29 and 30 June 1940 were the last two days of the Geneva Peace Conference. The Treaty of Versailles, the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the Treaty of Sèvres, the Treaty of Lausanne, the Treaty of Trianon and the Treaty of Bessarabia, adopted by the Executive Yuan of the League of Nations on the 27th, also led to a series of new troubles, mainly territorial changes caused by the abrogation of the treaties.

Among them, the territorial changes caused by the abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles had been resolved in previous wars; The abrogation of the Treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne did not cause any territorial changes due to Turkey's renunciation of recourse to territory; The changes arising from the abrogation of the Treaties of Saint-Germain, Trianon and Bessarabia would have to be finalized through meetings on the 29th and 30th.

"Your Excellency, this is a fatal verdict!"

In a reception room at the Palais des Nations, which belonged to the German delegation, Field Marshal Hersmann met with Prince Paul of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after the verdict was announced. The prince, who was the same age as Hersman, looked very excited, with tears in his eyes.

The ruling was rather unfavorable to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the entire Croatian province (including part of the Bosnian Croat-populated areas) was carved out of the Yugoslav territory to form a co-monarchy with Hungary, as was the case between 1102 and 1860. Croatia will have its own parliament and government, and the king will be Otto of the Habsburgs, the rightful heir to the Croatian throne. At the same time, Otto will also take over the crown of St. Stephen of Hungary and become King of Hungary.

However, Otto, who has two crowns. Feng. The Habsburgs did not receive real power, and the Hungarian government remained under the control of the regent Horthy. Mikloš was in control, while the Croatian regime was controlled by the head of the Ustasha, Ante. Pavelic mastered.

In addition, the province of Vojvodina, which was also obtained from the Austro-Hungarian Empire by the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Trianon, was to be ceded up, with about 50% of the land in the north going to Hungary and the rest to Serbia, while the population of Vojvodina was to be resettled according to ethnic groups, with all Hungarians, Croats, Slovaks, etc., moving to the part belonging to Hungary, while the majority Serbs moved to southern Vojvodina and still belonged to Serbian territory.

As for Bosnia, which also belonged to Austria-Hungary before the First World War, more than 80% of the Geneva ruling was given to Serbia. Montenegro, which was an independent state before the First World War, did not regain its independent status in this "Geneva Verdict" and remained part of Serbia. The land acquired by Serbia under the Treaty of Nay, which was not disputed by Bulgaria, was also adjudicated as Serbian territory.

In general, this "Geneva ruling" was very unfavorable to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but it was actually beneficial to the Serbian nation. After losing some of the land and population that did not belong to them, in the remaining lands of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Serbs will gain an overwhelming majority, and they will be able to assimilate the remaining minority people (Serbia in this era does not have the disease of the White Left Mary), establish a Serbian nation-state, and adopt Orthodox Christianity as the state religion.

However, the vast majority of Serbs were unaware of this favorable situation, and thanks to the nurturing and connivance of the Entente, the Serb nation became arrogant after the First World War, completely forgetting the suffering and enslavement they had suffered (during the period of Turkish rule) and forgetting that they were a weak people.

Hersman looked at the regent of Yugoslavia and smiled faintly, "It seems that you Serbs do not have a deep enough understanding of the nation-state, and you don't know how difficult it is to assimilate different ethnic groups with different languages and religious beliefs, especially in our time, we can no longer use exterminating massacres as a means." In this case, it is necessary to assimilate them with absolute numerical superiority. Even we, the Germans, are so powerful that we dare not swallow too many foreigners. Of the more than 100 million people who now have the nationality of the German Empire, only a few million do not identify as Germanic. For peoples like Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Slovakia, none of us dared to annex them outright, but retained their nation-states. It's incredible that you actually canceled the countries of Croatia and Slovenes. Now that we have helped you to correct your mistakes with the League of Nations ruling, we have given you a historic opportunity to create a Greater Serbia. You still have 80% of Bosnia, all of Serbian Macedonia and the whole of Negro, and you still have half of Vojvodina, almost 15-160,000 square kilometers, which belong to you Serbs, go and build a nation-state. Your Royal Highness, in the event of political upheaval in Yugoslavia, we in Germany will firmly support you. ”

