Chapter 882 – Edward’s Guidance

“How touching, and I’m sure Sir Edward, too, will appreciate it.” Alan Wilson didn’t pick up on any part-time positions, though he understood well what it meant to have these three important positions in one person.

It was understandable that the Chief Civilian Officer and the Cabinet Secretary should be in one person; the Cabinet Secretary was responsible to the Prime Minister as well as to the Cabinet as a whole, and therefore there had always been an ambiguity as to his duties.

The title of the post of Secretary General has never been changed, and successive Secretaries General have been very clear about their accountability to the Cabinet as a whole, but at times this responsibility has inevitably led to periodic tensions in the relationship between the Secretary General and the then Prime Minister.

Whether the post of Cabinet Secretary and the Chief of Civil Service should be held by the same person. The advantage of having the same person in both positions is that the Chief Civilian Official is able to maintain day-to-day contact with the Chief Executive – the Prime Minister – and be close to the Prime Minister. Proximity to the Prime Minister is key. Since World War II, the Cabinet Office has been adjacent to the Prime Minister’s office and residence.

This proximity also explains why it is preferable for the position of Chief Civil Service Officer to be held by the Secretary General of the Cabinet, rather than by an official who is farther away from the Prime Minister, who is unable to maintain day-to-day contact with the Prime Minister.

But at the same time as Permanent Secretary to the Treasury? Norman Brooke would be the nominal head of the civil service as well as the de facto head of the civil service, and having taken on the role of Permanent Under-Secretary to the Treasury would be a terrifying combination of civil service promotion and payroll power in one place.

Norman Brooke and the Emperor of the Apocalypse shared the same love of being a carpenter, but he was clearly much more enthusiastic about power than that carpenter emperor, and this would be the first time since the emergence of the Cabinet Office that there had been such a potent figure of real power.

Alan Wilson left Seventy Whitehall still imagining what direction things would evolve after Edward Bridges left office?

Since God called me God did not object, he met with the retiring Sir Edward and believed that it would not cause offense.

Not long after Alan Wilson had arrived at the Ministry of Finance, and also met Edward Bridges s deputy, Frank, who played an important role in Australian arms sales, and the two exchanged pleasantries.

As a former Cabinet Secretary, Edward Bridges, after stepping down as Cabinet Secretary, was Norman Brooke again a few years later took away the position of Chief Civilian Officer, and now retiring to take away the position of Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.

Alan Wilson was careful not to mention this, but Edward Bridges was very open-minded, and brought out a glass of whisky and poured it for Alan Wilson, “Norman’s heart for power is much stronger than mine, and I recognize that.”

“Sir Edward, I don’t know how to join the discussion.” Alan Wilson took the glass and shook his head and smiled bitterly, the two big names of Whitehall in the last generation, he spoke, not very useful, did not speak, seems to appear timid and fearful.

“Don’t mind me, my dissatisfaction with him from the decision to retire has ceased to exist. I hated his personal relationship with the Prime Minister, but it was his overly close proximity to the Prime Minister that brought him to this day. Norman has long been an authority; he was private secretary to the Home Secretary at thirty-five, the same rank as you are now. At forty he became my deputy, and at that point in time all of Whitehall thought that he was the next Cabinet Secretary after me.”

Listening to Edward Bridges’ words, Alan Wilson couldn’t help but sigh, “That’s really something.”

“The frequent contact and deep personal relationship with politicians came into play in this case, no matter whether it was the Conservative Party or the Labor Party, Norman was always able to get along with the prime minister and ministers, which is something I couldn’t do.”

Edward Bridges couldn’t help but sigh, “I just didn’t realize that he was so keen on power.”

Speaking of this Edward Bridges gave a slight beat looking at Alan Wilson, “Have you heard any news this time you came back, such as about the candidate for the Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance after my retirement.”

“Sort of heard some news, but it’s not confirmed yet.” Alan Wilson scratched his scalp in embarrassment, “There is a kind of talk that Sir Norman is going to be concurrently the Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance.”

“That’s a given, nothing that can’t be determined.” Edward Bridges burst out laughing at the sound of it, “And I’m certain that he’ll be holding several important positions concurrently until the day he retires.”

“Wouldn’t that be another seven or eight years? Or even ten years.” Alan Wilson muttered as he calculated Norman Brooke’s age.

“Do you think his part-time position as Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance will affect the promotion of those who come after him? That’s something you don’t have to worry about, he’s the Cabinet Secretary, just make a few reforms. For example, because of the importance of the Ministry of Finance, create two permanent undersecretaries, he doubles as the first permanent undersecretary, Frank will be the second permanent undersecretary, and the matter will be resolved.”

