What surprised Roque was that, with the exception of Martin, the other cabinet members seemed to pay a serious lack of attention to the Far East. They did not seem to care about Japan's small actions and still hoped to actively participate in European affairs.
This cannot be blamed on their short-sightedness. After all, Stoudemire, Henry, and Yang Smuts are all white people, and they are naturally more emotionally inclined to Europe. This is an unchangeable fact.
Unlike Britain, the United States, and France whose core interests are in Europe, southern Africa's core interests are in the Indian Ocean.
This can be fully proved from the military deployment. The most powerful fleet of the United States is in the Atlantic Ocean, the most powerful fleet of the British fleet is the Home Fleet, and France’s core interests are in the Mediterranean. Although these three have squadrons in the Far East,
Not to mention the ship type is outdated, but the number is also seriously insufficient. There is not a single battleship stipulated in the "Washington Naval Treaty". This has resulted in Japan becoming the dominant player in the Far East, and the balance of strength has been seriously imbalanced.
To put it bluntly, the strength of the Japanese combined fleet can defeat the fleets of the British, American, French and Yugoslavia in East Asia. This has seriously threatened the interests of all countries.
The problem is that even under this situation, Britain, the United States, France, and South Africa are still scheming. The United States insists on pursuing the "open door" policy and shares the Far East market; France hopes to maintain the status quo, preferably for generations; the United Kingdom hopes that Southern Africa can be in the Far East
To play a greater role, it did not hesitate to transfer the Changi Naval Base to southern Africa.
Roque hopes that all countries can join forces to restrict Japan, but unfortunately this is simply not possible.
"The Indian Ocean is too important to us. The Persian Gulf provides us with oil, Australia provides us with iron ore, and the Strait of Malacca is our chokepoint for introducing new immigrants. Britain, France, and the United States can all abandon the Far East, but we
Not in southern Africa." Rock had to emphasize the importance of the Indian Ocean to southern Africa.
Roque’s insistence on this must be due to his personal feelings. Roque is not a saint, and he cannot just watch the interests of the Chinese being harmed.
Calculating the time, it will be almost two years before Japan will begin its external expansion.
“Our core interests have always been in the Indian Ocean, which is why we have deployed so many troops around the Indian Ocean.” Yang Smuts also knew the importance of the Indian Ocean to southern Africa.
Excluding Port Elizabeth, Southern Africa has more than ten overseas military bases and three fleets in the Indian Ocean region, with a total force of more than 100,000.
If you don’t count St. Roch, there are only two and a half overseas military bases in Southern Africa within the Atlantic Ocean. One is Halifax and the other is Santa Maria Island in Cape Verde. Due to the opposition of the United States, the Bahamas has until now
It is still in a state of shutdown, so it can only be regarded as half.
"But this is far from enough. The Far East not only means more new immigrants to us, it is also a market for more than 500 million people. We cannot give up this market to Japan." Rock insisted that this is not only
It's a personal relationship.
"The Far East is indeed a big market with 500 million people. However, the consumption power of the Far East is seriously insufficient and cannot form an effective market. Our annual trade volume with the Far East is less than one-third of that with Europe, and it is also subject to various restrictions."
Henry also had his own opinions, and it was rare for him to disagree with Rock.
It cannot be said that the disarmament conference that just passed was fruitless.
It has been ten years since the end of the World War. The largest country in the Far East has been in a warlord war, and the interests of various countries in the Far East have been greatly affected.
During the Disarmament Conference, in order to end the chaos in the Far East as soon as possible, Ramsay MacDonald asked all countries to stop selling weapons to the Far East in order to reduce the intensity of conflicts in the Far East.
This proposal was agreed by all participating countries and became one of the few outcomes of the Conference on Disarmament.
In the Far East, the most developed country is undoubtedly Japan. However, for some reason, the trade between southern Africa and Japan is greatly restricted. This has the greatest impact on the Fawalt Steel Group. Henry did not say it before, and it is not
The representative has no complaints.
Think about it, if southern Africa relaxes its trade restrictions on Japan, Japan will not need to import scrap steel from the United States.
In sharp contrast to this, Southern Africa has never placed restrictions on Germany. After Germany received loans from the United Kingdom and the United States, it also increased its efforts in foreign procurement, especially steel and oil. In this regard, Germany only needs to pay for it.
There are as many as there are in southern Africa.
“Our biggest trade method with the Far East now is food exchange for population,” Stoudemire also complained quietly.
Rock rarely reflected on whether he had acted too obviously.
Since most cabinet members have opinions, Roque does not insist on it. In fact, Roque can do some things without the approval of the cabinet.
The meeting ended, but Ade did not leave.
Rock asked Ade to go to the office and make tea for Ade himself.
"I can understand your mood, don't be anxious, pace a little slower, Japan is still our ally now" Adelaide has been paying attention to the situation despite the fact that he has been retreating for so long.
