Chapter 914 The test of the permanent undersecretary

Allen Wilson spoke to the Americans, hoping that Washington would lend its influence to regulate the growing dispute between Newfoundland and Iceland over the fisheries, and that, as to the delimitation of the Gulf of Guinea, Great Britain would endeavor to come up with a formula that would not be injurious to the peace.

“I hope so.” Kizdon reluctantly nodded, but he also did not believe that there was any miracle, involving so many countries, want to come up with a program that does not hurt the peace is not easy to talk about?

He thought Allen Wilson was merely expressing optimism, and didn’t think anything could really be done.

From this time onwards, around the topic of delimitation of the Gulf of Guinea, and also involved in the delimitation of Newfoundland, Iceland dispute, because the European fishermen are also Iceland transgressing the border of the main force, the United States as a topic added to the discussion.

As Garbo said, with the arrogant self-understanding of the Americans, it is neither realistic nor sensible to exclude them.

By using a secondary issue to keep the U.S. out of the picture, it can lend itself to the U.S. attitude and make things more logical.

Alan Wilson, who was circling the classic version of the limousine, found a random excuse to return to London to discuss the solution on maritime delimitation with the Foreign Secretary, and the Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He had already prepared the proposal, at this point it is necessary for the Cabinet’s approval, “The specific proposal is, two hundred nautical miles of economic exclusive zone, as well as the continental shelf extension, and the island delimitation of the integrated version of the solution.”

“And we and the Americans have talked to see if we can reconcile the dispute between Newfoundland and Iceland, in fact, Iceland ate a lot of ugly, in recent years to find a lot of European countries in trouble, should be educated by the way.”

Many European countries in Alan Wilson’s mouth, in fact, the brunt is Britain.

In fact, now, the cod wars have begun to take shape, due to Iceland’s perennial influence of ocean currents, fishing resources are very rich. European countries love to eat cod, especially Fort Cod, a day does not eat all over the body, so the cod has become one of the highest economic value of fish species.

But Iceland to what nothing, you can only rely on fishing day, but the money floating in the water, who do not want to earn? Fertile cod also attracted a number of countries to fish, good times do not last long, it did not take long for these cod to be very little left.

Allen Wilson in Newfoundland as administrator, the first to draw twelve nautical miles of exclusive zone. Iceland followed the example, but the learning stops here, Newfoundland after all, there is Britain to take care of, at this time the United Kingdom is not the British Isles, but with a large number of colonies of the British Empire.

After leaving office, he did not forget to brush up on his goodwill in Newfoundland, selling some destroyers to clear the inventory, and helping Newfoundland in the British mainland among the powerful shipbuilding industry, signed a number of orders for ocean-going fishing boats.

With the help of the United Kingdom in the back, Newfoundland Crown Territory birdshot, on the one hand, strictly prohibit other countries from plundering the fishery resources of the Newfoundland waters, on the one hand, they traveled long distances to Iceland to replenish their own losses during the period of fishing ban.

Newfoundland and Iceland dispute largely from this, two years ago, Iceland celebrated ten years of statehood, inventory of Iceland relies on fishery resources, cod fishing plummeted, it learns Newfoundland delineated twelve nautical miles of the exclusive zone.

But no one cares, in the past two years because of fishing, and the British conflict is increasing.

Alan Wilson is not prepared to fight three cod wars with Iceland, no matter whether it is won or lost, for Britain belongs to the more disgraceful move, he is ready to borrow the hand of Newfoundland, coupled with economic means, let Iceland to re-recognize recognize the United Kingdom, don’t think that embracing the United States thighs, you can have no fear.

Bind the fisheries conflict between Iceland and Newfoundland, and the delimitation of the Gulf of Guinea, looks like the opposite, even the Foreign Secretary Morrison and the permanent undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ismay, can not link the two things, can only wait for Allen Wilson’s explanation.

Allen Wilson then explained how getting the US to help stand up for itself through secondary issues would add to the legitimacy of this Gulf of Guinea demarcation, while at the same time taking care of Iceland, which is always sticking thorns in the side of Britain, in the meantime.

“This time we can use the delimitation of the Gulf of Guinea to get France, Spain and Portugal on Britain’s side. If we want everyone to be happy on the delimitation issue, we have to come up with a resolution for an economic blockade along the way, which I’m sure the French will be familiar with; the continental blockade policy was invented by Napoleon.”

“But we propose to do just that?” Sir Ismay paused at this, with the obvious implication that there was a suspicion of bullying.

“That’s why we’re going to let the French propose that the colonies around the Gulf of Guinea, along with the Gold Coast and the Nigerian Autonomous Dominions, plus Portugal’s Angola, and Spain’s Equatorial Guinea, are just barely on the same level as the French colonies. The reason why Spain and Portugal are taking a hard line is that they are afraid that if we don’t get involved, we will lose out when we face France.”

