Chapter 865 – The Future Executive Undersecretary

“Oh, it seems that everything you have plotted.” Mountbatten looked at his daughter with a raised eyebrow and said in a knowing manner, “Then dear daughter, you should at least let your father know what cards are currently in hand so that he can move forward steadily.”

“On the French side, because of the goodwill we made before in Algeria, we managed to get in touch with the lobbying forces through the local military, and the group represented by Pidur is not much of a problem.” Pamela Mountbatten knew what she was talking about and wanted a different view from her father, “And then there are some of the people in the Council of the United States of Europe, Monet, Schumann, those people in Vannet ……”

“Although they are from two different circles, they add up to two Prime Ministers, two Foreign Ministers and the French National Intelligence Coordinating Committee, so it seems that the French side is not a problem.” Mountbatten nodded, “Then the pressure is all on our side.”

“We’re the ones with the problem?” Pamela Mountbatten simply thought that she had heard wrong, the advantage that Britain had over France was the political stability of Britain, no matter how small the conflict was, as long as the battlefields met, the damage to the country was inevitable.

France in the process of fighting for supremacy with the United Kingdom gradually not support, is because of the political instability of France constantly coup d’état.

“You should have heard, our prime minister and foreign minister, early years because of the party leader of the victory until now are not good relations, only Morrison prestige is too high. This gap has been particularly prominent in the last two years, along with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gaitschke, and the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary are on the whole acceptable for European integration. And the Chancellor of the Exchequer is more conservative.”

“Overall, the complexity of the relationship between the prime minister and the foreign secretary, the chancellor of the exchequer, who is also a supporter of the prime minister, and the foreign secretary, who is at odds with the chancellor of the exchequer, is a complexity that is perhaps only known to those in Whitehall.”

Compared with France’s two circles advancing together, the current Labor Cabinet looks all well and good, having been in power for three consecutive terms, driving the U.K. to clear its foreign debt, and the economy hasn’t suffered any major ups and downs. But it is just that the internal conflicts are not known.

The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary agree on Europe, but the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary are hostile to each other. The Chancellor of the Exchequer supports the Prime Minister, but the Chancellor of the Exchequer is against European integration.

“Father, Pidur and Monet are not in the same circle either, Pidur strongly supports the Algerian war, Monet is more focused on integrating Europe, they can all sit together, there is no reason why we can’t, the Labor cabinet is not so opposed to it because of this matter, I will talk to Sir Edward and Frank.”

Pamela Mountbatten spoke with a petulant whisper, “Of course I’m not saying that the Navy isn’t good for it, if the arms sale goes through, the number of new aircraft carriers being built might reach four. That way for the next twenty years you won’t have to worry about the beloved Royal Navy being marginalized.”

“You …… and your Alan have learned the hard way to come and cheat and take advantage of your father.” Mountbatten looked so sad that he really wanted to give his daughter a lightning five lash.

But Mountbatten was still eating it up, he was happy to see the Royal Navy grow, and not only did he feel that the Grievance and Glory Classes should be sold, but there was also a small group of ten Centaur and Giant Classes that were likewise actively looking for buyers.

In fact the Foreign Office did go around selling these sub-20,000 ton carriers to various countries, candidates including but not limited to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, India, and even Iran wanted to sell one.

Of course to make the French feel that they were getting good value for their money, Admiral Mountbatten returned his attention to his old unit, the Royal Mediterranean Fleet, the Mediterranean Fleet, with Malta and Cyprus as its key naval bases, which along with the eastern and western ends of the Mediterranean Sea, Gibraltar and the Suez Canal, which were still under British control, were the ones that could help France to cut off the support to the resistance forces from the rest of the country.

“Now that there are 600,000 French troops in Algeria, how many natives are there in the whole of Algeria?” Mountbatten really didn’t know much about Algeria and couldn’t help but ask his daughter who had explored there.

“More than eight million.” Pamela Mountbatten hesitated, “The exact number can’t be calculated, it’s just an approximation.”

“The French really take it seriously.” Mountbatten snorted at that, “Most of the country’s military is in North Africa, I wonder how many other armies are under command in the framework of NATO.”

Six hundred thousand troops to suppress the total population of more than eight million Algeria, Mountbatten can not think of reasons for failure.

In that case the premise of predicting a French victory, the sale of two aircraft carriers was the icing on the cake, and the Parisian side was still willing, it was a win-win situation.

While his father was drafting a report on the almost zero potential for refitting the Grudge class carriers and recommending to the Secretary of State for the Admiralty that they be mothballed, Pamela Mountbatten went to see the two civilian heads of the Treasury, the former Cabinet Secretary, the current Permanent Under Secretary of State for the Treasury, and his deputy, Frank.

