Chapter 755 The Fourth
Little Nicholas, who is invincible in the League of Nations, looks around and sees that everyone is a weak chicken, old and old, no one can beat him, he is really lonely as snow.
Little Nicholas, who was born in 1856, is 67 years old this year and is no longer young.
Sometimes it is really strange. Stolypin and Werther, who worked hard for Russia, were either assassinated early or suffered from illness.
Little Nicholas, a good-for-nothing grandduke who has spent his whole life eating, drinking and having fun, is now in his seventies and in good health.
All the high-ranking imperial officials who were contemporaries of Nicholas the Younger have taken their final bows. Nicholas the Younger is the only remaining elder of the three dynasties and has a transcendent status in Russia.
The news of the League of Nations troops stationed in the Canal Zone reached London. The shares of the canal company fell directly into junk stocks, with the lowest score. The Labor Party submitted a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in Congress.
In order to stabilize the situation, Stanley Baldwin decided to hold an early election.
This move is extremely risky. If the Conservative Party loses its dominance in the House of Commons, Stanley Baldwin will have to resign.
George does not care about the results of the British election. No matter who is the British Prime Minister, Britain's relations with Russia will not really improve.
Unless one party completely admits defeat.
What George is concerned about during this time is the negotiations between Germany, Belgium and France.
Although the "Versailles Treaty" stipulated punishment for Germany, the security situation in Europe has not really improved, and relations between Germany and neighboring countries such as France, Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia are still tense.
At the beginning of this year, Gustav Stresemann became German Chancellor and Foreign Minister, and Germany began to try to repair its relationship with France.
In mid-June, Germany, France, and Belgium conducted negotiations on the German-French and Derby issues under the auspices of the United Kingdom and Russia.
France also hopes to improve relations with Germany due to continued tensions at home.
After four months of difficult negotiations, Germany, France, and Belgium guaranteed each other's border security and inviolability. Germany promised to abide by the relevant provisions of the "Contract of Versailles" regarding the Rhine Demilitarized Zone, as witnessed by the United Kingdom and Russia. Next, Germany signed the "Rheinland Security Convention" with France and Belgium.
At the same time as the "Rheinland Security Convention" was signed, Germany and France, Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia signed "Arbitration Treaties" respectively, agreeing to use peaceful means to resolve disputes between them.
France took the opportunity to sign the "Guarantee Treaty" with Poland and Czechoslovakia, which stipulated that countries have the obligation to assist each other when they are attacked.
After the signing of the "Security Pact", the whole of Europe was in jubilation. People poured into the streets to celebrate the true arrival of peace. Germany also took advantage of the situation and applied to the League of Nations to join the League of Nations.
With the support of Nicholas Jr., Germany successfully joined the League of Nations and became a permanent member of the League of Nations.
After becoming German Chancellor, the first country Stresemann visited was Russia.
Stresemann confessed to Felix that Germany was preparing to issue a new mark at a ratio of 1 mark to 1 trillion old marks to stabilize the German financial market.
Stresemann promised that after the issuance of the new mark, the German government will not issue as much currency as before, but the premise of all this is that Russia will increase financial assistance to Germany.
This year Germany paid the first reparations to Russia in the form of materials, approximately equivalent to 50 million rubles.
Although the amount of compensation is not as expected, it is extremely rare for Germany, whose economy is in extremely difficult circumstances.
According to the agreement between Germany and Russia, Germany will start paying reparations to Russia next year at the latest.
Paying compensation in advance is enough to prove the sincerity of the Germans.
So far, Germany has only paid reparations to Russia. France, which has the most determined attitude towards reparations, has not received a penny.
Since the Germans are so sincere, Felix is not stingy and promises to do his best to help the German government stabilize prices and restore the economy.
In fact, the German economy has begun to recover since the beginning of this year.
Facts have proved that the Hebrews are only a little clever in making money and have no concept of economic development at all.
The consequence of only lending money is that the money earned by the Hebrews is piling up, but their purchasing power is deteriorating without any improvement.
This situation has become so serious that even the Hebrews themselves can no longer bear it, so Deutsche Bank has to give loans to those who really want to revitalize the German economy.
The Germanic people are still resilient at their core. No one in Germany starved to death this summer. The industrial recovery index surpassed that of the United Kingdom and France, but in terms of economic growth rate, it is second only to Russia in Europe.
George is very happy that Germany is finally back on the right path, and we are not alone in our path.
In November, the British Conservative Party suffered a disastrous defeat in the general election, winning only 258 seats in the House of Commons and losing its dominant position.
The Liberal Party won 159 seats, and the decline was equally obvious.
The suddenly emerging Labor Party won 191 seats and became the second largest party in parliament.
Stanley Baldwin was disheartened and took the initiative to submit his resignation to the King of England.
After George V failed to retain him, he appointed Labor Party leader Ramsay Macdonald as Prime Minister to form a cabinet.
