Chapter 735 Three and a half billion in five years
"Is President Quirino's rhetorical question useful?" Pamela Mountbatten asked with a slight frown, "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.
You should do the same 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 propaganda, it was finally accepted by most citizens. Citizens of the metropolitan country believe that their country has certain corresponding responsibilities towards the former colony.
Later, it will also evolve into some compensation, providing some innocuous but sincere help. Usually diplomatic support and small amounts of financial aid are the main ones.
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 has countless times more colonies than the United States, and Alan Wilson is also the chief executive of an important colony. This mentality can be easily understood.
President Quirino's rhetorical question about the pressure exerted by the United States almost accuses 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 had colonization
Countries like this don’t have such nonsense.”
Bullshit thinking, this is Alan Wilson's evaluation of 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 managed to hit the right mark, hitting the special psychology of colonial countries.
Especially the United States, which originally had few colonies and wanted to set a benchmark. In 1953, it still had high hopes for the Philippines and wanted to set a positive example.
In the following days, Washington did not respond to President Quirino's rhetorical question, which proved Alan Wilson's judgment. The United States is still very tolerant of the Philippines, a former colony that has been developing well in this era.
Even before the 1960s, the Philippines was generally considered a rising star in Asia's economy, almost ousting Hong Kong and becoming one of the Four Asian Tigers. However, in 1965, Ferdinand Marcos came to power and began a long period of rule.
In the early stage of his career, 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 ate up the country's fiscal budget for three years by himself, and frantically exploited the peace believers in the south. In the end, he naturally ruined the entire country.
political economy.
Washington was in a very difficult situation at this time. Japan had become the front line to blockade the Soviet Union, and the Philippines, a former colony, demanded reparations and questioned the United States' responsibilities to the Philippines. This made it difficult for Washington to step down.
A colonial commissioner, no one who understands the psychology of 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 support for 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 eight billion US dollars, not to mention that the Philippines wants US$8 billion. What about Australia? What about New Zealand? What about the Netherlands?
Every country here is a close ally of the United States, and each follows the standards of the Philippines. Wouldn't Japan be completely wiped out? It would have to return to its early post-war state of continuous blood transfusions by the United States?
Redick Williams is the U.S. ambassador to Australia. Of course, he was actually a former bank manager in New York. 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 Reddick 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 to just say a number and the Japanese would agree.
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.
After hearing this, Alan Wilson sighed, even a small country with weak strength has the basic understanding of having both sides, and it should not be underestimated 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 like to help justice? He is so helpless by nature that he is willing to help with enthusiasm for the sake of 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.
By not stopping the Philippines' claim no matter what, the gap opened will eventually be exploited by more than one country. In a certain sense, it has exceeded the red line of the US prohibition on claims in the San Francisco Agreement.
In this sense, the Philippines’ attitude towards compensation 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 as good at selling as it is a traitor, on par with Churchill." An imperial civil servant who once sold West Berlin just to make his second brother happy made this assessment.
At this point in the claims negotiations in Canberra, Japan's attempt to muddle through has completely failed. In the claims talks led by the Philippines and followed by the other three countries, Yuto Ikeda has been 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 will be better to spend less time with him.
In the negotiations involving the four countries, Japan's compensation figure has changed from the eight billion US dollars advocated by the Philippines alone to a total of eight billion US dollars by the four countries. Ikeda Yuto said that this figure is still too high and far beyond Japan's ability to bear.
The numbers have slowly declined amid repeated back and forth, and the payment plan has changed from one-time delivery to installment delivery. Of course, Ikeda hopes that the installment payment period will be as long as possible, so as not to cause economic pressure on Japan.
Of course, Alan Wilson doesn't want this kind of future to happen. Time is far more important to the country than money. If you can't keep up at the critical time, you will spend several times the 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 expatriate women who were captured by Japanese soldiers on the battlefield in Southeast Asia can no longer endure the pain alone.
"
Representatives of Australia and New Zealand agreed, otherwise they would not be able to explain to citizens who are concerned about the claims negotiations.
"I want to be recognized in the country!" Ikeda Yuuto sighed. Seeing the tone of these representatives, he understood that there was little 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.