Alan Wilson narrated, “Two hundred nautical miles economic exclusive zone is a very fair way to delimit the boundary, and can unite the colonial powers, because not only in our hands, there also exists a large number of overseas islands in the hands of the French, these islands are populated by Xu Xiao, with these islands as a stronghold, coupled with the two hundred nautical miles economic exclusive zone, you can draw a large area of the sea to yourself. On the whole both we and the French have thus taken a great advantage.”

This is exactly what happened, the latter-day ranking of territorial sea area, the United States because of the continental shelf of the two oceans plus the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Exclusive possession of more than ten million square kilometers of territorial waters, France is the second country, the same ten million square kilometers, not much smaller than the United States.

And the emergence of two hundred nautical miles of economic exclusive zone of time, Britain’s colonies have been pretty much lost. And it’s not like France has retained some islands, resulting in Britain’s territorial waters being half the size of France’s.

So Alan Wilson thought that the early introduction of the concept of the two hundred nautical mile economic exclusive zone would be very beneficial to Britain. Because now Britain has more cards in its hand than in its original history.

With this concept of territorial waters, Britain’s emphasis on quite a few seemingly worthless islands that still existed in its hands would be raised to a higher level. The second major benefit is the five-eye alliance. In the latter days, the top ten countries in the ranking of territorial sea area include, but are not limited to, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

The area of the territorial sea of the five countries added together is about 39 million square kilometers.

Now put forward this concept widely publicized, Alan Wilson did not enjoy the specific calculations, but how the British territorial sea area should be raised to the same level as the United States and France, this level should not be difficult.

Morrison and Ismay, as foreign minister and permanent undersecretary of the foreign ministry, immediately recognized this point, there is still a considerable number of miniature islands pinched in the hands of the United Kingdom, and if the delimitation of the Gulf of Guinea is extended, a large area of the sea can be reasonably under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom.

And besides Britain, Spain and Portugal, including France, were also colonial powers. None of them would object. At least the two couldn’t think of any reason to oppose it.

“Allen, your head really has a rich ability to make associations. It’s amazing.” Locking eyes with Morrison, Sir Ismay read the foreign minister’s meaning and spoke directly, “If you can turn the delimitation of the Gulf of Guinea, into a good start, and a lesson to Iceland, it’s enough to prove your excellent working ability in the field of diplomacy.”

“Thank you, Sir Ismay.” Alan Wilson bowed his head slightly, how Ismay was also considered his top boss, as an official fan, he bowed his head now absolutely from the bottom of his heart.

“Allen, we wish we could finalize things earlier. Tough luck!” Morrison gave the same encouragement, “Having you come back to shoulder other duties in the Malayan colony is Whitehall’s way of looking after your performance.”

“I will return to Paris at once.” Allen Wilson looked like he was going through fire for England, and he swore that it was definitely not because there were several classic luxury cars waiting for him to test drive in Paris.

Waiting for Allen Wilson to walk out of the office, Sir Ismay rushed to Morrison and asked, “Honorable Minister, in fact, all the departments of Whitehall are optimistic about Allen’s ability, if the result of this negotiation is as he has just said, does it prove that he has the ability to be competent for the position of Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?”

“Hasn’t your Whitehall always valued seniority?” Morrison looked extremely shocked, was this showing that Alan Wilson was in his thirties and was already unanimously favored by all of Whitehall?

“Normally this is the case, but there are always exceptions. Allen has a large number of overseas properties in his hands, this is the result of his personal management over a long period of time, in fact even Sir Norman, when the Overseas Asset Management Committee was established, he did not expect such a rapid development.” Sir Ismay shrugged his shoulders, “Calling him back before was supposed to use the funds from the Overseas Asset Management Committee to deal with the economic crisis.”

“Actually, I’m really old and no longer fit to work in the country as it might cause offense. Going to NATO would be less conspicuous.”

Morrison conceded that Ismay was telling the truth as well, and the reason no one had pointed this out was because Ismay was a soldier and a diplomat at the same time, and very few people were able to blend the two professions together.

But it was also like Ismay had just said about Alan Wilson, there were always exceptions.

“So, I’m about to send off one of the oldest permanent undersecretaries in Whitehall and then welcome one of the youngest permanent undersecretaries in Whitehall.” Morrison let out a bitter laugh, “It looks like you’ve already decided, but I’ve heard that he hasn’t been in his second term for long and also likes to be overseas, so will he be resistant to coming back.”

“Think of a way to transfer him back next year.” Sir Ismay said unimpressed, “Of course, we’ll still have to see if this meeting on the demarcation issue will produce the results Britain wants.”