Chapter 147: The Brussels Conference

"Look at a person, don't look at the surface!" Hepburn's mother looked at her daughter and taught tirelessly. The daughter is still too simple, but she doesn't want to think about the simplicity of a person who transmits information to the guerrillas.

In terms of simplicity, Alan Wilson is simple, and he has not been deceived many times in this sinister society. Otherwise, how could he be nostalgic for life in British India! It was the friendliest place for him, a haven of peace of mind.

Mother's words did not make Audrey Hepburn listen, she thought that the Englishman was good. Because of malnutrition, Hepburn didn't really have much confidence in her face, and she didn't grow up in praise.

If it weren't for the familiarity of this face, Alan Wilson would not have been able to recognize the Earth Crest Flower in his infancy.

Audrey Hepburn in 1945 did not kill both Chinese and Western appearances, and was not even as good as the Isabella sisters in Bonn, who were just ordinary little girls with delicate appearance.

Audrey Hepburn, who is really known after the Roman holiday, is not an exaggeration to say that it is Hollywood's top makeup artist who single-handedly created the well-known Audrey Hepburn, he grasped the advantages and disadvantages of her face, and tailored the most suitable makeup and hairstyle for her, his makeup skills can be called a reborn change for Hepburn, and he also became Hepburn's royal makeup artist.

With a shriveled figure and a delicate appearance, if it weren't for Alan Wilson's super memory, this would be just an ordinary girl who looked pretty good, until the fifties, when Audrey Hepburn auditioned for Givenchy.

Audrey Hepburn, who was shriveled and dressed in ordinary clothes, appeared in front of Givenchy herself, and Givenchy, whose dreams were shattered, refused all of Audrey Hepburn's requests on the spot without shame.

After being rejected, she did not give up, and repeatedly invited Givenchy to dinner, during which Hepburn drew her career blueprint to Givenchy, so that Givenchy became her royal fashion artist.

If you look at it with the eyes of realization, if Alan Wilson does not remember this face deeply, it is very normal to miss it. But to look at the matter from a developmental point of view, he did not hesitate to leave his contact information in London, and he believed that this ugly duckling would grow up.

Alan Wilson thinks that most of the time, his IQ is absolutely online, and after the Hepburn mother and daughter came, he became a model of imperial civil servants, an outstanding representative of the British Empire's civil servants, the most famous image of civil servants in Britain, and the image of the gentleman who saved French women on the streets of Paris.

In recent months, Alan Wilson's impression in the newspaper is no less than that of well-known domestic actors, even Vivien Leigh, who can only be compared to him in terms of traffic.

He had not yet arrived in Brussels, but the tone of the Brussels conference had been set, and the place where the tone of Anglo-French rapprochement was set was still in the far Far East.

Although France quickly decided to return to Asia after the end of the war in Europe, after all, the French military power in Vietnam was better than nothing, just like a few months earlier, the Austrian occupation zone, the contrast between Anglo-American, French and Soviet Red Army, can only be regarded as theoretical.

The French could not have surrendered in Vietnam, so it was the British who surrendered in southern Vietnam. Prior to the Brussels Conference, London had pledged to Paris that it would defend the French colonies in Southeast Asia instead of the French army, and in exchange France would have to support the British claim to the Kra Isthmus, as a sign of British and French solidarity on the colonial question.

After Japan's surrender, British troops had landed in southern Vietnam, and had telegraphed to France that they would help France hold the colony. For Vietnam, a hot potato, in fact, Britain doesn't want to care.

British India was far more important than Vietnam in terms of resolute repression or relentlessness, but in order to draw France and Britain together on broader issues, Mountbatten still mobilized troops to provide France with a base to return to Asia.

Against this backdrop, Britain's limited forces had to be assembled, and Britain did not want to be too involved in Vietnam. I just hope that the French will move faster and not let the British stay in Vietnam for too long.

Three days before the Brussels conference, Alan Wilson arrived in Brussels, the capital of what would become the European Union.

A few decades later, Brussels is the capital and largest city of Belgium, the seat of the main administrative body of the European Union, and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The whole city is centered around the Royal Palace, built along a small ring, and it is best to visit on foot. Although originally a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has developed into a bilingual city with both French and Dutch.

