Chapter 2299 Helplessness and Reality One
"It seems that we can do very little in this negotiation." After returning to the hotel where he stayed, Lloyd George said to Asquith.
"Yes, defeat is the original sin. There is not much room for any country to face such a defeat. The Germans have the upper hand, and the Germans can choose to reopen the war. And the British Empire may within a few months because of There is a big upheaval in social provision," Prime Minister Asquith said.
"Then our cooperation with the Americans..." Although when negotiating with the US Secretary of State, Lloyd George finally chose to slam the door and leave. But do the so-called people have to bow their heads under the roof? If you really feel that there is nothing to talk about on the German side, then you can only try with the Americans.
"Don't think about the Americans. If we go to the Americans at this time, we will only let the Americans see our weakness! They will get worse! The Americans are the devil, they are willing to lend a helping hand just to make us cannon fodder! They don't Reasons to forgive us! They will only use our flesh and blood to strengthen themselves!"
"Also, even though the Germans put forward such harsh conditions, I still think it is better to agree to the Germans than to ask the Americans for help, because the Americans are destined to make us lose Canada, and their restrictive effect on Germany is not obvious. Using Canada in exchange for possible concessions from the Germans is obviously a loss!" Asquith said.
"Then we should now think about which clauses the Germans may make concessions. For irreparable ones, no matter how hard we try, it will be useless, but for retrievable ones, we must try our best to fight for them." Earl Belfort said.
"There is no possibility of the Germans backing down on the territory and the colonies. The crown prince doesn't want to talk about it at all, and implies that if we don't make concessions, it will mean war, and as the Germans say, whether it is America or Japan or other countries, they all want to see us lose these colonies, we are alone!"
"There is still some leeway on the issue of armaments. Even if the Germans finally sign the treaty with us, we can still avoid the restrictions of the treaty through some other means and slowly carry out research and development. Of course, it is estimated that it will be very difficult for the navy to break through. Moreover, the arms limitation treaty is a very complicated system, and it is certainly not something that can be resolved in the short term. So this issue can be put aside for the time being.”
"The only thing that needs to be negotiated at this stage is the issue of compensation, and there is not much room for the amount of compensation and interest. The only thing that can be discussed is the time limit and the method of repayment!" Prime Minister Asquith analyzed. , this point, what he said is very accurate! The Germans are also very tight in terms of compensation, and there is not much room for bargaining. The only thing the British are more sure of is the method of payment and repayment.
Obviously, it is impossible to pay banknotes for the compensation of up to 4.5 billion pounds. After all, although the gold standard system is now, the credit of the pound has been low to a certain extent, and a considerable part of the compensation must be paid in the form of precious metals. The other part of the indemnity will be paid in kind. You must know that in history, the degree of land scraping between Britain and France is simply outrageous. They even wanted the locomotives of the Germans, and the carpets of the Kiel Naval Academy were taken away. … But this time, it was the Germans who scraped the ground!
If possible, the British would rather use more minerals, raw materials, agricultural products and even machinery to repay their debts, but also reduce the proportion of payment with precious metals as much as possible. After all, things like gold and silver are representatives of wealth at any time, especially now, when the pound is already unstable, if the British need to buy something, they can only use the still strong dollar or precious metals!
"The Germans seem to be implying in this negotiation that we can do business with the Japanese.
"After a moment of silence, Lloyd George said to Prime Minister Asquith.
"That's right, the Germans hinted in this way that the Entente is over, and the largest cooperation between the United States and Germany has cracked. In this case, the Americans can cooperate with us in order to contain Germany, and the same reason, the Germans for Restricting the United States will also trip up the Americans," Asquith said.
"If the Americans know about this, will they change their attitude towards us and Germany?" Earl Belfort said with bright eyes.
According to normal people's understanding, virtue is an ally, and the enemy is the Japanese. Now, the Germans suddenly hinted at the British, saying that the British can provide the Japanese with armaments and supplies to assassinate the Americans. Well, you know this What do Americans think of things? It will definitely fall out with the Germans! It is possible for the two to turn against each other. Now that there has been confrontation between the United States and Germany and even turned into hostility, will the Americans take advantage of the situation to pull the British and deal with the Germans together? In other words, if the Americans are no longer obsessed with letting Canada separate from the United Kingdom, the British can immediately discuss many issues with the Americans, whether it is business, technical cooperation or military cooperation!
"You're overthinking," said Prime Minister Asquith. "The sale of arms to the Japanese can only be done by us, and we must also bear this responsibility."
"The Americans should be clear that without the acquiescence of the Germans, it is impossible for us to get back the previous weapons and sell them to the Japanese! We simply do not have the financial resources and resources to produce new weapons, and as a defeated country, if Germany does not Agree, how could we insist on this matter?" Earl Belfort said a little puzzled.
"There is a price for doing anything! While we enjoy the convenience of providing war materials to Japan, we must shoulder this responsibility! Just imagine, if the Americans discovered all this and then protested to Germany, Germany would then If we are prohibited from selling arms to Japan, what will happen?" Prime Minister Asquith said: "We will lose hundreds of millions of pounds, and we will not be able to repay the defeat compensation. The bankruptcy of the British Empire government is possible! Therefore, to Japan Selling military supplies is not just what the Germans want us to do, it's what we must! Do you understand?"
"And it's not just economics and trade, we even have to publicize the significance of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in the media or other public occasions, even though we know that Japan is a greedy villain and a guy who will only drag us down!" Asquith Said.
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