Chapter 98 Former Prime Minister Churchill

Unsurprisingly, the Labor Party would surprise Churchill, who had been pointing the finger at the Potsdam Conference. Of this Alan Wilson had no doubt, and it didn’t mean that if Labor came to power the British Empire would be sold down the river to its underpants.

The relationship between the Labor Party and the Conservative Party is very much like the relationship between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in the United States, one is a little more subtle and the other a little more direct, doing the same thing. On the colonial question in particular, Adderley and Churchill differed only in detail.

The changing attitudes of both parties towards the extensive colonies of the British Empire were in fact the same, the line of resolute defense, focused support, limited adherence, partial abandonment, and total withdrawal.

As a matter of fact, with the exception of British India, no colony was relinquished during the administration of Adderley. In the case of British India, it was really the case that it had to be given up because the strong pressure had exceeded Britain’s national strength.

And Britain’s Great Disarmament of the 1950s actually happened after the Conservatives regained power.

On the streets of London, Labor supporters chanted Labor’s claims in support of Adderley, “a high and rising standard of living, lifting all people out of poverty, and an educational system that makes it possible for every boy and girl to develop his or her talents”

“A vote for Labor is the beginning of the sinking of the British Empire, and only Churchill can make Britain great again.”

If Alan Wilson had been in the country and heard it, as a hard fan of the King of Understanding he would have hugged the other side with his old fists, blatant plagiarism, where did the gentleman’s face go?

Unfortunately, he was not in the country, but accompanied Foltseva, in Germany’s major ports among the inventory of the German fleet left behind. He had already adjusted his mindset and did his best to fulfill his task.

“I had thought that you would definitely be reluctant, after all, the German fleet is in the hands of you Brits.” Foltseva was in a good mood, except for the occasional cough that was a bit of a buzzkill.

“A skinny camel is bigger than a horse, this size of the fleet is not in the eyes of the British Empire.” Alan Wilson swollen face, hard mouth, “as a continental country, the Soviet Union still do not know what is called a hundred years of naval. Without twenty years, the Soviet Union cannot compete with Britain at sea.”

“Really, that’s hard to see.” Foltseva covered her mouth with a light smile and teased, “Then why listen to the Americans and give us the German fleet in our hands?”

The Americans will pay for this, Allen Wilson silently thought in his mind, deeply looked at Foltseva and whisked his sleeve away.

The Breston Woods system, while a good aid to solidifying hegemony, had certain limitations. Under this system, although the United States was the ally of the capitalist countries, Britain and France also had the ability to keep the United States from going too far. He remembered that in the decade of the sixties and seventies, Britain, France and Germany had taken advantage of the fact that the United States was stuck in the quagmire of the Vietnam War, and had taken consecutive financial attacks on the United States.

The U.S. really did have a say in the West, or was it after the dollar and oil had been bundled and the whole of Europe had been kidnapped at the same time.

“It’s British Occupation!” Alan Wilson, who had taken two steps, jerked back and muttered, “What are you Soviets so goddamned excited about?”

The German commercial fleet had gone from five million before the war to eight hundred thousand tons today, but it was still a huge gain for a purely continental country, the Soviet Union, whose shipping was really stretched thin.

Only slightly better than the three defeated Germany, Italy and Japan, less than the lead of the United Kingdom and the United States, and not even as good as the rifle-a-throw France.

From Foltseva careful move, Allen Wilson can also judge, the Soviet Union to this batch of German fleet to be handed over should be extremely important.

This side of the transfer at the same time, the Potsdam Conference, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union are still in a series of exchanges. On the question of the border between Germany and Poland, as well as a part of East Prussia and the former Free Zone of Danzig which did not come under the jurisdiction of the USSR, both came under the jurisdiction of the Polish government. Britain and the United States agreed to establish diplomatic relations with the Provisional Government of National Unity in Poland.

Britain and the United States also agreed to cede Königsberg and the surrounding area to the Soviet Union as punishment for Germany’s initiation of the war. Thus through the Potsdam Conference, Germany’s borders were officially changed to what would be familiar to later generations.

Poland lost its former Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, which were incorporated into Soviet territory.

With regard to German reparations, it was determined that “Soviet claims for reparations will be satisfied by the confiscation of assets in the Soviet-occupied areas of German territory and the corresponding German investments abroad”. In addition, the USSR was to receive, as reparations, ten percent of the industrial facilities demolished in the Western zone of occupation without compensation and fifteen percent paid in merchandise.

In other words, the British Occupation Zone could not skip the treatment of being bloodied by the Soviet Union. The British delegation said that, while agreeing to the Soviet proposal for Poland, the Polish government-in-exile would have to return to Poland and participate equitably in its post-war reconstruction on a democratic basis.

This was a proposition that had already been booked by Allen Wilson and Foltseva in the midst of the backroom maneuvering, that Britain would allow the Polish government-in-exile and its supporters to return to Poland under reasonable and legitimate pretexts, and that it was up to the Soviets themselves to deal with it as they wished and in what way they wished when the time came.

Stalin had even thought of a solution and was prepared to send Marshal Rokossovsky, who was a Pole, to wait in Poland for the return of the Polish government-in-exile.

In the middle of handing over the flotilla, Allen Wilson suddenly said, “The Soviet Union could actually use the Yugoslav problem to put pressure on the Americans to see if they could exchange the four-nation occupation of Berlin.”

Since the refugee incident in Yugoslavia, in order to prevent a similar incident from happening again, the Soviet Red Army had blocked the Austrian border and had spoken in favor of Yugoslavia at the Potsdam Conference, much to Truman’s embarrassment.

This move made perfect sense, the 200,000 or so people from Yugoslavia did run away to the US-occupied territories, and the Soviet Union took over the reasoning, again turning what was already a nominal four-nation occupation into a Soviet occupation of Austria.

The Potsdam Conference reached another impasse on the Austrian question. Stalin said that the present status quo in Austria should not be changed for the time being, which greatly upset Prime Minister Churchill, and made Churchill even more uncomfortable because it seemed as if he was going to become the former Prime Minister.

Churchill, who was at the Potsdam Conference with the remnants of his victory over Germany, was trailing the Labor Party in the elections that had now been opened. If this trend continues, the Conservatives will lose the general election, and the form of some of the delayed ballot papers is not encouraging.

Two days later, the results of the general election came out, and Churchill became the former Prime Minister of the British Empire with honor.

“Whose side are you civil servants on?” Foltseva asked in a provocative tone after hearing the election results discussed by the British and meeting Alan Wilson.

“The winning side.” Alan Wilson straightened his back and replied, in a Stalinist phrase, “The victor is above reproach.”