Even at the Brussels Conference, the French delegate said that French must be added as a written language, and the other countries agreed, and Britain did not object, so there is no point in objecting in such details.

After arriving at the British delegation and meeting Alexander Cadogan, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also teased the French with the attitude that France must add French, "The French think that French is the representative language of the civilized world, but they forget how long ago it was, but Belgium does have a French-speaking population, and we can't object to it, right?" ”

"This shows the British Empire's respect for its allies, and nothing else." Alan Wilson echoed Alexander Cadogan's words.

There is a saying in Europe that the center of Europe in the seventeenth century was France, and the leader of Europe after the eighteenth century was England. Of course, this kind of rhetoric is more widespread in France, but there is no such thing in England.

But the linguistic environment in Brussels is true, as Alexander Cadogan said, French is the dominant language, Dutch represents poor and backward Flanders, and the only official language of the Belgian government is French.

Educational institutions in Brussels are also almost exclusively taught in French, which further hinders the spread of the Dutch language and leads to an inferior impression of the Dutch language.

However, from the point of view of the British, this is just a small remnant of the time of the French Sun King, and the degree of progress in different parts of the world is not the same, and it is not incomprehensible that there are traces of hundreds of years ago in some places.

In a world where the influence of English has long since surpassed that of French, there should be sympathy and understanding for the stubborn French.

"The stubbornness of the French is so lovely that we have not overwhelmed the French once without any objections?" Alan Wilson shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"A few more times, but not much." Alexander Cadogan said slowly.

"When was the last time the French were left speechless." Alan Wilson asked with interest.

"1815, Battle of Waterloo. The French have absolutely nothing to say! Alexander Cadogan said with a wicked grin.

Probably for the sake of his brilliant debut, the French arrived the day after the British delegation arrived in Brussels, at this time Alan Wilson, under the guidance of the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretary of the Foreign Office, was fully aware of his own cultural improvement.

Cabinet Secretary Edward Bridges said that he was quite satisfied with the current work in the British-occupied territories, regardless of the effectiveness of many policies, but the efforts of the British-occupied Trade Commission, Whitehall had already seen.

At the same time, he said that in a sense, the Brussels Conference was definitely much more important than the reconstruction of the British Occupied Zone, and even determined the future direction of the British Empire.

The consensus within Britain on how to unite the countries of Europe has been determined, that is, to work hard from the colonies of the countries currently participating in the Brussels Conference, and this is also the greatest common denominator among countries with different interests, different ideas, and even not harmonious relations.

Britain and France have a delicate relationship for historical reasons, but Britain and France are not the only ones who are delicate. Spain and Portugal were not close either, with Spain annexing Portugal and Belgium fighting against the Dutch.

Of course, the supporters of Belgian independence were the French, while the countries that supported the Netherlands were Great Britain, the Russian Empire, the Austrian Empire, and the Kingdom of Prussia.

It can be said that the hands of every country are stained with the blood of other countries, and at this time we must unite, if we do not unite, these countries that have once had unlimited glory will soon become a small shrimp in the eyes of the United States and the Soviet Union.

The Belgian king who greeted the nations at the Brussels Conference was Leopold III, a king who was currently in deep controversy, and was arguably in trouble because of his ambiguous attitude towards Germany during the war.

The fact that this meeting was held in Belgium was also the result of Leopold III's vigorous efforts. The fundamental reason is that the French do not approve of the London event and the British do not approve of the Paris event.

Brussels, heavily influenced by France, chose this place to sit down and talk about what the colonial empire would hold tomorrow.

The person in charge of receiving the delegations was Prince Charles, the younger brother of Leopold III. Alan Wilson was very uncomfortable with the name and title of Prince Charles.

He believes that only when he became the crown prince in 1958 and has been a British Empire eunuch for 62 years, he is more in line with the image of the prince in his heart, and the other Charles are all fakes and shoddy products.

The Belgian royal palace, the flags of Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Belgium fluttered high, indicating the official opening of the Brussels Conference, which was declared to be the post-war reconstruction conference of Europe.

British Prime Minister Attlee and French Provisional Government President Charles de Gaulle were undoubtedly the most important figures in the post-war reconstruction conference, and their attitudes determined the future of these colonial empires.