In fact, there has been a very bad phenomenon in the past two years. It seems that more and more countries put "fairness" above national interests. It is against this background that the disarmament conference was held.
The main target of "fairness" is Germany. Not only Ramsay Macdonald, Americans also began to believe that the "Contract of Versailles" was not fair to Germany. In order to appease the grievances of the Germans, restrictions on Germany should be appropriately relaxed.
.
Reflected in the disarmament conference, this is why Macdonald asked France to reduce its army to 200,000, and hoped that France would agree to Germany's expansion of its army to 200,000.
However, this reason is untenable. Just as Winston said when evaluating the Disarmament Conference: If Germany is given equal status in order to balance the army strength of Germany and France, then once Germany demands to have the same naval strength as Britain, Britain will
Can you agree?
The answer is definitely no.
As for the British, everyone knows that they have double standards.
The same goes for Japan. Although Southern Africa keeps silent about it, it has implemented trade restrictions and technical restrictions on Japan for more than ten years. Not to mention precious strategic resources, even decommissioned and dismantled scrap ships will not be sold to the Japanese. In Southern Africa
The same goes for technologies that have been eliminated. There is no need to think about machines, weapons, etc. The only thing that Japan has no restrictions on in southern Africa is luxury goods.
Even the supply of food is not open.
It's no wonder that many people complained. Only Rock could suppress it. If it had been anyone else, I'm afraid the capitalists in southern Africa would have been in trouble.
"Japan poses too great a threat to us. Once Japan expands, we will lose our most important source of immigrants, which will put us in a backward position in the competition with other countries." Roque must insist,
Never trust the Japanese.
“Don’t worry, Japan cannot threaten southern Africa, or even the Changi Naval Base.” Adelaide’s understanding of Japan is also seriously insufficient.
Ade cannot be blamed for this. In 1929, people had a serious lack of understanding of Germany, let alone Japan.
Had they known how cruel World War II was, the British would definitely adjust their so-called "continental balancing policy."
Similarly, if the Germans are fully understood, the European military police will definitely not cooperate with Germany in all aspects.
Similarly, there is also the United States
The United States would not. When Germany provoked World War II, the United States' contribution to the cause was one of Germany's sources of confidence.
It can be said that in the world, only southern Africa and France are still sufficiently wary of Germany.
It’s just that for some reasons, southern Africa chose to watch the fire from afar.
"The Japanese are now resorting to militancy. In order to so-called leave Asia and join Europe, Japan has devoted all its efforts to build a combined fleet. Now it has reached an unsustainable point. It can only be maintained through external expansion. We all know that warships cannot go ashore, so Japan
Is the purpose of maintaining a strong combined fleet just to catch sardines?" Rock was also helpless. Even Ade believed that the Japanese were not a threat. Just say how difficult it is to stay awake in this environment.
“Isn’t the United States strengthening the strength of the Pacific Fleet?” Ade is indeed a British man, and he also hopes to see a situation similar to the “continental balance policy” in the Pacific.
To put it bluntly, it is to use the United States to balance Japan.
“We also need to enhance the strength of the Changi Squadron. I am going to assign the two rebuilt aircraft carriers to Changi Naval Base.” Roque wanted to create maximum pressure on the Japanese.
If Japan must go to war, Rock hopes that Japan can go faster on this path.
In short, we want to drive the Japanese crazy.
“You have to think carefully” Ade’s face was full of worry.
The two aircraft carriers to be built in southern Africa were originally said to be one for the Atlantic Fleet and one for the Indian Ocean Fleet, so that both the Atlantic Fleet and the Indian Ocean Fleet would have three aircraft carriers to maintain a balance.
The news came out some time ago that two aircraft carriers were given to the Indian Ocean Fleet. Although the Indian Ocean Fleet was happy, the Atlantic Fleet was very dissatisfied.
Now that Rock has to be given to the Changi Squadron again, it is estimated that more people will be dissatisfied, especially Stoudemire.
Don’t forget that not long ago, Stoudemire wanted to privately donate an aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean Squadron, but Rock didn’t even agree.
At that time, Rock’s reason was that a bowl of water would be flat.
Now that Roark has given two aircraft carriers to the Changi Squadron, it is obviously biased.
Roark is not biased, and assigning two aircraft carriers to Changi Naval Base is just the beginning. On November 19, Hokuto Hiraga, the leader of the Japanese shipbuilding industry, was hospitalized for sudden inhalation pneumonia, which shocked the whole country of Japan.
Hiraga Joe is the director of the Japanese Naval Technical Research Institute and one of the main designers of the Yamato battleships. He presided over the design of the "Nagato" and "Kaga" class battleships, the "Amagi" class battlecruiser, and the "Furutaka"
Class, "Yubari" class, "Aoba" class, "Kaohsiung" class and other types of cruiser designs.