Frank had not expected to be approached so soon after his earlier banter on his return to London passing through Kuala Lumpur.

“Actually, I can’t do much more than do the math for the Geertzke Chancellor of the Exchequer and save a not insignificant amount of money.” Frank let out a bitter smile, repeated the words in Kuala Lumpur, “The most important thing is whether Paris has this intention, if there is this intention, I can only exert influence from the side, our finance minister is not easy to fool.”

“How bad to fool?” Pamela Mountbatten was curious; that was a high compliment.

“He could practically be a civil servant.” Frank shook his head and muttered to himself, “That’s why I …… don’t agree with whatever decisions the Chancellor of the Exchequer wants to pass.”

“Me?” Pamela Mountbatten murmured with a look of suspicion, and with a turn of phrase said, “Perhaps I give should inquire whether Sir Edward has anything to do with it; after all, he is a gentleman of great experience.”

“It is not so serious.” Hearing the name of his top man, Frank at once changed his manner, “We have each done our duty, and never interfered with each other; we have all had a desire to benefit the community, and with full co-operation, an optimistic result ought to have occurred.”

“Sincerely, my friend.” Pamela Mountbatten was very pleased with the reply, “I have heard Sir Edward also talk of retirement, it seems the future of the Treasury still rests with you.”

“Pamela, don’t ever say that, our Ministry of Finance is a small department with only one hundred and twenty-three senior officers, and four hundred and sixty-seven secretaries, that’s all.” Frank immediately expressed his absolute approval of his top man, “As to who is the future Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, who knows?”

“That reassures me.” Pamela Mountbatten smiled lightly, “My husband has said that you are a colleague he recognizes.”

“I recognize Alan very much as well.” Frank likewise pitched in with a positive response to a positive response.

Pamela Mountbatten left, and it was too early to talk about any future rewards; her return to London wasn’t the only thing about arms sales; deploying exploration teams with experience in offshore exploration, finding urban planning talent to help urbanize the Malayan colony, and vocational schools were no small feat.

According to the report of the colonial government of the Malayan colony, “the professional knowledge and skills of the people are the “intangible capital” that constitutes the wealth and power, and the cultivation of such knowledge and skills is the guarantee of economic development. It was decided to include industrial schools, agricultural schools, commercial schools, merchant marine schools, industrial cram schools and apprentice schools in a system of vocational schools. The industrial school serves as a school of secondary technical education and is divided into the subjects of industry, agriculture, fishery, commerce and merchant marine. It also enrolls graduates of the higher elementary school and the period of vocational training is three years.”

In addition to the vocational school section, the Malayan colony was going to establish four, relying on urbanization to do focus on the development of the Universities of Singapore, Malacca, Penang and Kuala Lumpur as the British higher education to the Malayan colony’s educational support.

Of course, the four universities are a long-term plan, and do not require such a large investment at the beginning, but the group of teachers who go to the Malayan colony will receive more favorable treatment than in the mainland.

Kuala Lumpur, a high-class apartment, draped in a man’s shirt, Ingrid Bergman, is busy making French baguettes, suddenly the bedroom door was pushed open, was attracted the attention of Ingrid Bergman to see, similarly dressed Heidi Rama came out, then inquired, “he woke up yet?”

“Sleeping soundly.” The corners of Hedy Lamarr’s mouth curled up as if she had thought of something wonderful.

“Phew, don’t tire him out either.” Ingrid Bergman continued the French baguette tour, sounding slightly distressed.

“Oh, like you’re not trying too hard either.” Hedy Lamarr rolled her eyes, obviously so worked up last night.

Ingrid Bergman blushed and wisecracked, “I meant for him to get some rest, he was already tired from work. Put down the bath and let him get up and relax.”

“What’s the point of a bath.” Hedy Lamarr wasn’t impressed, what’s so dirty about it that it’s not all kissed clean? Now what’s the point of worrying about being tired, less of all the tricks, he’ll get tired?

“What about making food?” Sleepy-eyed Alan Wilson staggered out, missing the scene just now.

“I’ll run the bath for you.” Ingrid Bergman drifted in and led the man to the bathroom; the food could wait.

Within moments, Hedy Lamarr could hear the sound of Wakako applauding for love, coming out of the bathroom, gritting her silver teeth, “Don’t tire him out? Hm ……”

The time to satisfy the desire of the mouth and stomach was slightly delayed, the morning exercise finished Alan Wilson wolfed down the food, did not hide the desire to attack the food, the two big movie queens are much more reserved, glowing to listen to the man pointing out.

“The city of Malacca can have a piece of the city’s construction if you want. But you’ll have to build a new company through Newfoundland to get involved, and it’s still easy to spot French capital entering a British colony.” After last night’s battle, Alan Wilson was clearly in a state of complacency, and the old habit of making sure to give enough back.