Go back in time and be a chaebol

Chapter 963 Let the Queen Convince Him (First Update, Please Subscribe)
You can only move forward, not backward.

Behind it is...London!
In the past few years, the British Empire has been in retreat!

Whether it was Fatso or Eden, who took over the prime ministership as his deputy, although they tried their best to stop all this, they could only slow down the process.

After all, Britain's decline after the war was obvious to all. Even when it had troops stationed in Egypt, Britain was unable to intervene when Nasser's Free Officers Organization overthrew the Farouk dynasty. After all, the world has always spoken with strength.

Britain's decline forced them to withdraw from the world. Two years later, facing Egypt's request for a complete withdrawal of British troops, Qiu had a way out, so he readily planned to evacuate most of Egypt within two years.

However, Britain had a bottom line: the Suez Canal was a strategic location, and Britain would not withdraw from it, but would retain the right to operate it. This was of course rejected by Egypt. Fatso was tough in the face of Egypt's rejection - after all, maintaining the connection between Britain and its overseas territories in East Africa and Asia depended largely on the Suez Canal.

So you must always persist in what you should persist in.

Although Britain was in decline, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and the tiger still has some power left. Faced with Britain's toughness, Egypt finally compromised, and the operating rights of Britain and France were retained.

"Nasser has rejected our request!"

In the Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street, Lloyd looked at Prime Minister Eden and said.

"Not only did they refuse to end the arms trade with the Soviet Union, they also refused to make any concessions on the issue of peace with Israel."

The foreign minister has just concluded negotiations with Egypt.

"So the negotiations broke down?"

Aiden asked back.

“Yes, the negotiations have broken down, even when we pointed out the Aswan Dam loan, right?”

"Yes, they didn't hesitate at all, Mr. Prime Minister. It seems that for them, the elimination of Israel is more important than the dam."

Lloyd's tone was full of helplessness. The Aswan Dam was extremely important to Egypt. Although half a century ago, in order to enable Egypt to grow more cotton, Britain renovated and built a series of water conservancy projects, including the Aswan Dam.

However, the dam was very low. Although it was raised several times, it still could not solve the flood problem of the Nile River. In the flood ten years ago, the dam was almost overflowed. So the Egyptians decided not to repair it anymore, but to build a more magnificent high dam upstream of the low dam. At that time, King Farouk I even went to the construction site and laid the foundation stone on the foundation of the new dam.

However, before the construction began, the Farouk dynasty was overthrown by the Free Officers Organization led by Nasser. Nasser's government urgently needed funds to change the backward economy and weapons to destroy Israel.

In order to obtain weapons, after shelving its request for weapons assistance from the United States, Egypt, which was "thirsty for guns", turned to the Soviet Union. The two sides reached an agreement in September last year, and the Soviet Union began to provide weapons assistance to Egypt.

The United States and Britain, having lost a move in the chess game, planned to win back Egypt by funding the Aswan Dam in Egypt - they expressed their willingness to provide a "grant" of 7000 million US dollars for the first phase of the Aswan Dam that Nasser was preparing to build, and the World Bank also agreed to lend 2 million US dollars.

But this was not a free lunch. The conditions were that Egypt ended its arms trade with the Soviet Union and made peace with Israel.

After several months of negotiations, Nasser flatly rejected the demands of the United States and Britain.

"Yes, Mr. Prime Minister, weapons are the most important thing to Nasser. If he wants to become the leader of the Arab world and realize his dream of unifying the Arab world, he must destroy Israel and use Israel as a stepping stone to become the leader of the Arab world!"

The leader of the Arab world, or even a unified Arab world, was exactly Nasser's dream and what Britain had always opposed.

"He is simply wishful thinking!"

Aiden said bluntly.

"The Aswan Dam is related to the bread of the Egyptians. Without funds, everything is wishful thinking! If the Aswan Dam is shelved, he will have no way to explain to the Egyptians! At that time, the dissatisfaction of the Egyptians will force him to make concessions."

