Chapter 735 3.5 Billion in 5 Years
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"Is President Quirino's rhetorical question effective?" Pamela Mountbatten frowned slightly and asked, "Can he really withstand the pressure from Washington?"
"His words are impeccable and he talks about the issue of responsibility. The issue of responsibility is a very serious issue for world hegemons. Think about why Britain wanted to abolish the slave trade more than a hundred years ago and even spent large sums of money on countries involved in the slave trade. The same goes for comfort.”
Alan Wilson kept talking, "You must know that the Philippines is a former colony of the United States. Regarding the responsibilities of the former colony, the mother country often has two opposite but integrated ideas. On the one hand, it is based on profit-based exploitation, but on the citizens The propaganda was to appease the colonies by bringing them into civilization.”
Although this is just a hypocritical rhetoric, after years of publicity, it was finally accepted by the majority of citizens. Citizens of the metropolitan state believe that their country has certain corresponding responsibilities towards the former colony.
Later, it will evolve into some compensation and some innocuous but sincere help. Usually diplomatic support and small amounts of economic aid are the mainstay.
Compared with maintaining the influence of the original colony, this is naturally a small investment, but it is indispensable.
This is also the reason why later generations of Britain always had some unreasonable concerns about Hong Kong and India. Britain had countless times more colonies than the United States, and Alan Wilson was the administrator of an important colony, so he could easily understand this mentality.
President Quirino's rhetorical question about pressure from the United States almost accused the United States from a moral level. Its defeat in the Philippines during World War II caused the Philippines to fall into the massacre of the Japanese army.
In particular, President Quirino's wife and daughter died in the original war, which was actually a very serious accusation against the United States.
What's more, today the United States is already the world's hegemon, and it feels even more guilty emotionally.
"It's really hard to imagine! Why can't I understand something?" Pamela Mountbatten was stunned. She felt that what her husband said was so mysterious. How could she have such an idea?
"So you are not the highest official in the colony, so you should do business well." Alan Wilson reached out and stroked his wife's hair. "This kind of contradictory idea only exists in the governments of countries that have had colonies. Like the Soviet Union and China, which have never colonized Countries like this don’t have such nonsense.”
Bullshit thinking, that's what Alan Wilson says about this kind of thinking. In his opinion, this so-called moral responsibility is bullshit, and it is nothing more than finding someone to interfere in the former colony.
President Quirino seems to have hit the mark.
It just hits the special psychology of colonial countries. Especially the United States. It didn’t have many colonies, and it still wanted to set a benchmark. In 1953, it still had high hopes for the Philippines, and it wanted to set a positive example.
In the days that followed, Washington did not respond to President Quirino's rhetorical questions, proving Alan Wilson's judgment. The United States is still very tolerant of the Philippines, a former colony that is developing well in this era.
Even before the 1960s, the Philippines was generally considered a rising star in Asia's economy, and it almost edged out Hong Kong and became a member of the Four Asian Tigers. However, in 1965, Ferdinand Marcos came to power and began a long career in power. In the early stage, he pursued an economic line of drinking poison to quench thirst. In the middle and later stages, he committed corruption and perverted the law while going on a killing spree. It is said that he single-handedly devoured the country's fiscal budget for three years. The budget, coupled with the crazy oppression of the peace believers in the south, naturally ruined the political economy of the entire country.
Washington was in a very difficult position at this time. Japan had become the front line to blockade the Soviet Union, and the Philippines, a former colony, wanted to pay reparations, and questioned the United States' responsibilities to the Philippines. This made Washington unable to step down.
A colonial commissioner, who no one understands the psychology of the colonial masters better than me, was on vacation in Australia and conveyed President Quirino's questions about the United States back to Manila, which led to Manila citizens expressing solidarity with the president's meeting in Australia.
After feedback from the Manila embassy and discussions in Washington, Washington finally felt that the United States should express more concern for the Philippines, a former colony.
Soon the U.S. ambassador in Canberra invited President Quirino to be his guest, saying that the United States had absolutely no intention of favoring Japan and that in principle it also understood the Philippines' claims.
The so-called pressure does not exist, but this number is indeed too illusory. Japan cannot afford 8 billion US dollars, not to mention the Philippines wants 8 billion US dollars, what about Australia? What about New Zealand? What about the Netherlands?
Every country here is a close ally of the United States, and every country follows the standards of the Philippines. Wouldn’t Japan be completely wiped out? Are we going to go back to the early post-war state where the United States was constantly transfusing blood?
