894. Chapter 861 The Crisis of the British Throne

Chapter 861 The Crisis of the British Throne

Minister Roman's first move when he arrived in London was to meet with the famous British war faction, expressing his fear of Germany's terrifying military strength and his firm idea of ​​​​war.

Although Winston Churchill has stayed away from the government, he has served in the British cabinet as Home Secretary, Admiralty Secretary, Munitions Secretary, War Secretary, Air Force Secretary, Colonial Affairs Secretary and Finance Minister. He still has a considerable influence in British politics. of status.

This former cabinet member who has turned into a writer and well-known critic once said meaningfully after hearing Minister Roman’s firm pro-war attitude: “Perhaps the fate of the country behind you and me will be decided by tomorrow’s meeting. ”

On April 10, 1936, British Prime Minister Baldwin met with Minister Romain representing France, and the two sides held a diplomatic meeting.

At this meeting, Minister Roman mentioned the German-Austrian War that broke out two days ago, and said very bluntly: "I don't think this is just a war between Germany and Austria, this is a war throughout Europe.

France needs support from Britain, which is an important guarantee for our ability to defeat Germany. Without the support from Britain, France will fail in this war, and we have to find ways to reduce casualties to save France, which is about to perish. "

What Minister Roman said is very simple and can be summed up in one sentence: If Britain joins the war, I will fight. If Britain does not join the war, I will surrender. This is a threat to Prime Minister Baldwin and the British government.

If it were a year ago, Prime Minister Baldwin would have definitely sneered at the French threat, or even ridiculed it directly, without paying any attention to the French behavior.

But it's different now. Germany is far more powerful than it was a year ago, and the threat it poses to the British is far greater than before. More importantly, Prime Minister Baldwin saw extraordinary calmness and determination in Minister Roman's eyes, which made Prime Minister Baldwin hesitate.

If Secretary Roman was just a person, Prime Minister Baldwin would definitely not care about what Secretary Roman said. But the problem is that Minister Roman represents the entire French government.

If this is the unified opinion of the French government, then the British government will have to consider it. If France was really forced to give up resistance, could Britain still defeat Germany, which dominated all of Central and Western Europe?

Although there was a high probability that France would not surrender, Prime Minister Baldwin did not dare to bet on that slight probability. If Germany is really allowed to dominate Central and Western Europe and threaten the hegemony of the British Empire, his career as prime minister in the UK will also come to an end, and he will definitely bear the anger of the majority of the people.

But directly participating in the war and helping France is what Prime Minister Baldwin does not want to see. The damage caused to Britain by the last super war is still vivid in our minds, which has also led to many peace advocates in the British government.

For the conservative Prime Minister Baldwin, it was much more difficult to go to war against all odds than to force Edward VIII to abdicate.

After all, Prime Minister Baldwin held the right position on the issue of Edward VIII and received support from the church, colonial governments and the British people.

But the consequences of launching a war are definitely not something Prime Minister Baldwin can bear alone.

Seeing Prime Minister Baldwin's hesitation, Minister Roman took the opportunity to put forward his own plan for Australasia: "Dear Prime Minister, I understand what you are worried about. But please believe that if your country can join the battlefield, France will Have an absolute chance of winning.

As long as we can persuade Australasia to join this war - relying on the alliance between your country and Australasia, I believe the Australasians will not refuse.

As long as we have Australasia's help, we have an absolute chance of winning this war. At the same time, we can prevent any country from profiting from this war.

After the war, your country will still be the most powerful country, and France will not ask for more land. Our goal is to maintain the status quo. "

"Australasia?" Prime Minister Baldwin nodded silently, less doubtful of Minister Roman's absolute chance of winning.

According to the currently recognized strength rankings of various countries, the United Kingdom, France and Australasia should be the top three in the world. Even though the sudden rise of Germany makes this ranking less reliable, it is generally similar.

Among the German-Italian League, only the Germans are firmly in the top five. Italy and the island countries each have their own shortcomings. They can only be said to be fighting for the top five, but they are definitely not the top five powers in the world.

From the perspective of Britain \u003e Germany, France \u003e Italy, Australasia \u003e island countries, this war does have a good chance of winning.

Although Germany also had Spain as an ally, France also had the Austrian Empire as an ally, and its overall strength was still stronger.

However, these assumptions did not prompt Prime Minister Baldwin to agree to join the war. After all, the conservative Prime Minister Baldwin still had various problems.

