Despite London’s repeated urging, it was already April 1st when Rock arrived in London.
The reason why London is so urgent is because the Imperial Conference originally scheduled to be held on March 1 has been postponed for a month due to Rock's absence. If Rock does not come, let alone Stanley Baldwin, Stanley Bruce and William.
Gold will collapse.
Stanley Bruce is the current Prime Minister of Australia, and William King is the current Prime Minister of Canada. The purpose of the Imperial Conference was to clarify the relationship between the colonies, the protectorate, the Dominion and the United Kingdom.
After the World War, Britain's influence over its colonies, protectorates, and dominions continued to decline.
The colonies and protectorates are all easy to say, except for India, they are both honest and do not have the strength to challenge the British.
The Dominions are different. Whether it is southern Africa, Australia, or Canada, they all made outstanding contributions to the British Empire during the World War. The United Kingdom also promised to give the Dominions greater autonomy after the World War. The Imperial Conference was mainly to solve this problem.
question.
The main purpose of the Imperial Conference was to establish the Commonwealth in legal form.
As the most important member of the Commonwealth, Rock was warmly welcomed by the British government when he arrived in London. Stanley Baldwin personally went to the airport to greet him and left the airport in the same car as Rock.
"If you don't come, I will be driven crazy by those people. Earl Lytton asked to convene the meeting in advance. I said screw it. Without the participation of southern Africa, the imperial meeting cannot get real results." Stan
The car Leigh Baldwin was traveling in was also a Lord's car, and he complained half-truthfully as soon as he got in the car.
Earl Lytton is talking about Victor Bulwer Lytton, the British Governor of Bengal. Now India is in the transition period between two governors-general, and Lytton is also the Governor-General of India.
Those who were most enthusiastic about the Imperial Conference were none other than Lytton, Rock, Bruce, and King. They did not expect much from the Imperial Conference.
Southern Africa, Australia, and Canada, whether confirmed in legal form or not, have de facto achieved autonomous status.
Only India is unclear about its positioning. Although Indians strongly demand the same autonomous status as southern Africa, Australia, and Canada, the British government is unlikely to agree to such a request.
ˆThe Indians don’t know it yet. They place their hopes on the British to fulfill their promises.
Whether Britain will fulfill its promise, Rock doesn't know. Anyway, Gandhi, who initiated "non-violent disobedience", has been arrested by the British colonial government.
It is said that Gandhi decided to go on a hunger strike while in prison. When he learned the news, Winston was ecstatic and asked Rock three times in one day whether Gandhi was dead.
"There have been too many things happening recently. France and Madagascar are on the verge of war. There are constant frictions between the Indian Ocean Navy and the Americans. The Americans hope that we can increase investment in Germany - haha -" Rock gave up and stared at
Baldwin's expectant eyes did not give him the answer he wanted: "——But how is that possible? Congress is re-revising the annual fiscal budget. The previous budget was seriously insufficient. The federal government has decided to issue 200 million rand of bonds to purchase
For some public facilities, when I came here, my finance minister asked me, when will we start implementing the debt repayment plan?"
An important task of Rock's trip was to ask the British government for debt.
After the World War, Southern Africa and the United Kingdom negotiated the debt owed by the United Kingdom to Southern Africa during the World War. The final result was that the British government spent 1% of its annual fiscal revenue to repay the debt.
Rock now knows that this debt repayment agreement has become a piece of paper. The world war has been over for several years, and the British Empire has not paid back a penny.
This moral integrity is not as good as that of the French, who more or less pay back some of it.
"Locke, you know, the British Empire doesn't have a penny now. Damn it, Ramsay MacDonald ignored the deterioration of the finances and insisted on implementing some welfare policies. As a result, after he stepped down, he left me with this mess.
At least the federal government of Southern Africa can still issue bonds, and it is estimated that no one in London is buying the bonds now-" Stanley Baldwin seemed to suddenly remember something, and looked at Rock with evil intentions.
"Don't even think about it. I'm just thinking about it. It's not certain whether I can sell it or not." Rock denied it flatly. Stanley Baldwin's look was like that of Grandma Wolf. Southern Africa is no longer Little Red Riding Hood!
“You have money to help the Germans, but you have no money to help the British government?” Stanley Baldwin looked suspicious.
Göring Meyer’s visit to Southern Africa was somewhat successful. Although he did not receive investment from Southern Africa, he did donate a lot of relief funds.
These donations did not go directly to Goering, but instead purchased various goods from southern Africa and shipped them to Germany, including food and daily necessities.
"It's not relief, it's humanitarianism -" Rock firmly refused to admit it. Regardless of Britain's return to the continental balancing policy, God knows what the situation will be like when Germany takes a breather in a few years.