McDonald was born in 1866, the illegitimate son of a farm worker and a maid. This phenomenon was very common in the area. According to British government statistics, more than 15% of local children were illegitimate.
After graduating from a church school, Macdonald worked as a servant and conductor in London. In 1888, he became the personal secretary of Thomas Ney, a member of the House of Commons. Through Ney's connections, Macdonald joined the Fabian Society and in 1894 joined the Labor Party.
Since the Labor Party also failed to gain a majority in the House of Commons, Macdonald had to form a coalition government to govern together. Therefore, Macdonald, who was both Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during this period, needed to make more decisions. He spent more energy on forming a cabinet and was not enthusiastic about European affairs.
Don't blame Macdonald.
This is the first time that the Labor Party has been in power. It doesn’t even have enough ministerial candidates and needs to borrow people from the Conservative and Liberal parties.
Macdonald himself came from a humble background and had not even figured out the internal conflicts in Britain, let alone international relations.
On November 15, after a year of preparations, the Russian-Polish Oil Company’s first oil well in Persia successfully produced oil.
After the collapse of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Persia opened up oil exploration rights. Any company that wants to exploit oil in Persia can obtain oil exploration rights as long as it pays a fee.
This condition is generous enough, but no one dares to take action.
Even British companies can't gain a foothold in Persia. If other countries want to exploit oil in Persia, they might as well just waste their money and at least have fun.
The Russian-Polish Oil Company, the only company capable of extracting oil, has made no movement.
After the Suez Canal was disrupted, Persian oil needed to bypass Africa to reach Europe.
Russian oil is not affected and can still reach Europe through the Black Sea, and the cost is cheaper than Persian oil.
It's just that the cost is low, and the price is not much lower than Rockefeller. When George was in the United States, he had already reached an agreement with Little John to join forces to harvest the Europeans.
Persian oil only needs to be priced in line with Russian oil and Rockefeller, and it will definitely find buyers in Europe.
In spite of such a good situation, Grand Duke Dmitry, who serves as the general manager of the Russian-Polish Petroleum Company, enjoys himself in Tehran and does nothing, becoming a negative example among Russian aristocrats.
The reason why Dmitry was doing nothing was mainly due to his dissatisfaction with the new Persian Prime Minister Reza Khan.
Reza Khan had a very strong self-awareness and was not satisfied with being controlled by Russia and Britain. When he was the commander of the Cossack division, he dismissed all Russian officers.
In December 2021, Reza Khan launched another coup, forcing Prime Minister Said al-Jiyadin to flee Persia and take over power.
After becoming the Prime Minister of Persia, Reza Khan hoped to negotiate with Russia, requiring Russia to recognize the independence of Persia and abolish all Russian privileges in Persia, including consular jurisdiction.
Reza Khan also hoped that Russia could transfer properties located in Persia to Persia as compensation.
These requests were naturally rejected by Dmitri.
While hoping to negotiate with Russia, Reza Khan treated everyone equally, dismissed all British positions in Persian government agencies at all levels, and wiped out the Khazar rebellion supported by the British.
Earlier this year, Iran's Shah Ahmed Shah returned to Tehran and formally appointed Reza Khan as Prime Minister of Persia.
Afterwards, Ahmed Shah left Persia again to visit Europe, and his return date has not yet been determined.
Due to Reza Khan's strong request, the Russian-Persian Oil Company took over the oil wells and refining facilities of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and production gradually resumed.
On November 29, the Russian Polish Oil Company held a ceremony in Abadan to celebrate the resumption of work in the oil field. Reza Khan was also invited to cut the ribbon for the resumption of work in the oil field.
Reza Khan was very careful and led a guard of more than 3,000 people to Abadan to prevent any accidents.
Shortly after Reza Khan arrived in Abadan, Sardar Humayun, who had served as Reza Khan's immediate boss, launched a coup in Tehran and announced the abolition of all Reza Khan's positions.
Reza Khan was furious and immediately led his guards back to Tehran to quell the rebellion.
On the way back to Tehran, the guard led by Reza Khan was attacked by rebels and the entire army was wiped out.
After Dmitri learned the news, he celebrated with McMahon, the British Ambassador to Persia, in Tehran.
“Now let’s talk about oil quotas.”
McMahon hopes to use the British ambassador to Poland as an opportunity to return to the UK.
McMahon hopes that the Russian-Polish Oil Company, like the Anglo-Persian Oil Company before it, will ship all the oil it mines to Britain, and Britain is willing to pay a price slightly higher than the market price for this.
Dmitri was very curious, what are you trying to do?
McMahon felt bitter inside.
After losing Persian oil, Britain could either buy oil from the Americans or buy Russian oil.
The two families are now the same species.
The UK is unwilling to put its eggs in the same basket and urgently needs to introduce third-party suppliers.
At this moment, Hingis, the ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Yuriev to the UK, took the initiative to find MacDonald and asked MacDonald if he needed a fourth supplier.
(End of this chapter)