September 12, 1939, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Dam Avenue Square, Royal Palace of Welcome.

A few days later, Ribbentrop, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the German Empire, who arrived in the Netherlands again, became a guest of honor of the Dutch royal family and lived in the splendid Royal Palace on Dam Avenue Square. At noon, there was also Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, Princess Juliana and the princess's husband, Prince Bernhard, as well as the chairman of the Dutch Council of Ministers, Hendricus. Clariant had a good meal together.

"The war is almost over, isn't it?" Princess Juliana of the Netherlands asked Ribbentrop in German.

"Your Highness the Princess," said Ribbentrop, smiling gracefully, "it depends on whether England and France can take a correct view of the unity and rise of Germany." ”

Unify and rise!

Princess Juliana was also German by blood, and she certainly understood what it meant to unify and rise Germany.

The Franco-Prussian War did not result in the complete unification of Germany, but in its division. The German Empire centered on Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Dualist Empire. And the German-Austrian merger and the return of Bohemia (as the Germans believed) meant the beginning of a real German unification.

What the Third Reich now boasts is also the dual legal system of the German Empire and the Austrian Empire. This means that the Third German Reich was the rebirth of the Holy Roman Empire!

Although the Third German Reich did not propose to restore the entire territory of the Holy Roman Empire, it pursued the international status of the Holy Roman Empire as a leader in all of Europe during its heyday. From the German propaganda of the "establishment of the European Union", which began in the twenties, Germany's ambition to lead Europe can be imagined.

Moreover, it seems that Germany now has such strength.

After recovering the lost territories of Posen, West Prussia and Silesia, the German mainland (including the Baltics, Austria and Bohemia) already covered an area of more than 800,000 square kilometers! If you add to this the "legally occupied" Lithuania and Western Ukraine, which are likely to become part of Germany through a referendum, it is likely that Germany's territory will approach 1 million square kilometers in the future, more than Britain, France, and Europe combined.

Germany's population, combined with some Poles, Lithuanians, and Ukrainians (referring to the population of western Ukraine), is estimated to be as high as 110 million, more than Britain and France combined.

In addition, after getting Western Ukraine (including the provinces of Lviv, Transcarpathia, Volyn, Rivne, Tarnopol, Stanislav, etc.), Germany was equivalent to getting another "Rhine industrial zone". Because it has abundant coal, iron and non-ferrous metal resources, as well as oil fields, and there are also large areas of black soil. Germany's economy will be even stronger!

"So, are there any specific conditions?" Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands asked. Neither she nor her people want to fight, regardless of which side they participate in. Therefore, after the news of the Polish-German armistice negotiations (no final armistice agreement has yet been reached), Queen Wilhelmina wanted to mediate the war between Germany and Britain and France.

As long as Britain, France and Germany stopped fighting, the Netherlands would naturally be safe. However, Ribbentrop's proposal of "the unification and rise of Germany" disappointed Wilhelmina a little.

Because the rise of one hegemon necessarily means the weakening of the old one! And how can the old world hegemon be willing to watch the loss of hegemony?

"abrogating the Treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain; Belgium restitution of the cantons of compensation; Britain and France returned the stolen German overseas colonies; to allow the merger of Germany and 'all of Luxembourg' - of course, the merger must be agreed to by Luxembourg; ceded part of the iron ore fields of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany; Britain, France and Belgium returned all the reparations they had received from Germany! ”

Ribbentrop spoke of impossible terms for peace. However, in the eyes of the Germans, such conditions were already very mild. Germany did not claim all of Alsace and Lorraine, but only some of the iron ore mines. As compensation, Luxembourg, which had belonged to the German Confederation, returned to Germany - "all of Luxembourg" and not half of Luxembourg!

Germany wants to return to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg before the Treaty of London of 1839, including half of what is now Belgium!

"It can't be!" Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands, Hendricus. Clariant frowned and said, "It's completely unrealistic......"

Ribbentrop smiled and said: "12 days ago, it was unrealistic for Germany to want to take back the free city of Danzig, but now, the second army power in Europe has already prostrate at the feet of Germany and begging for forgiveness!" Maybe by October, France will fall to its knees at the feet of Germany! ”

At this time, because there was no attack on Warsaw, Germany defeated Poland in 12 days -- now there has been a basic ceasefire on the front line, Poland's Poznan Army and Prussian Army Group have been surrounded, Primorsky Army, Lodz Army, and Krakow Army Group have been destroyed, and Carpathian Army and Modlin Army Group have lost more than two-thirds. The total number of Polish killed, captured, seriously wounded, and missing exceeded 400,000, and 200,000 were besieged, while the German losses were less than 10,000 (because without the Warsaw attack and the Battle of the Buchula River, German losses were not significant).

"And what about the Netherlands?" Queen Wilhelmina's voice sank, "Am I going to prostrate at the feet of Kaiser Wilhelm?" ”

If Hitler had full power now, Wilhelmina would not have dared to say so, but Kaiser Wilhelm had been restored after all.

"No, no, no," Ribbentrop shook his head repeatedly, "Your Majesty, Germany will not forget the help of the Netherlands in the most difficult times, we will never encroach on the Netherlands, and we hope that the Netherlands will remain neutral." ”

There was no big contradiction between Germany and the Netherlands, and the invasion during World War II was only to facilitate the invasion of Belgium militarily. In the south of the Netherlands there is a province called Limburg, which is partly located between Germany and Belgium. In both the Yellow Plan and the Manstein Plan drawn up by Germany, the army was to pass through Limburg.

However, the current German Ministry of Defense and the General Staff do not intend to occupy the Netherlands because of this -- it is just a pretext, there is no need to occupy the whole country, and after the occupation, you will have to take care of food, how troublesome!

So Germany's strategy now is to maintain Dutch neutrality as much as possible.

"But how will the air battle on September 6 be resolved?" Wilhelmina asked, "Our neutrality has been undermined!" ”

"This is a violation of international law!" "The Netherlands is a member of the League of Nations, and there is an international tribunal in The Hague," