Chapter 1267 A Lively Year

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It is no lie that half the life of the British Empire lies in Malaya. In terms of basic industries, Malaya's production capacity has exceeded that of the mainland. Coal, iron and oil are the lifeblood of a country.

The UK's domestic steel production last year was 23 million tons, and Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, produced 35 million tons. Adding up to 60 million tons, the United States last year was close to 90 million tons. The British mainland produces 15 million tons of cement and Malaya 30 million tons. Malaya itself does not have much coal. Although it has been explored, it has always relied on Australian supplies. The British mainland consumes 200 million tons, which has the upper hand.

The UK's domestic industrial production capacity cannot support the current settlement share of the pound. In fact, even if Malaya is added, it will not be able to support it, but it will change a lot. From the British perspective, if there is world peace, the pound can still be maintained by virtue of inertia.

However, Alan Wilson knew in his heart that once the United States lost too much blood due to the Vietnam War, it would focus on the pound.

The fundamental reason why the settlement volume of the pound shrank sharply in the 1970s was that the UK could not afford such a large settlement share. Once the United States took action, the UK would have no ability to resist. The currency needs physical support, and it is supported by the production capacity of the Malayan colonies, which is more than relying on inertia.

No matter what happens, Britain cannot withdraw its troops from the Middle East and strangle the remaining protectorates in the Middle East. In addition, the production capacity of British Malaya is at least stronger than that of Russia during the Great Empire. Russia only has resources and production capacity but no finance. The United Kingdom has everything it wants, but it is worse than the United States in every aspect.

As the high commissioner of such a colony, Richard's position was of course closely watched. Who wouldn't want to be the supreme authority in Mingzhu? Even when the African colonies needed to replace their high commissioners, everyone rushed to do so.

After all, currency must be linked to real objects. If Russia's land conditions were similar to Niger's, would it dare to treat the U.S. dollar as waste paper? In fact, the U.S. dollar will be in the same predicament in the future as the pound is now. The U.S.'s production capacity cannot support the U.S. dollar's settlement share. For the U.S. dollar, it has the largest settlement share. If it drops by even 1%, it will be fed back to the United States.

But now that the U.S. dollar is pegged to gold, Americans will not consider other options, but Alan Wilson must prepare for the next step. If France can pull out the CFA franc zone, can the UK really not even be able to maintain the pound zone? Compared to France's efforts, Britain seemed paralyzed.

"If, Secretary General, if it's like you said, the United States will escalate the situation, will it need our assistance?"

Richard deeply feels the great responsibility. He is actually very happy to be the High Commissioner to Malaya. It depends on whether he is willing to be replaced by a permanent deputy secretary. But he also knew that the economic foundation of Malaya was the combination of the richest woman and the four families, the nobles, and the local compradors of Malaya.

The man behind the richest woman is her immediate boss, the supreme authority in Whitehall.

"Assistance, given the current public opinion, it is unlikely that the cabinet will agree to even a little military support. We did not participate in the Korean War! To say that assistance is nothing more than logistical supply, I have just told you, as for something bigger? At most, it is only Can we promise to open Singapore’s hospitals to receive wounded soldiers?”

The supreme authority put his hands in his trouser pockets, with an impatient look on his face, "Even so, I don't want to open up. Who doesn't know the virtues of American soldiers? If something happens, it's lucky that they are just accepting wounded soldiers."

"Huh?" Richard didn't know why Alan Wilson said such a thing. Fortunately, he was only receiving wounded soldiers.

"If something really happened, wipe your ass. He is a wounded soldier. Can he be cured or not?" Alan Wilson raised his eyebrows and said with a knowing look, "It is known that the importance of Malaya to Britain is of no priority. As long as the locals are satisfied with the location, we can do anything but make them independent. A group of cannon fodder had better understand this, otherwise they may also be attacked by the CPM in Malaya."

Does the MCP exist in Malaya? Is it a common phenomenon? That's not a climate, but it can be a climate when necessary.

In short, Richard's future mission is to take advantage of a more convenient geographical location than any other country, get part of the overflow of US military spending, and push Malaya to a higher economic level. Aren’t there hundreds of thousands of Indonesian immigrants with their families coming over now? They certainly can’t all be extremely wealthy. These people are also high-quality labor force.

In fact, during the Vietnam War in history, it was not that the Chinese did not receive dividends. Singapore was one of them, and South Korea was naturally the first to bear the brunt. As the Vietnam War became increasingly fierce, the U.S. military's demand for war supplies increased day by day, and South Korea received a large number of U.S. troops. military orders to help the US military produce cans, tents, raincoats and other military supplies.

Since then, South Korea's national economy has been greatly stimulated and began to develop rapidly.