"But, Mr. Prime Minister, he has another option, which is the Russians. He can ask the Russians for help, just like he got weapons from Russia,"

"No, the Russians don't have enough funds to support Egypt in building the Aswan Dam. That would require hundreds of millions of dollars. Maybe in the future the Russians will be able to come up with that money, but now, they can't!"

Eden's judgment was accurate. Russia did not have any extra funds to aid Egypt. In fact, in another world, a few years later, faced with an expenditure of more than one billion rubles, the Soviet high-level officials debated for a long time on the issue of helping Egypt build the Aswan Dam. Finally, faced with the reality of Nasser's status as the leader of the Arab world, the Soviet Union decided to provide loans in order to win over the Arab world.

Now...the Soviet Union really has no money, and Egypt does not have the value of united front work, at least not yet.

"Then they only have one choice," Lloyd said, looking at the Prime Minister.

“Take back the Suez Canal and use the revenue from the Suez Canal to build a dam!”

Although this is just a guess, Lloyd believes that this possibility is very high. After all, for Nasser, he now has no better choice.

"What? Take back the Suez Canal? Is he crazy?"

The reason why Eden was so excited was that in his opinion Nasser definitely did not have the courage to do so. To be more precise, he did not believe that the other party would be so unsportsmanlike.

"Mr. Prime Minister, we must take this possibility into consideration. After all, in Nasser's view, Britain has declined to the extreme. Since we can make concessions on the colonies, we can naturally make concessions on the issue of the Suez Canal."

"Make concessions? That's wishful thinking. Suez is a canal, not a colony, but commercial, our investment. How dare they do that? If they do it and we don't react, then the whole world will think that we think the British Empire is weak and can be bullied."

Aiden said after taking a deep breath.

"So no matter what, we will not make any concessions on the issue of the right to operate the Suez Canal. After all, commercial treaties are sacrosanct."

Although he was not sure whether Nasser would do that, Aiden still felt an unprecedented danger. After all, that guy never played by the rules.

Thinking of this, Aiden emphasized.

“We have to do everything we can to ensure that.”

"But Mr. Prime Minister, we must consider this possibility. For Egypt, this may be their best option. If they do this, how should we respond then?"

In response to the Foreign Secretary's reminder, Eden fell into silence. After thinking for a long time, he spoke.

"If this really happens, we must respond in the strongest possible way. If we make concessions on the Suez Canal, we may lose all our colonies in the future."

After thinking for a moment, Aiden continued.

"The French, when the time comes, the French will definitely stand on our side."

The French will definitely stand with them. After all, the French also have shares in the Suez Canal, and their interests are the same, at least on the canal.

"Mr. Prime Minister, what is important is the attitude of the United States and the Soviet Union. What will their attitude be? If they are opposed, how should we deal with it?"

Lloyd's questions made Aiden think for a while, then he spoke.

"Nanyang, bring that guy in! With that guy joining us, we will definitely be able to scare the Soviets."

When he said this, Aiden laughed almost subconsciously.

He thought about how this guy had thrown the UN Charter into the trash at the UN General Assembly last year.

Faced with such a madman, even the Russians could only retreat.

"It seems like a good idea. As we all know, Nanyang is very stubborn. But, Mr. Prime Minister, we all know that guy is stubborn, but he is also greedy."

Lloyd said, looking at the Prime Minister.

"If we want him to participate, what kind of benefits should we give him? If there are not enough benefits, he will definitely not participate. He is different from other people. France has shares in the canal, so the French will definitely participate. However, in the South Seas, there is no benefit there, so his participation is almost impossible under such circumstances."

The world has always been realistic. If there is no benefit, no one will take risks for other countries.

Aiden understood this very well. After all, interests have always been paramount in this world.

"Invite him to visit the UK. I will convince him. If that doesn't work, let the Queen convince him!"

(End of this chapter)