I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 755 The Fourth

Little Nicholas, who was invincible in the League of Nations, looked around and saw that everyone around him was a weakling, old and weak, no one could fight. He was as lonely as the snow.

Little Nicholas, who was born in 1856, is 67 years old this year and is no longer young.

Sometimes it is really strange that Stolypin and Witte, who worked hard for Russia, were either assassinated early or suffered from illness.

Little Nicholas, a good-for-nothing grand duke who has spent his whole life eating, drinking and having fun, is now nearly 70 years old and in good health, enjoying everything he eats. It can only be said that fate plays tricks on him.

All the senior imperial officials of the same generation as Nicholas the Younger have passed away. Nicholas the Younger is the only surviving veteran of three dynasties and has an extraordinary status in Russia.

When the news of the League of Nations troops entering the canal zone reached London, the canal company's stock price plummeted into junk stock and its rating dropped to the lowest. The Labour Party submitted a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin in Parliament.

In order to stabilize the situation, Stanley Baldwin decided to hold an early general election.

The move was extremely risky; if the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons, Stanley Baldwin would be forced to resign.

George doesn't care about the results of the British general election. No matter who becomes British Prime Minister, Britain's relations with Russia will not really improve.

Unless one side completely admits defeat.

What George was concerned about during this period was the negotiations between Germany, Belgium and France.

Although the Treaty of Versailles stipulated punishment for Germany, the security situation in Europe did not really improve, and relations between Germany and its neighboring countries such as France, Belgium, Poland, and Czechoslovakia remained tense.

Earlier this year, when Gustav Stresemann became German Chancellor and Foreign Minister, Germany began trying to repair its relations with France.

In mid-June, Germany, France and Belgium held negotiations on the Franco-German and Derby issues under the auspices of Britain and Russia.

Due to the continued tensions at home, France also hopes to improve its relations with Germany.

After four months of difficult negotiations, Germany, France and Belgium guaranteed each other the security of their borders. Germany promised to abide by the relevant provisions of the Treaty of Versailles regarding the Rhine demilitarized zone. Under the witness of Britain and Russia, Germany, France and Belgium signed the Rhine Security Pact.

At the same time as the signing of the Rhine Security Treaty, Germany and France, Belgium, Poland and Czechoslovakia signed arbitration treaties respectively, agreeing to resolve their disputes peacefully.

France took the opportunity to sign the "Guarantee Treaty" with Poland and Czechoslovakia, stipulating the obligation to assist each other when the countries were attacked.

After the signing of the Security Pact, the whole of Europe was in jubilation. People took to the streets to celebrate the arrival of peace. Germany also took the opportunity to apply to the League of Nations to join it.

With the support of Nicholas the Younger, Germany successfully joined the League of Nations and became a permanent member of the League of Nations.

The first country Stresemann visited after becoming German Chancellor was Russia.

Stresemann confessed to Felix that Germany was preparing to issue new marks at a ratio of 1 mark to 1 trillion old marks in order to stabilize the German financial market.

Stresemann promised that after issuing the new mark, the German government would not issue currency indiscriminately as it had done before, but the premise of all this was that Russia would increase its financial assistance to Germany.

This year, Germany paid the first installment of reparations to Russia in the form of material goods, which was approximately equivalent to 5000 million rubles.

Although the amount of reparations was less than expected, it was a rare opportunity for Germany, whose economy was in extremely difficult circumstances.

According to the agreement between Germany and Russia, Germany will start paying reparations to Russia at the latest next year.

Paying the reparations in advance is enough to prove the Germans' sincerity.

So far, Germany has only paid reparations to Russia, while France, which has the most resolute attitude towards reparations, has not received a penny.

Since the Germans were so sincere, Felix was not stingy and promised 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.

It turns out that the Hebrews were only a little clever when it came to making money, but had absolutely no concept of developing the economy.

The consequence of only knowing how to lend money was that the Hebrews earned a lot of money, but their purchasing power continued to decline and did not improve at all.

The situation had become so serious that even the Hebrews themselves could no longer tolerate it, so Deutsche Bank had to lend money to those who really wanted to revitalize the German economy.

The Germans are still resilient in their bones. This summer, no one starved to death in Germany, and the industrial recovery index exceeded that of Britain and France. However, in terms of economic growth rate, it is second only to Russia in Europe.

George was very happy that Germany had finally returned to the right track and that he was not alone in his path.

In November, the British Conservative Party suffered a crushing defeat in the general election, winning only 11 seats in the House of Commons and losing its dominant position.

The Liberal Party won 159 seats, and its decline was also obvious.

The emerging Labour Party won 191 seats, becoming the second largest party in Parliament.

