George VI's trip to Canada and the United States did not begin as quickly as one might expect. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info First of all, His Majesty the King had to be busy with the "relatives" who had come to England for help. More and more European royal families and nobles are running to London with their families to "take refuge", and most of these people are related to the British royal family.

The members of the royal family and their so-called government-in-exile could be left to the cabinet, but the much larger nobles were the personal guests of the royal family. Although the British royal family is rich, and those relatives bring gold, silver and jewelry with them when they "flee", it is also quite difficult to arrange a residence suitable for so many people at once, and properly arrange their lives according to aristocratic etiquette. The 71-year-old head of the royal family, Viscount Hood, was so tired that he even had an asthma attack.

Every day, George VI had to meet with Queen Elizabeth and appease his "relatives", and he also had to worry about the disputes between the cabinet and parliament. Although the UK is a constitutional monarchy, the royal family does not have substantial powers. But George VI was, after all, nominally the supreme ruler of Britain and the commander-in-chief of the three armies.

Now that Chamberlain's premiership is on the verge of collapse, a series of mistakes made by the prime minister, from Czechoslovakia to Poland, Finland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, have caused serious discontent in parliament. If George VI were to visit at this time, who would sign the new cabinet elected by Parliament? Therefore, His Majesty had to wait patiently.

Fortunately, the members of the British Parliament did not make George VI wait too long. In the Palace of Westminster, a political storm has arrived to remove the prime minister. This time, it was not the Labour and Liberal opposition that sounded the horn of the attack, but the Conservative Party led by Chamberlain.

The hero of the First World War, Admiral Sir Roger Case, who appeared in parliament in full uniform and with six rows of ribbons on his chest, lashed out at Chamberlain's military foreign policy and said that he would voluntarily lead his navy to Norwegian waters to attack the Germans. The veteran Tory's speech won a round of applause from Chamberlain's opposition.

By this time, Chamberlain, who had come to the parliament for questioning, already sensed that something was wrong. For a long time, although the opposition party has criticized him a lot in Parliament, as the leader of the Conservative Party, he has basically guarded the party very steadily, and many votes of confidence have been unexpected.

But this time, things don't seem to be good. The rebels were all Conservative MPs whom he once trusted so much. On the second day of the parliamentary debate, Leo Amery, the oldest Conservative member of commons, even attacked Chamberlain's cabinet with the famous words of Cromwell in the 17th century about the long parliament: "You sit here too long and you will never do anything good." I said, go away! Let us be at odds with you from now on. For God's sake, let's go! ”

At first, Churchill, the Minister of the Admiralty, wanted to come forward and declare that he was fully responsible for the defeat of the Norwegian campaign. But Lloyd George (a Tory), prime minister at the last world war, warned him to see the situation clearly and "don't turn yourself into an air-raid bunker to shield your colleagues from debris." ”

The former prime minister also mocked Chamberlain in a spicy tone: "The prime minister has called for everyone to make sacrifices, but the prime minister should lead by example and make sacrifices first." For in this war, there is no greater contribution to victory than the sacrifice of the Prime Minister to his position. ”

In the final vote, the support vote of the Chamberlain cabinet dropped from the normal more than 200 votes to 81 votes. Some 40 Conservatives, including some former cabinet members, voted with the opposition against Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and a large number of Conservatives deliberately abstained from voting.

Despite the huge humiliation Chamberlain received in the House of Commons, he was not without a chance of another comeback. As long as he can make some concessions to win Labour's support, he could still form a coalition government again. But this time, Churchill reacted much faster than he did. On the evening of the vote of confidence in the House of Commons, Labour leader Attlee and deputy leader Greenwood appeared at the Admiralty.

Upon learning that the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party had decided that the party would only join the coalition government with a new prime minister, Chamberlain had to convene a special cabinet meeting and said that he had decided to resign immediately in view of the further deterioration of the war caused by the German invasions of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Although Chamberlain lost the position of prime minister, he remained the leader of the Conservative Party, the largest party in Parliament. Regarding the choice of prime minister for the new government, he prefers the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. But his proposal was again rejected, and Attlee made it clear that the Labour Party would only be willing to participate in a coalition government led by Churchill.

Two days later, Chamberlain formally proposed to George VI that Winston Churchill be summoned to form a new government. Churchill, who had become the only candidate for prime minister in the wartime cabinet, was summoned to the palace to report to His Majesty the King on his plans to form a cabinet. Churchill planned to form a small wartime cabinet, and in addition to becoming prime minister, he himself would take over as defense secretary. Labour leaders Attlee and Arthur Greenwood, as well as a number of business coalition leaders, will be included in the new government.

As for Chamberlain himself, although both the Labour and Liberals encouraged Churchill to expel him from government, Churchill asked him to remain in the wartime cabinet, appointing him President of the Privy Council and heading over the "important" Committee of Privy Council Speakers.

Interestingly, Winston Churchill, the Conservative prime minister, was more popular with Labour and Liberal MPs in Parliament, while most Conservative MPs remained united around Chamberlain. Although Chamberlain encouraged Conservative MPs on various occasions to support Churchill so as not to affect the war effort, he also always regarded Churchill's cabinet as a wartime provisional government, believing that he could return to power after the war. (Unfortunately, this politician "has a heart higher than the sky, and his life is thinner than paper", and not long after he left office, he had to resign as leader of the Conservative Party and Privy Council because of stomach cancer, and died soon after.) ）

On May 13, the day Churchill's cabinet officially took office, John, like many Americans who cared about European politics, listened to a live broadcast of his address to Parliament. Churchill told the world that he would form "a five-member wartime cabinet on the broadest possible basis" in accordance with "the expectations and wishes of Parliament and the State, and to embody the unity of the nation together with the opposition Liberals".

Although thousands of people listened to the radio as he did, John listened to it with the mindset of witnessing history, unlike those who were only concerned with the selection of the new British government and their attitude towards the war. In later generations, this classic speech of Churchill has been repeatedly quoted by people, and has even been included in many English textbooks. In his previous life, John had memorized English specifically.

"You ask: What is our policy? I said, "Our policy is to wage war at sea, on land, and in the air, with all the power and all the strength that God can give us; Wage war with a heinous tyranny never seen in the evil and tragic history of human evil. That's our policy. ”

"You ask, 'What is our purpose?' I can reply in one word: victory - to strive for victory at all costs, no matter how terrible; No matter how long and difficult the road is, strive for victory; Because without victory, there can be no survival. ”

John followed Churchill silently as he read this famous passage of history in his mind, and at this moment he suddenly realized that his heart had a strange emotional resonance with this era. In the past, he just regarded himself as a spectator of this historical drama. Now, Churchill's impassioned and generous speech has sparked a faint impulse in his heart to plunge into the torrent of this magnificent era.