Chapter 452 Visiting Hepburn

"Alan, don't be so surprised. It's just a fact." Norman Brook smiled and brought the topic back to the Newfoundland referendum. "But since the claim of the royal territory is the most beneficial to us, then I will agree with you. The Prime Minister recommends this, and if a minister objects to it, then in principle, the minister should choose to resign if he cannot convince the majority of people."

"Wow!" Alan Wilson looked at Norman Brook with a strange look, "Sir Norman, I admire your ideas very much, and I have learned a lot."

"It's not about learning, our responsibility lies here." Norman Brook said plainly.

Although the internal committee system was established by his predecessor Edward Bridges, he strengthened this system after taking office and supplemented it with the Defense Committee, Economic Policy Committee and Home Affairs Committee.

In this way, a large number of matters do not need to go through the cabinet and can be implemented directly by these committees.

Not only that, Norman Brooke also drafted the procedures for ministers to perform their duties, and after the Prime Minister approved it, it was distributed to various ministries and standardized the ministers' scope of authority. For this reason, he successively had conflicts with the Foreign Secretary and the Finance Minister.

Alan Wilson didn't know that in the more than half a year since he left London at the beginning of the year, Norman Brooke had already made large-scale adjustments to the civil service system, and even reached out to ministers.

The British civil administration system originated from the decline of royal power and was formally established after the First World War. Now Norman Brooke went further than his predecessor and greatly expanded the authority of the civil service.

Now Alan Wilson knows why the Permanent Secretary for the Colonies said that the current environment in Whitehall is somewhat delicate.

Norman Brooke had only been in office for a dozen months, but he had already achieved greater authority than the previous two cabinet secretaries.

"Actually, the main dilemma is that many ministers believe that the relationship with Canada should be maintained. For this reason, they would not hesitate to send Newfoundland." Norman Brook pondered for a moment and asked, "Should this factor be considered?"

"Dear Sir Norman, in fact, the biggest domestic problem in Canada is the problem of Quebec, not the problem of Newfoundland." Alan Wilson lowered his voice and said, "Legalally speaking, Canada should ask the United Kingdom for help, not the other way around. ,right?"

"Very good." Norman Brook nodded with a smile, "Actually, it is inconvenient for us to talk about the situation in Upper and Lower Canada, but if the French have their thoughts, we can stop them, right?"

Alan Wilson nodded,

He really remembered that after de Gaulle came to power, France really used the Quebec issue to provoke Canada, which led to the outbreak of the Quebec issue in Canada.

When it comes to Quebec nationalism, you have to mention France’s Charles de Gaulle. This old man is a wizard, and he really looks down on Britain and British people. So when he participated in the Quebec World Expo, he designed a route that would prevent him from entering the land of British Canada.

In fact, Canada is very nervous about his visit, for fear that he will do something wrong.

As a result, de Gaulle lived up to expectations. He gave an impromptu speech at Quebec City Hall about how France was unyieldingly resisting Germany. At the end, he shouted out the historic sentence: "Long live free Quebec." The words became a wise saying for Quebec independence.

Starting from the words de Gaulle shouted "Long live the free Quebec", the wave of independence set off in Quebec in the next two decades became higher and higher. De Gaulle's speech was seen as supporting the Quebec independence movement and triggered a diplomatic crisis between France and Canada at the time.

In fact, who can say for sure what the future will look like? Maybe we can use the Quebec incident to allow France and the UK to join forces to support Canada in balancing the influence of the United States on Canada. By changing the angle, bad things can turn into good things.

"Brezhnev?" Alan Wilson walked out of the Cabinet Secretary's Office, searching in his mind for a politician who matched Norman Brooke's methods, but after much deliberation, there was no more suitable candidate.

Even Brezhnev had to go through a long period of adjustment to gain sole power in the Soviet Union, but Norman Brooke had Whitehall firmly in his hands in less than a year and a half.

Alan Wilson even wanted to show his loyalty directly just now, and the cabinet secretary of this term expressed his willingness to do his best.

Alan Wilson, who returned to London, actually had nothing to do personally. Pamela Mountbatten was traveling with the Crown Prince and his wife. He couldn't find his sister-in-law Patricia, and her husband didn't want to either.

After careful and logical consideration, Alan Wilson had something to do and got in touch with Alim.

First, I asked my good friend, Maharaja Ali Khan, about the situation in Hyderabad. Currently, while India and Pakistan are fighting for Kashmir, Ali Khan is constantly purging the resistance forces.

