongly suppress women’s rights. These are all different responses.

But whether it is Europe, America or Japan and South Korea, a beat or lie flat is based on a certain economic strength, in other words the standard of living is high, Europe and America is higher, Japan and South Korea is worse.

Set on a certain big country, may want to lie flat are not easy, because there is not yet this foundation, and even can be said from the income data, in the peace teach the world and Japan and South Korea between the two, so what route to choose is possible, once found that there is no economic foundation and tolerate the words? No chance the Taliban fans will grow.

If one chooses to be a fan of the Taliban, it won’t be a matter of feminism not taking advantage of it in the future.

“Indeed, it doesn’t work when you don’t have the economic basis to speak.” Pamela Mountbatten said giving her husband a blank look, “Especially in front of you, surely you have a trick up your sleeve to deal with them, don’t you? Tell me about it.”

“Of course I do, but I’m not dealing with them, this one is nothing more than a minor curtailment. If I were really doing things with the attitude of the enemy, I would certainly contact the newspapers and give intensive coverage to the felony cases against women in the last year, portraying an image of man-hatred, in connection with the Soviet Union.”

Pamela Mountbatten narrowed her eyes slightly, not quite understanding, and asked, “What’s the point?”

“The force is mutual, my dear. Once the intensive coverage has caused a backlash, you know Jack the Ripper?” Alan Wilson mentioned the man who was probably the most famous murderer in history, “Once emotions are stirred up, there could be a batch of them as soon as they appear.”

Pamela Mountbatten gulped as if the name Jack the Ripper terrified her, “I’m glad you didn’t do that.”

“I’m just saying, doing that would have scared the women of England.” Alan Wilson shook his head, “That’s why the general case of a human life can’t appear in the media, men are much more dangerous than women, and there’s a demonstration effect once it’s intensively reported. Not many people know about it, so no one will imitate it, once there is a long period of negative news about women against men, it is dangerous for women instead.”

“You’re scaring me, dumbass.” Pamela Mountbatten tightened her face, her fists constantly greeting toward Alan Wilson, suppressing her voice to complain for fear of disturbing her daughter who was left alone upstairs.

“It’s obvious you asked me …… sure as hell shouldn’t be too honest after all.” Allen Wilson a face of helplessness, in front of the unreasonable wife decisively bowed his head, “I’m wrong.”

Time is still early, there is no need for after-dinner exercise, Allen Wilson put his wife in his arms, say a little topic to divert attention, the discussion just now, as a fart, what Jack the Ripper, does not exist ……

“The Admiralty is interested in getting rid of the battleship Vanguard to save on high logistical costs. Father’s intention is to transfer the battleship Vanguard to the Pacific Fleet, can Malaya cover the cost of the battleship if possible?” Pamela Mountbatten mentioned about the First Sea Lord, the latest initiative to cut costs.

“I have no problem with that, that’s the latest battleship.” Alan Wilson was ready to receive it with confidence once he heard it, “It will also be able to serve for a long time, and it will be good for the security of the Malayan colony.”