"Jamie, what time is it?" John and other White House aides were circulating a call back from British Deputy Prime Minister Attlee to Churchill when Roosevelt, who had been hanging a cigarette holder, suddenly asked James Jr.

"Newfoundland time, four-ten-a-ten," James Jr. replied, glancing at his watch.

"That means it's almost 8 o'clock in London. We've got to hurry. Roosevelt extinguished his cigarette, "Let's talk about my thoughts first." Robert, you come first. ”

Roosevelt was named Robert Sherwood, the aide in charge of drafting the speech for him. The two-meter-tall man was a well-known playwright before he entered the White House, and he had written many plays that reflected social and political issues in the past.

It is said that Roosevelt was very much impressed by his book "Abraham? Lincoln in Illinois (which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939) invited him to be his draftsman and adviser.

Unlike the average writing secretary, Sherwood not only has strong writing skills, but also has a deep understanding of political issues. And the playwright's specialty of being good at layout and planning also gives him a good sense of the overall situation and planning ability. Therefore, although Sherwood has not been in the White House for a long time, he is one of the more involved in core affairs among John's group of White House staff.

John and Sherwood didn't know each other well, but he had read the book Roosevelt and Hopkins: The White House Chronicles of World War II, which won Sherwood a fourth Pulitzer Prize. Strictly speaking, John was able to integrate into the White House team so quickly, and Sherwood also has a certain credit.

For a moment, however, John did not focus on Sherwood's speech. The question of time that Roosevelt had just mentioned gave him a seemingly unreliable guess in his head.

In his previous life, Churchill sent the contents of the Atlantic Charter back to London in the second half of the night local time. Deputy Prime Minister Attlee and the rest of the remaining cabinet members urgently convened a parliament for an all-night meeting, and it was not until dawn that the final vote was passed.

John silently calculated the time difference between Newfoundland and London, and found that the time when London got the news in this life should be around 9 p.m. He couldn't help but wonder if the successful passage of the Atlantic Charter in the last generation had something to do with the mental state of the old men in the Parliament.

After all, I was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and had a meeting for another night, and there were a few people who couldn't stay up. In order to go back to bed early, it is not impossible to turn a blind eye to some terms that have little to do with you.

John was thinking wildly when a telegram from Deputy Prime Minister Attlee had reached him. To his surprise, the British Parliament did not object to Article 3 of the Joint Declaration, which deals with sovereignty and self-government. Apparently Churchill had anticipated this in advance and had vaccinated those parliamentarians in advance.

On the contrary, the fourth and fifth clauses, which John thought were not too problematic, are now encountering considerable resistance. Marx was right when he said, "The capitalist can sell the rope that hangs himself for the sake of profit." Now that the British Empire is coming to an end, the local protectionists are still clinging to a little bit of petty profit and refusing to give up the imperial preferential system.

John originally thought that the war had reached this point, and the British would abandon the imperial preferential system with tariff protection as the core, even if they knew that they were drinking to quench their thirst. But now, there are so many people who would rather ignore the end of the war than resolutely oppose it, so what is the reason?

At this time, Sherwood's speech made John's eyes light up.

"We kept things simple. The failure to pass Articles 4 and 5 this time is probably related to the reluctance of the Dominions to abandon the current preferential tariff policies. At this stage, while London needs our assistance, it is more dependent on the support of the Dominions. ”

There is some truth to Sherwood's analysis. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why Article 3 (which the Dominions would certainly like to have greater autonomy in) was adopted, while Articles 4 and 5, which were less "harmful", were not. However, to attribute the cause to the pressure of the Dominion authorities, Sherwood underestimated the Commonwealth government. After more than a century of painstaking management, London still has considerable control over the Dominions.

But Sherwood's statement inspired John, who, as a member of the Vanderbilt family, immediately grasped the crux of the matter: "As far as I know, after the war began, a great deal of property was transferred from the British mainland to the Dominions. Many of the parliamentarian families' industrial focus is no longer home. Will the fourth and fifth clauses have something to do with this when they encounter such great resistance? ”

"Chances are, we were negligent." Roosevelt, who had been pondering, agreed with John's view. The reason is simple: for a British parliamentarian with vast industries in Canada, Australia, South Africa, or India, war with the Germans does not threaten his roots at the moment. Anyway, their industrial center of gravity is in the Dominion, and even if the British mainland falls, they have a good way back, maybe better off than now. But Articles 4 and 5 of the Atlantic Charter are genuinely detrimental to their vital interests.

To make matters worse, most of these MPs are members of Churchill's Conservative Party. These people, who were originally Churchill's base, are now siding with the opposition, and they are also sad that Churchill will be embarrassed (the wartime cabinet is a coalition government between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, and it is very important for Churchill to maintain unity within the party).

"So what now? What if Churchill couldn't convince those MPs? As the incoming special representative to the United Kingdom, the de facto operator of Anglo-American relations, Harriman asked.

"I'm afraid it's hard. Those parliamentarians could simply excuse the need to inform the Dominions and drag the issue along. Hopkins sighed. The British Imperial System of Preferences was a formal tariff agreement concluded at the Ottawa Imperial Conference in 1932. While the Atlantic Charter itself did not force it to be repealed, the British parliamentarians had every reason to do so.

"Time is running out. The British need this statement, and so do we. Roosevelt thought about it and finally decided to give Churchill a step, "This matter is in a hurry, just revise these two articles and make an opening." ”

"How about adding one more facilitation? Replace the wish for all countries with the desire to promote all countries? Hopkins immediately understood what Roosevelt meant. At this stage, the Atlantic Charter itself is more important than its content.

In addition, Britain and the United States hoped to make efforts to induce ...... on the basis of respecting their existing obligations: "Now that the decision has been made to give in, Roosevelt simply gave Churchill a sufficient favor." With the "respect for existing obligations" prescript, Churchill should have plenty of reason to convince those who nay.

The most intractable problem was solved, and the opinions of several other British sides were irrelevant. A group of experienced staff members quickly rearranged the text as Roosevelt had instructed.

"There is also the issue that there is no mention of freedom of belief in the eight articles." Seeing that the conference was coming to an end and that no one was raising the issue of freedom of belief, John couldn't help but speak, "I fear that this will give the isolationists a pretext that we are compromising with the atheistic Soviet Union." ”

John's words stunned everyone present. Hopkins grabbed the joint statement and read it from beginning to end, "It's really negligent, we didn't mention it, and the British didn't mention it." ”

"Excellent! John, your reminder is timely. Roosevelt was also surprised by this oversight, but at the same time he was pleased that John had been keen to see the problem. Add freedom of belief. Wynant, convey our views to the Prime Minister. Please be sure to give a reply as soon as possible. ”