Stanley Baldwin was disheartened and took the initiative to submit his resignation to the King of England.

George V failed to retain him and appointed Labour Party leader Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister to form a cabinet.

MacDonald 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 percent of children in the area were illegitimate.

After graduating from a church school, MacDonald worked as a servant and ticket seller in London, and became the private secretary of Thomas Ney, a member of the House of Commons, in 1888. Through Ney's relationship, MacDonald joined the Fabian Society and joined the Labour Party in 1894.

Since the Labour Party also did not have a majority in the House of Commons, MacDonald had to form a coalition government to govern together. Therefore, MacDonald, who served as prime minister and foreign minister during this period, needed to devote more energy to forming a cabinet and was not enthusiastic about European affairs.

This can't be blamed on MacDonald.

This was the first time the Labour Party came to power, and it did not even have enough ministers, so it had to borrow people from the Conservatives and Liberal parties.

MacDonald himself came from a humble background and had not yet sorted out Britain’s internal conflicts, let alone international relations.

On November 11, after a year of preparation, the Russian-Persian Oil Company's first oil well in Persia successfully produced oil.

After the collapse of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Persia opened up its oil exploration rights. Any company that wanted to explore for oil in Persia could obtain the rights as long as they paid money.

The conditions were generous enough, but no one dared to take the risk.

Even British companies cannot gain a foothold in Persia. If other countries want to go to Persia to exploit oil, it would be better to just throw money away, at least they can have some fun.

The only company capable of extracting oil, the Russian-Persian Oil Company, has not made any move.

After the Suez Canal was interrupted, Persian oil had to go around Africa to reach Europe.

Russian oil will not be affected and can still reach Europe through the Black Sea, but the cost will be lower 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 John Jr. to join forces to reap the Europeans.

As long as Persia's oil pricing is consistent with that of Russian oil and Rockefeller, it will definitely find buyers in Europe.

Despite such a good situation, Grand Duke Dmitry, general manager of the Russian-Persian Oil Company, indulged in pleasure and did nothing in Tehran, becoming a negative example among Russian aristocrats.

The main reason why Dmitry was doing nothing was his dissatisfaction with the new Prime Minister of Persia, Reza Khan.

Reza Khan had a very strong sense of self-awareness and was not satisfied with being controlled by Russia and Britain. While serving as the commander of the Cossack division, he dismissed all Russian officers, while at the same time pretending to be friendly with the British and trying to please both sides.

In December 21, Reza Khan launched another coup, forcing Prime Minister Sayyid Jiyadin to flee Persia and monopolizing power.

After becoming the Prime Minister of Persia, Reza Khan hoped to negotiate with Russia, demanding that Russia recognize the independence of Persia and abolish all Russian privileges in Persia, including consular jurisdiction.

Reza Khan also hoped that Russia would transfer its properties in Persia to Persia as compensation.

These requests were naturally rejected by Dmitri.

While hoping to negotiate with Russia, Reza Khan dismissed all British from all levels of Persian government and wiped out the British-backed Khazar rebel forces.

Earlier this year, Iranian King Ahmad Shah returned to Tehran and officially appointed Reza Khan as Prime Minister of Persia.

Ahmed Shah then left Persia again to visit Europe, and his return date was uncertain.

At the strong request of Reza Khan, Russian-Persian Oil Company took over the oil wells and refining facilities of Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and production gradually resumed.

On November 11, the Russian-Persian Oil Company held a ceremony in Abadan to celebrate the resumption of work at the oil field. Reza Khan was also invited to cut the ribbon for the resumption of work at the oil field.

Reza Khan was very cautious and led a guard of more than 3000 people to Abadan to prevent any accidents from happening.

Shortly after Reza Khan arrived in Abadan, Sardar Humayun, who had served as Reza Khan's immediate superior, 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 guards led by Reza Khan were attacked by rebels and were completely wiped out.

After learning the news, Dmitry and British Ambassador to Persia McMahon celebrated in Tehran.

"Now let's talk about the oil quota."

McMahon hoped to return to Britain through the post of British ambassador to Poland.

McMahon wanted Russo-Persian Oil Company, like the Anglo-Persian Oil Company before it, to ship all its produced oil to Britain, for which Britain was willing to pay a price slightly higher than the market price.

Dmitry was very curious, what was the purpose?
McMahon was bitter.

After losing Persian oil, Britain had to either buy oil from the Americans or from Russia.

The two families are now birds of a feather.

The UK is unwilling to put all its eggs in one basket and urgently needs to introduce third-party suppliers.

At this time, Grand Duchy of Yuriev's ambassador to the UK, Hingis, took the initiative to find McDonald and asked if McDonald needed a fourth supplier.

(End of this chapter)