The remaining ones are Thailand and Singapore, but now Malaya's foundation is obviously better than Thailand. Even if it cannot be used as a rear base, it can still make a lot of money by relying on the siphon effect. The Philippines, which did not reap any dividends from the Vietnam War, was actually at a disadvantage. The Philippines was the country that should have made the most money from the war, but when the opportunity came, it failed to use it.

Valley

"Secretary-General!" At this moment, Dixon walked in, nodded to Richard and reported, "Moscow has agreed to reduce the size of the consulate in northern Iran. To ensure Iran's neutral status."

"Oh!" Alan Wilson smiled and said to his two subordinates, "Since the beginning of Russian history, this period of time in the Soviet Union is a rare and reasonable period."

Alan Wilson was actually prepared for this outcome. After all, during the Brezhnev era, which was known for its toughness, Egypt was in trouble, and Moscow also withdrew the Soviet advisory group from Egypt. That's thousands of people. Could it be said that the Suez Canal is not important? The Soviet Union is gone.

"It's really unexpected." Dixon also hurriedly expressed his opinion in line with the supreme authority, although he didn't know where the surprise was.

In fact, Alan Wilson didn't know, but he remembered that it seemed that this year, Khrushchev was ousted.

This Soviet leader has no problem as a person, and the problems he sees are also problems in the Soviet Union. It is better than Brezhnev thinking that the Soviet Union has no problems. To say that there are problems, there is indeed a problem with the level.

I wonder if this time Khrushchev stepped down, there is another accusation, maybe there is already a storm brewing in Moscow.

This year is quite exciting when I think about it. Khrushchev stepped down, a certain major country entered the nuclear club, the Gulf of Tonkin incident broke out, and the Vietnam War began.

Indeed, Xie Leping returned home without saying a word, with a stern expression that everyone could see. Now, within the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Soviet Union, there are already many members with different aspirations. Shelepin believed that he was definitely not the only one, but to overthrow the Soviet Union's supreme authority, there was one department that could never be bypassed, the KGB.

The relationship between Semichasny and Shelepin is simply that Shelepin stepped up to the next level, and Semichasny took over the next level. Starting from the secretary of the Moscow Municipal Party Committee, the two had this kind of relationship. Until Shelepin took over as Chairman of the KGB, the position of Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of the Soviet Union was left to Semichasny. Shelepin entered the Central Presidium, and Semichasny became Chairman of the KGB.

During this period, Semichasny briefly served as the second secretary in Azerbaijan, which did not overlap with Shelepin’s official career. In the eyes of others, Shelepin and Semichasny could be described as brothers and sisters, and their relationship was recognized as good. of.

The KGB is the defense force of the Kremlin. As long as this department exists, no one can bypass Lubyanka and pose a threat to the First Secretary. Although the KGB could not control people at the level of members of the Central Presidium, the KGB's backer was Khrushchev. Coupled with its power to intimidate members of the Central Committee, Khrushchev's position was theoretically impregnable.

"Now the imperialists must be very happy with our compromise." Shelepin showed no conspiracy in front of Semichasny and expressed his dissatisfaction with Khrushchev.

Semichasny didn't say anything. He was only forty years old this year. In fact, he became the chairman of the KGB at the age of thirty-six. The backbone of this circle was Shelepin. "There are so many supporters."

"Many people, look at the past few years, the leaders of the workers and peasants have used hundreds of tons of gold to fill the loopholes of the corn movement, not to mention the humiliation of the Cuban Missile Crisis." Sheleping replied in a deep voice.

Semichasny shook his head and analyzed, "We alone cannot do it, and Suslov is not enough. We must understand Brezhnev's attitude. Since Comrade Kozlov's stroke, Brezhnev He’s the second-in-command, so we can’t lead a group of senior city officials to attack.”

"Fortseva is a woman who is not worthy of attention. If her son has only grown up for twenty years, it would be almost the same. But it is best to understand her movements, Shurik. Do you still remember that many years ago, Fortseva came forward? She persuaded Zhukov and dispatched military planes to send Central Committee members from all over the country to Moscow. She personally spent a day and night at the Moscow airport to convince most of the Central Committee members and let Khrushchev make a comeback. Be careful of the Ukrainian gang, they are a very big force. .”

The Ukrainian Gang has nothing to do with Brezhnev. There are other members of the Ukrainian Gang in the Soviet Union, who are united around Podgorny. The First Secretary of Ukraine Sherest, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine Korotchenko, and Podgorny People like Liyansky.

"Fortseva dotes on her son so much. It's not difficult at all." Shelepin said with a smile. "Alekseev is still in Jakarta, and she is definitely not willing to take risks. It's impossible to do it just for the sake of more love like last time." She is already a member of the Central Presidium, does she still want to be the first secretary?"

"If there are no problems with the above, then we have to wait until Khrushchev is not in Moscow to finalize the matter." Semichasny nodded, "The fact that the First Secretary is in Moscow is completely different from not being there."