Edward Bridges pointed out施施, “That’s the beauty of being a Cabinet Secretary, as long as the Prime Minister doesn’t object, you can reorganize the mighty Ministry of Finance. In fact the Treasury also has the power to challenge the Cabinet Secretary, so it makes sense to guard your hand.”

Several real power ministries, the Treasury, the Foreign Office and the Home Office, have never been among the potential challengers.

Of these, the Treasury is the strongest, otherwise Edward Bridges would not have chosen the Treasury, as his last stop.

Close to retirement, Edward Bridges is not maintaining a highly tense mental state, and on the friction with Norman Brooke, he is now able to do a laugh, and very proactive inquiring, “Allen, are you just going to go on and on, content to be an administrator in the colonies? Sir Ismay is approaching the same age, he used to be Churchill’s military advisor, we’re contemporaries, and it’s a good opportunity once there’s a vacancy in the permanent undersecretary of the Foreign Office.”

Edward Bridges’ meaning was very simple, Alan Wilson was the Deputy Secretary General of the Overseas Assets Management Board and usually dealt with colonial affairs, there was no lack of experience in diplomacy.

Who does not know that the Commonwealth Department, the Colonial Department, the original Ministry of Indian Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do the same thing, only facing different places, all four departments are in the same headquarters building.

Now that the colonies were dwindling and the departments that were already doing the same thing were tending to merge, it would almost be a major step towards the heart of Whitehall if the permanent undersecretary of the Foreign Office were to retire and Alan Wilson were able to take over.

“Honorable Sir, I certainly hope to seize this opportunity as well, and after the hidden dangers of the colonies are removed, I will definitely return.” Alan Wilson also did not hide his desire to progress, mentioning a few hidden dangers in passing, but not the solution.

After all, forcing Indonesia into the socialist camp was not something that could be shared, even if one had a good personal relationship.

Edward Bridges instead inquired curiously, “There are a lot of Chinese in the colonies you manage, aren’t there, are you so confident that there won’t be an anti-British wave?”

“The Chinese are culturally disadvantaged, but of course they don’t think so themselves. When we were in British India, the Hindus thought they were strong too, but the truth is that the Hindus had all been ruled by the Pacifists for hundreds of years before we landed.”

Alan Wilson was not covering up a lapse in his work; he really did think that, and was convinced of it.

The cultural influence of the various dynasties didn’t have much of an impact on Southeast Asia under the watchful eye, the only one that did was Vietnam.

In looking at other Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia is not a peaceful religion dominant? Even at home can not compete with the Middle East from the religion of peace, the so-called culture of how attractive is also to hear.

If not in recent times, Europe and the United States broke the strong countries in the region of the religion of peace, now the remaining countries are limited by population and land area, can not appear in the agricultural era of the Ottoman Empire and the Arab empire, a religion of peace in the words of the strong countries, the development of random development are much stronger than India.

If in the Middle East energy have influence, even if it is not close to the Soviet Union of the Cold War, the twenty-first century China, is enough to make Christendom headache.

This is the reason why he must have more Chinese than Malays in the Malayan colonies, a group of old society thinking Chinese without the numerical advantage, only to be unable to compete with the Malays who believe in the religion of peace.

It is comforting to know that the Chinese in the Malayan colonies are not less conservative than the Malays with their feudalistic ideas in their heads. Otherwise it might have ended up with the latter-day Germany, where men entered the Peace Church in order to fight against the White Left.

“I hope your judgment is correct, of course I don’t know the situation, it’s just that if something happens in Malaya, as the current high commissioner, it might make your colleagues in Whitehall question your reliability. I don’t want your hard work to go to waste, that would be a shame.”

Edward Bridges had a favorable view of Alan Wilson and did not want some twists and turns to lead to unpredictable obstacles to a smooth path, so he reminded on this.

Alan Wilson was of course grateful, and would have liked to talk about the revolving door, but this was the Treasury after all. It was still inappropriate for Edward Bridges to talk about it, even though he was relatively free during this last period.

“The Cabinet Secretary said there’s going to be a reception, which I’ll be attending then. Pamela has a few more things she’d like to talk to Sir, about continuing to benefit the community in that regard.”

This was not the occasion for a detailed conversation, and Alan Wilson let a hint of it slip anyway, waiting for the other party’s reaction.

“Well, that’s something to look forward to.” Edward Bridges raised an eyebrow, then nodded haughtily.

He knew a revolving door had opened in front of him. Curious in mind, but with the composure of having once been a cabinet secretary still in place, he simply nodded heartily.

Leaving the headquarters building of the Ministry of Finance, Alan Wilson began to calculate what to do next, “By the way, the headquarters of the De Havilland Company, the helicopter gunships have come to fruition or not.”

This time, he came back on an impromptu basis, and the lesson in logistics was a problem to be avoided in the future on a day-to-day basis.