Since 80% of the population of Hyderabad were Hindus, Ali Khan certainly could not kill everyone under his rule. But it can be considered very resolute. New Delhi pretended to be deaf and dumb to Hyderabad's actions, as if nothing happened.

"It's too conservative. Shouldn't we take the initiative?" Alan Wilson frowned and sighed.

"Many of the prince's sons believe that as long as they can preserve their current power, compromise is not impossible." Alim hesitated and said, "Of course, what Mr. Allen said is also reasonable."

"Even if I have a good relationship with the Maharaja, I don't dare to compare with his sons. Hey, let's take it one step at a time." Alan Wilson shook his head. He couldn't say that Ali Khan's sons were wrong. After all, they had With such a huge wealth, it is really difficult to make the decision to risk everything.

In what name did he persuade Ali Khan to fight for his life? Everyone has to think about themselves. How can it be so easy to make the decision to risk everything before things come to an end?

"Take me to meet Audrey!" Alan Wilson had no choice but to find a lighter topic.

"Mr. Allen, I know where she is." Alim immediately replied, "Should I drive you?"

"You drive!" Alan Wilson still has concerns about driving. He is better at driving in another way. Now he wants to see the treasures of the Dutch automobile industry. It is not accurate to say that, to be precise, it is the British-Dutch car industry. joint venture.

As an imperial civil servant, Alan Wilson is certainly excited. Although the current Audrey Hepburn is not the classic image on the screen, she is definitely not a common ordinary country girl as Alim said.

The most admirable thing is that compared to the many actresses who get married and divorced, or the actresses who lose their brains due to a sudden change, there are a lot of the former in Hollywood, while the latter, like Greta Garbo, have to stay home for the rest of their lives. Audrey Hepburn was very much an ordinary woman.

Although Audrey Hepburn was married twice, judging from the information, she managed both marriages seriously.

The first marriage lasted fourteen years, and Hepburn was his third wife. The two divorced unpleasantly. Hepburn was almost forty years old at the time. She rejected Hitchcock and "West Side Story" because of her family. It can be said that she worked hard to manage her marriage, but she still failed.

In her second marriage, after Hepburn got married, she discovered that her husband was a well-known playboy in Rome. Various theft incidents kept making tabloid headlines, which made Hepburn tired of being the "firefighting captain." In order to manage her second marriage, Hepburn announced her break and settled in Rome for more than ten years. In order to have a common language with her husband, Hepburn also taught herself her husband's profession: psychological medicine, which can be said to have paid a lot.

Audrey Hepburn, who is regarded as a high-quality stock in every aspect, is now within the combat radius of Alan Wilson. No matter what, I have to come and see it in person.

Before going, Alan Wilson washed his hair and pretended to be a young man before arriving at Audrey Hepburn's dance school.

"Mr. Allen, are you back?" Audrey Hepburn immediately showed enthusiasm as soon as she saw the visitor. In fact, this was only the second meeting between the two.

"Miss Audrey, it's great to live in London." Alan Wilson pretended to be a gentleman and greeted with a smile that showed no sense of distance. "Fate is such a wonderful thing. After we said goodbye on the Rhine River, we met again. Although Europe is not very big, it is not small either. It makes me very happy to see a beautiful lady again."

"Thank you for your help for having such an opportunity." Audrey Hepburn smiled slightly and said happily, "Are you here specifically to see me?"

"Of course, I have just returned to London and went to Whitehall to do some business. I will go back to Newfoundland in a while, where the referendum is being prepared, and there are still a lot of things." Alan Wilson said with a sullen face and a look of trouble. He said with an expression, "Of course, out of the pursuit of democracy, I can only provide assistance within a certain range."

In fact, it was a stumbling block, but Alan Wilson's words directly established the image of an enlightened official in front of Audrey Hepburn, and he was also young and promising.

"How about we go shopping around?" Alan Wilson put his hands in his trouser pockets and said with a hint of ruthlessness, "I haven't been back to London for a long time. Even walking on the streets of London, I feel strange. Probably not as familiar as you are with London.”

"Actually, apart from taking classes, I'm not very familiar with London." Audrey Hepburn was a little embarrassed, but she still agreed to the invitation and walked around with the considerate-looking man in front of her.

"What to do?" Audrey Hepburn asked confusedly after Alan Wilson handed over the mask.

"The air in London is not good at this time of year, so a young lady should be protected." Alan Wilson personally put on a mask for Audrey Hepburn and warned, "Girls still have to take care of themselves."