April 29, 1881.

London, 10 Downing Street.

Facing the righteous speculations of the then British Prime Minister Greville and Chancellor of the Exchequer Childers, British Foreign Secretary Greville said: "The reason why Her Majesty did not stop Prince Edward from attacking William IV of the Netherlands.

I guess the main reason is that Britain needs to be multi-faceted in its diplomatic game with the Netherlands, and Crown Prince Edward represents the hawk.

Traditionally, the Conservative Party is also the most vocal about suppressing the Netherlands. Several maritime wars with the Netherlands all occurred during the Tory rule.

But we, the Liberal Whigs, like to appease the Netherlands.

At present, Crown Prince Edward is shouting happily, but the Queen has not instructed us to cooperate. It can be seen that the Queen is currently just using the Crown Prince's provocation as a bottom line to test William IV of the Netherlands.

The purpose is to know the bottom line before taking action.”

When Gladstone heard this, he saw Childers' silence after hearing this, and Graveville's sigh.

He knew it was his turn to take action, so he said: "Greville is right. Since the dispute between Britain and the Netherlands in the Strait of Malacca in 1876, they have been almost always paying lip service, and at most they have extended to the economic field.

In the military field, the two countries have not really competed with each other. Even if they competed with each other, except for the incident in Chile, they were looking for proxies to start a war.

From here, it can be said that neither country currently has any intention of directly confronting each other militarily. The British are worried that if their navy suffers heavy losses, the ties between the mainland and overseas territories will be broken, resulting in ruling colonies and territories.

cause great trouble;

As for the Netherlands, it is possible that the economic and military operations for many years may return to before liberation.

The status of a super-powerful country that it has finally climbed to may decline as a result.

Both Queen Victoria and William IV knew that peaceful confrontation between the two countries was possible, but military confrontation would definitely outweigh the gains and losses, because unlike army confrontation, Britain and the Netherlands were the two most powerful naval countries in the world, both in terms of tonnage and ship quality.

Both countries pursue the most advanced technology. If the two countries directly start a war at sea, in the end at least one-third or even half of the ships at sea of ​​the two countries will be sunk and damaged.

Having lost more than half of its naval vessels, whether it is the United Kingdom or the Netherlands, they will be caught up by France, Germany and other countries behind them, and their status as the top two naval powers will suddenly no longer exist.

By then, with Germany's position as the strongest European army and a navy comparable to the tonnage of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, technology aside, the international status of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands has dropped sharply. The populations of the two countries alone are not as good as those of the German Empire. Even if they are two

The combined population of the country is only less than 10 million more than that of Germany. Such a result is unacceptable to both Britain and the Netherlands."

"Bismarck's show of goodwill to us this time is actually an act of stoking fire between the Anglo-Dutch struggle. The purpose is to allow the Anglo-Dutch struggle to continue so that Germany can take advantage of it."

The other two people immediately fell silent after hearing this.

Suddenly, Greville's eyes flickered and said: "The reason why the Confederate States of America dares to attack the Netherlands now is the result of Bismarck's efforts to win over Stephen Douglas in the past few years. Before President Lincoln, he began to use Germans to balance the Dutch, which was quite successful.

, but in the end the Germans were very ambitious and tried to put the Germans in power, but unfortunately they were suppressed by the Dutch in the end.

Now Bismarck is repeating his old tricks and taking action directly among the Dutch. Obviously, the Germans have impure intentions.

No wonder the Republican presidential elector Garfield used the banner of opposing Stephen's suppression of Dutch people, and quickly gained a large number of supporters from the Republican Party."

"It has been almost 20 years since Bismarck came to power as Prime Minister of the German Empire in 1862. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Kingdom of Prussia rose to become the largest power in Europe. Bismarck's role is definitely comparable to that of William I.

They don’t think he is a kind person, so Bismarck is regarded by Viscount Palmerston as one of Britain’s biggest opponents.”

Childers was mentioned recently, so he had never interacted with the famous strong British Prime Minister Mauston, so he asked in confusion: "Is it just Bismarck? Why didn't he regard William IV as

As an opponent?"

Greville was the secretary of the Prime Minister's Office at No. 10 Downing Street during the period of Viscount Palmerston, so he knew this very well. He said: "Viscount Palmerston said back then that although the Kingdom of the Netherlands has a competitive relationship with the United Kingdom,

The United Kingdom is disadvantageous, but the Netherlands is naturally a sea-power country like the United Kingdom. One of the characteristics of that country is that it will never allow land-power countries to emerge as the most powerful country on the Eurasian continent, the largest island in the world.

Overlord, in that case, the path of the Netherlands and Britain to become powerful countries will come to an end.

Therefore, the fundamental conflict of interests between the Netherlands and Britain is actually not the biggest compared to the German Empire and the Russian Empire. The latter two are the common enemies between Britain and the Netherlands."

Gladstone: "German Wilhelm I and Bismarck knew this. I am convinced that perhaps, William I and Her Majesty Queen Victoria also had a certain stop-loss point for the damage between the two countries. It's possible."

Greville said: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, in the current secret war between Germany and the Netherlands within the United States, do we really support Germany?"

Gladstone: "At present, many pro-Dutch officials and congressmen in the United States have criticized Stephen Douglas's anti-Dutch remarks and actions. We must first understand the background of the speaker.

In the Commonwealth of America, voices criticizing Stephen Douglas generally came from three aspects. One was the pro-Dutch capitalists within the Democratic Party and their workers or, more simply, the beneficiaries.

The second is the two-party immigrants who have good relations with the Kingdom of the Netherlands and immigrate to the country of the United States. The third is the supportive voice under the pro-Dutch momentum planned within the Republican Party.

With their support, Garfield can of course speak high-sounding words about the friendship between the United States and the Netherlands. In the struggle between the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the Dutch side of these pro-Dutch factions in the United States is an open secret. The votes of this country's congressmen, in the current United States,

, there are definitely political positions between those who are against the Netherlands and those who are pro-the Netherlands. But no matter what, no one will really be at odds with the Netherlands after coming to power. It must look at the overall situation of the United States.

Look at the recent past year in the United States, more than two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate have visited Melbourne, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is not because of Stephen Douglas’s anti-Dutch and Galfield’s pro-Dutch views, but because they think this is in line with the republic.

"made in the interests of the Party or the Democratic Party and even the United States"

At the end, British Prime Minister Gladstone made an astonishing statement: "So, as the old saying goes in Britain, superficial enemies are not eternal enemies. Where our interests are, that is where our friends exist, including the Netherlands.

kingdom""
Chapter completed!