The next day, John wanted to take time off work to stay at home with Adele. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info But Adele kept urging him to go to work.

In her opinion, John's work can help her country somewhat, which is far more important than staying at home and guarding her. So John was on his way to work, and by the way, he took Adele to the French Embassy.

The newspaper said that today there will be a gathering of French expatriates here to raise funds for public support. At that time, the French ambassador will personally deliver a speech, calling on overseas Chinese in the United States to support the cause of defending the motherland. John felt that instead of leaving his wife at home and thinking about it, it would be better for her to stay with her own people, and to find some comfort.

As soon as John arrived at the office, Pakarina told him that Major General Boer was looking for him, and told him to go to the governor's office at once. Pushing open the door to the Commissioner's office, John discovers that Jairo and Crawford are also there.

"John, you've come just in time. It's urgent, and we won't be waiting for you any later. Major General Bull said: "The news was received just in the morning that the British had rejected the Italians' offer of mediation, and that Churchill's cabinet had decided to continue the fight with the Germans. ”

Whether it was out of memories of his past life or what he knew about Churchill in this life, John was extremely sure that this English bulldog would never throw in the towel easily. He was not in the least surprised by such words of Major General Boer, and he even had a premonition of what the other party would say next.

"Prime Minister Churchill, in the name of a Navy veteran, sent a telegram to President Roosevelt asking for our help." With that, Director Bull handed Jairo a list of supplies.

"They now lack everything, food, cloth, fuel, aluminum, iron, rubber, etc. But the most lacking thing is weapons, the British expeditionary force is being evacuated from Dunkirk, but their equipment is probably not coming back. London has now begun to go door-to-door to collect pans to make airplanes, and to dismantle garden iron fences to make rifles. ”

John had seen this in his previous life, and during the scrap metal recycling campaign in the summer of 1940, even the iron railings of London's Guildhall and Victoria Church cemetery were torn down and recycled, except for the railings of Buckingham Palace that remained sacrosanct.

Her Majesty the future Queen, Princess Elizabeth, who is just 14 years old this year, also joined the movement, once proudly showing the media the piles of "scrap metal" she had collected with her servants.

Churchill told the president that he planned to expand Britain's armed forces to 1.25 million, in addition to the 500,000 Local Defence Volunteers (LDVs) recruited to deal with German paratroopers. Together with the unarmed troops withdrawn from Dunkirk, they still lack at least 800,000 rifles, as well as a considerable number of machine guns, artillery and armoured vehicles. ”

When Major General Buhl mentioned this number, he couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Until now, our own army has not yet 800,000 people. As soon as the isolationists heard that the army was going to be expanded and their service was to be extended, they began to call the government a warmonger. Before the general election at the end of the year, President Roosevelt could only appease them and did not dare to make much action. ”

"The British have never paid much attention to the army, and there are not many material reserves. Now that the Germans are almost on the doorstep, they are starting to get anxious. "John has his own sources for the situation in the UK.

"I heard that on the day the LDV recruitment announcement was issued, 250,000 people went to the local police station to sign up. But they simply did not have weapons and uniforms to issue to these people, and there was not even enough cloth to make armbands. Some people had to write the word LDV in paint on their sleeves in civilian clothes, and even the old Zulu war-era rifles from 60 years ago were taken out of the exhibition hall. ”

The gossip was told to him by Joseph Kennedy Jr., whose father, Joseph Kennedy, was the current ambassador to the United Kingdom. The Irish Catholic ambassador was pessimistic about the current situation in Britain and repeatedly reported to the country that Britain would soon lose the war.

Although John's old rich family generally looked down on Kennedy Sr. who knelt down and licked Roosevelt (he found someone to ghostwrite a book called "I Support Roosevelt" and framed Roosevelt's criticism of the book and hung it at home), it did not prevent him from appreciating Joseph Jr.

In John's opinion, this great boy who loves to fly is much better than his frail brother (John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States).

"So we have to hurry, or the British won't be able to hold on to surrender, and we'll have to face Hitler's madman ourselves." Jairo read the list and handed it to Crawford.

"500,000 rifles, and 20,000 light and heavy machine guns!" Crawford was taken aback by the numbers on the list, "The last time the purchasing committee came, we basically ran out of stock. In a month or so, the Colt and Remington Arsenals can produce a maximum of 15,000 rifles, and the Springfield Arsenal may have a little more, but it will not exceed 25,000. Where are we going to get 500,000 rifles for them? ”

"By all means, the president has given a death order, and Secretary of State Hull is negotiating with them to exchange overseas military bases for this batch of supplies, so we have to get it." Major General Bull revealed a secret to them. This time the British may transfer all 130 overseas military bases in the Atlantic and the Caribbean to the United States for a lease of 99 years, free of charge.

"The Navy has gone crazy for these military bases. They took out all the supplies they had sealed up at their base in the Bahamas, including a large number of old anti-aircraft guns and 50 decommissioned destroyers. Look, in a few days, there will be nothing left of the Bahamas base except the gates. ”

The Navy's approach inspired John: "It's a good deal, and I remember that there were a lot of old guns that had been obsolete at the Replenishment Command." The Navy can use old destroyers, why can't we use old guns? The British used to look down on these old guns, but now that they have even taken out the old guns of their grandfathers, they should no longer refuse to use the second-hand goods that we have eliminated. ”

His idea was supported by Commissioner Bull and Colonel Jairo: "Robert, how many old guns are there?"

Crawford, who was personally responsible for the previous batch of reloads, was very clear about the number of weapons that were eliminated: "There were about 178,000 rifles, and the number of machine guns was relatively small, less than 6,000. ”

"Yes, if you search and loot again, you'll be able to make up almost half of it. It shouldn't be difficult to get all the supplies together by the end of the year. Major General Boer was pleased with this: "Go back and get started." Jairo is in charge, Robert is in charge of preparing supplies and transportation plans, and John is in charge of you. You're better at this than we are. Move fast, we have to send things to the British before they can't hold on. ”

"Yes, sir!" The three of John stood up and saluted and left the Commissioner's office. Their work will be very arduous in the next period of time, and the three of them will have to discuss how to divide and cooperate well.