“Your son just got married, right?” Stanley Baldwin said startlingly.
“No, no, no, don’t talk nonsense, I didn’t—” Rock denied Sanlian.
"Never mind it, it seems that Arthur's title is still a baron, how about it? Do you want to help Arthur get a step up?" Stanley Baldwin is simply too much. This is blatantly selling out his title.
“Haha, there’s no need, a baronet is just fine.” Roque was not fooled, the British Empire was still able to get rid of the title only.
“Think about it, having more titles is not a burden——” Stanley Baldwin was not in a hurry, the title still had some value, at least the status was there.
Roque currently only has the title of Marquis of Nyasaland. When he was introduced, the prefix of his name was obviously not long enough and lacked momentum.
Some British nobles have more than one title, such as Prince Charles, whom Rock knows. In addition to the title of Prince of Wales, which is exclusive to the crown prince, he also has the Duke of Cornwall, the Earl of Carrick, the Baron Renfrew, the Scottish Islands, and the Great Britain.
Lord Steward, Earl of Chester and many other titles.
"Let's talk about the imperial meeting -" Rock didn't continue. Asking for so many titles was of no use except to bluff people.
With Roque’s current status, he no longer needs these extraneous things.
Speaking of the Imperial Conference, Stanley Baldwin once again had a complicated expression. Ramsay Macdonald was not entirely to blame for the Indian problem, but both Lloyd George and Winston were responsible.
The issue now facing Stanley Baldwin is also very difficult. As Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin must inherit Ramsay Macdonald's decision on India and start negotiations with India on India's status.
But there is no need to discuss this point. The British Parliament will not agree. If Stanley Baldwin insists on having his own way, he will probably be kicked out of office by the Parliament again.
“What do you think?” Stanley Baldwin seeks Rock’s advice.
“My attitude is the same as Winston’s. India should maintain its status quo.” Roque sold India in a matter of minutes.
“Yeah, yeah, let’s have a meeting with Bruce and King tomorrow to talk about the situation in India.” Stanley Baldwin finally gained some confidence.
In the evening, Stanley Baldwin arranged a simple welcome dinner for Rock. In addition to Rock, Stanley Baldwin also invited the Chamberlain brothers and Winston.
“Is that man dead?” Winston was still concerned about Gandhi. He hated Gandhi so much that he didn’t even want to mention his name and only used “that man” instead.
“Not yet——” Neville’s expression was very regretful, and he obviously didn’t have a good impression of Gandhi either.
“Then find someone to kill him!” Winston was never merciful in this regard and hated Gandhi deeply.
"No, no, no, he can't die now, at least he can't die in prison -" Stanley Baldwin was startled. If Gandhi died in prison, regardless of whether it was the colonial government or not, Stanley would be blamed.
Leigh Baldwin's.
"Then let's stink him. I heard that he sleeps with his grandniece and grandnephew and his wife every day, and he doesn't wear any clothes. He actually has the nerve to say he is abstinent——" Rock didn't like Gandhi either.
Otherwise, it’s just the 200 million joke.
The total Chinese population at that time was only 400 million.
"Haha, Locke, this is of no use to that guy, and even if it is true, most Indians will not think there is anything wrong with it." Winston sneered, scorning the moral bottom line of the Indians.
For Winston’s evaluation, brothers Stanley Baldwin and Chamberlain nodded frequently in agreement.
Only then did Rock realize that in fact, the British were even better than the Indians in this regard, especially the royal family, and even the royal families of the entire Europe. Marriage between close relatives was a normal phenomenon, otherwise it would not be possible.
There will be so many hemophiliacs.
"That's easy -" Rock didn't think there was anything he could do to deal with Gandhi. The best way to deal with such a person was to find a place like Robben Island to imprison him until he died.
Or create an accident. Even if the accident does not look like an accident, as long as the British government is not embarrassed, others will be embarrassed.
“How do you say it?” Stanley Baldwin said enthusiastically.
“There is no real governor-general in India now——” Roark revealed the secret.
"Yes!" Winston responded quickly. Earl Lytton was only the acting governor, not the real governor of India. His position on this issue could not be very firm.
"Winston, you go find Earl Lytton tomorrow - no, no, no, I'll go in person." Stanley Baldwin was in a good mood. India, let alone a dominion, was not even a protectorate. If Britain lost India, it would be really terrible.
I became a loner.
ps: Regarding typos, the input method I use has a very good and weird function called intelligent association. Sometimes you can type the word you want by just typing two letters, but it only associates but does not remember, which is very complicated.