Redick Williams is the U.S. ambassador to Australia. Of course, he was actually a bank manager in New York before. He was only rewarded for his merits after Eisenhower came to power and was recommended by the Republican Party to serve as ambassador to Australia.
U.S. donors have entered the political arena through ambassadors to other countries for a long time. However, it was only with Nixon that they received public support. Before that, it was an unspoken rule rather than an explicit reward based on merit.
Although Redick Williams is familiar with money, he is not a professional diplomat. Fortunately, the embassy has professional diplomats to help him intervene in this claim negotiation.
"Dear President, I have called Mr. Ikeda for a meeting. We should come up with a practical number to achieve a win-win situation." Redick Williams said to President Quirino, "The United States is definitely not trying to deviate. , Mr. President, please understand this.”
"Okay! I'll listen to what he has to say." President Quirino finally nodded. He also knew in his heart that it was impossible for the Japanese to agree to just a random number.
Alan Wilson immediately knew about this secret conversation at the U.S. Embassy, and it was President Quirino who took the initiative to mention it.
Hearing this incident, Alan Wilson sighed a little. Even a small country with weak strength has the basic understanding of having both sides, and it should not be underestimated when taking it seriously.
"Mr. President, what is the purpose of telling me this?" Alan Wilson asked with a smile.
"Of course it is for profit, so that the Philippines can get as much benefit as possible." President Quirino said without any secret.
Alan Wilson nodded and thought for a moment, then said, "In that case, I am still willing to help. Being able to establish a personal relationship with the president of a country may be beneficial to Britain in the future."
The imperial servant's sense of ownership was suddenly aroused again. Why does he just like to support justice? With such a helpless nature, he is willing to help with enthusiasm for an unrelated country.
The key is that the United States does not favor Japan, but puts pressure on the claimant countries. After President Quirino asked a question about security responsibility, the United States now at least partially understands the claim.
The gap opened by the Philippines' continued claims will eventually be exploited by more than one country. In a certain sense, it has exceeded the red line for claims prohibited by the United States in the San Francisco Agreement.
In this sense, the Philippines’ attitude towards claims from the post-war period to today is extremely significant.
The claims talks in Canberra have aroused the attention of the countries involved except Japan. As for Japan, it is very quiet. Most newspapers do not report on similar issues.
"Japan is still a traitor, and Japan is as good as Churchill." An imperial civil servant who once sold West Berlin and was just a second-generation brother made such an evaluation.
At this point in the claims negotiations in Canberra, Japan's attempt to muddle through has been completely bankrupt. In the claims talks where the Philippines took the lead and the other three countries followed up, Ikeda was unable to make a comeback.
In contact with Tokyo, Ikeda Yuuto informed Yoshida Shigeru that the development opportunities brought by the Korean War may be affected, and he hoped that the current Japanese Prime Minister would be mentally prepared.
Ikeda Yuuto can only do his best to work on numerical issues, and it is better to have less time to accompany him.
In the negotiations involving the four countries, Japan's compensation figure has changed from the US$8 billion claimed by the Philippines alone to a total of US$8 billion by the four countries. Ikeda Yuto said that this number is still too high and far beyond Japan's ability to bear.
The numbers slowly dropped amid repeated back and forth, and the payment plan changed from one-time delivery to installment delivery. Ikeda Yuto certainly hopes that the installment payment period will be as long as possible so as not to put economic pressure on Japan.
Alan Wilson certainly didn't want this future to happen, and time was far more important to the country than money. If you fail to keep up at the critical time, you will spend several times more energy to achieve the same goal in the future.
"The Netherlands can only accept installment payments for up to five years, and there will be no more time." Van Dijk said firmly, "The immigrant women who were captured by Japanese soldiers on the battlefield in Southeast Asia can no longer endure the pain alone. "
Representatives from Australia and New Zealand agreed, otherwise they would not be able to answer to citizens following the claims negotiations.
"I want to be recognized domestically!" Ikeda Yuto sighed. Seeing the tone of these representatives, he understood that there was not much room for fighting for it, so he answered like this.
On November 20, claims negotiations have been going on for nearly a month, and the claims negotiations between the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands against Japan have come to an end.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, Yuto Ikeda signed the Japan-Philippines Compensation Agreement with Philippine President Quirino, and then signed the same compensation agreement with the Australian government, the New Zealand government, and the Dutch government respectively.
In the compensation agreement, Japan will pay US$3.58 billion in cash to the four countries within five years as compensation for the losses caused to these countries during the war.
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