……

"Gentlemen, the Germans have just made two more great mistakes," Churchill said to his cabinet members with a smile at a cabinet meeting on July 1, "and they forced Yugoslavia to surrender almost 100,000 square kilometres of territory, including Croatia, Slovenia, and half of Vojvodina." At the same time, they forced Romania to surrender half of Transylvania and most of Bessarabia. ”

He took a puff on his cigar and said with a smile, "It looks like we're going to have two new friends soon." ”

"But the Germans have gained more friends," interjected Dalton, the wartime secretary of state of economics, "and there are many countries willing to join the European Customs Union, almost half of Europe, some of which are very industrially strong, such as France, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands." The factories and workers of these countries now complemented the German wartime economy! And Germany will soon have a super-sovereign hard currency - the Euromark, which will greatly enhance Germany's ability to integrate the European economy! ”

Payments of currency and the issuance of bonds are certainly a more efficient way to pay money and issue bonds than to directly occupy and then force the factories and workers in the occupied territories to produce. This would not be done at the expense of the occupation (garrisoning troops and the supply of resources to the occupied areas) and would not be hated.

"But Germany still has to solve the big problem of resource supply," Churchill said with a smile on his thick lips, "and if the Germans can conjure up enough oil, grain, and various other resources to supply the whole of Europe, the European marks they issue can of course be turned into hard currency." But in reality, Germany did not have enough resources, Germany was a poor country, and they were now relying on the Soviet Union for their war resources. ”

"Prime Minister," Admiralt Alexander reminded, "but those neutral nations can still import resources from abroad...... According to international law, we cannot intercept the merchant ships of neutral countries. ”

Since the British Empire was still the hegemon of the sea, the neutral countries in Europe still needed to communicate with Britain when importing resources, and it was almost enough to meet domestic demand in terms of quantity, and could not blatantly act as a transit point for Germany to import overseas resources.

At the same time, the British Empire itself needed to import some things from neutral European countries, such as bearings from Sweden and tungsten ore from Spain and Portugal. In addition, there is trade between various neutral countries in Europe and the United States, which is an important overseas market for the United States.

Therefore, since the beginning of the war, Britain has not completely blocked the foreign trade of the entire European continent, and still allows Germany to obtain some overseas strategic materials through neutral countries.

"International law?" Churchill glanced at the Lord of the Admiralty and took another drag on his cigarette, "I don't remember such international law...... And the act of joining the European Customs Union is helping Germany, that is, against the British Empire! So we need to think about trade sanctions and embargoes on the European Customs Union. ”

"Sanctions against the European Customs Union?" The Foreign Secretary, Viscount Halifax, was taken aback by Churchill's proposal, "Prime Minister, do you want to push all the countries of the European continent to the side of Germany?" ”

"To join the European Customs Union is to be on the side of Germany!" Churchill lowered his voice, "Viscount, I think our diplomats have made it clear to them the objections of the British Empire, haven't they?" ”

"Of course, Prime Minister. But ......"

Churchill waved his fat hand with a cigar and said, "Nothing...... The European Customs Union was Germany's tool for integrating Europe, and if the Germans succeeded, Europe would become an intercontinental country as large as the United States, which the British Empire had steadfastly opposed for centuries.

Moreover, now that the only means we can use to defeat Germany is the blockade, how can we abandon this most effective means because the European countries that are helping Germany are playing a sign of neutrality? ”

The counterattack on the mainland is now unthinkable, and the British troops who fled back from Europe are still empty-handed, and the Germans have burned high incense without fighting. As for the bombing, there is no hope, Germany's air superiority is very huge, and now it is lucky enough that there is no large-scale bombing of the British mainland, how dare the British dare to talk about themselves to be bored with a large-scale bombing of Germany?

The British Prime Minister was silent for a moment, and his tone was very heavy: "If we do this, there will be any undesirable consequences, it is also based on the fact that Germany has the means to provide enough oil and other necessary resources to the European countries under sanctions, and if Germany can really do it, even if we do not sanction, those European countries will completely turn to Germany." Therefore, I propose that the wartime Cabinet immediately adopt a resolution on sanctions against the European Customs Union! (To be continued.) )