"Although you have counted most of the great powers, you have not thought of the Russians." Prime Minister Baldwin thought for a while and then said: "The Russians are also a threat. If there is no way to get the Russians to join the war, I will not Thinking this war would be good for the British Empire."

"It is impossible for the Russians to avoid this war." Prime Minister Roman said with a smile: "It can be seen from Russia's invasion of Poland that the Russians still maintain the huge territorial ambitions of Tsarist Russia. Moreover, they will never allow Germany to rule Europe and Germany will never allow such a powerful country in Eastern Europe to threaten their capital Berlin at will.

We have built the Maginot Line of Defense on the border, which can rely on the Maginot Line of Defense to block the German army from the border. Once the offensive in Western Europe stalls, war between Germany and Russia will not be far away.

At that time, we only need to quietly guard the Maginot Line, and we can sit back and watch the super war between Germany and Russia. "

Although he had his own unique ideas, Minister Roman's impression of the Germans was still limited to World War I and several previous wars. Naturally, he would not have thought that the Maginot Line of Defense that France had worked so hard to build would basically be used in the following wars. won't work.

As a contemporary of Prime Minister Baldwin, there is no doubt about Minister Roman's words. Prime Minister Baldwin also knew about the Maginot Line, which the French had built at great cost.

Even if the Germans are carefully prepared, it will take at least several months to break through the French Maginot Line.

This time can also be used to prepare for war. If the Germans can be forced to focus on Eastern Europe, that would be great.

"Minister Roman, the war matter still needs to be discussed by Congress and the cabinet. Please forgive me for not being able to give you a definite answer. If possible, I hope you can participate in tomorrow's meeting, and I will try my best to gain opportunities for you." At the end of the discussion , Prime Minister Baldwin smiled and drew a pie for Minister Roman.

Minister Roman could only nod helplessly, pinning his hopes on tomorrow's meeting.

At present, it seems that it is impossible to directly persuade Prime Minister Baldwin and directly let Britain join the war through Prime Minister Baldwin's power.

This also means that Minister Roman must pass the British cabinet and Congress and gain the support of the British war faction in order to win over Britain to join the anti-German alliance.

What Prime Minister Baldwin didn't expect was that before he could even wait for the next day's meeting, a more serious crisis would come.

On the afternoon of April 10, the famous politician and author Churchill published an article in a newspaper, clearly explaining the ongoing war between Germany and Austria, and saying very pessimistically: "Britain is gradually coming to an end. She It gave in step by step to a failed country and successfully put it in the position of a contender for European hegemony.

If the British government cannot wake up in time and wait until Germany defeats Austria, Britain will face a terrifying continental European hegemon. "

At the end of the article, Churchill also vaguely mentioned the ongoing throne crisis in Britain and the constant quarrels between Edward VIII and the government - over the woman who had been divorced twice.

The effect of public opinion has been achieved.

With the participation of a large number of newspapers, the news report quickly spread throughout the UK. It is impossible for the British government to block all newspapers reporting news in a short period of time, because this is like a premeditated action. All newspapers quickly published the news and distributed newspapers to all regions of the UK at an extremely fast speed.

"Britain's crisis has arrived, and our king is still quarreling with the cabinet over a woman." Some newspapers with ulterior motives quickly understood similar news, which aroused widespread heated discussion among the British people.

Although such newspapers and newspapers were quickly banned by the British government, the heated discussion among the people not only did not stop it, but also became intense.

On the second day alone, the British people broke out in a demonstration to oppose Edward VIII's inaction and to oppose Edward VIII's marriage to the twice-divorced Mrs. Simpson.

Now, what was originally just a conflict between the British royal family and the cabinet has directly evolved into a conflict between the British royal family and the people.

Although the key figure in the conflict was Edward VIII, as the King of England, he directly implicated the British royal family.

The day after the march broke out, a private meeting was held within the British royal family in the Chamber of Buckingham Palace between Edward VIII, the Duke of York, the Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Kent. The debate lasted for two hours.

This crisis between the British government and the royal family has also caused the meeting that Minister Roman was looking forward to to be postponed indefinitely.

But the good news is that Edward VIII is likely to be forced to abdicate. And his successor, Duke Albert, in the words of the famous Churchill, seems to be a quite capable and potential militant who does not agree with the appeasement policy.

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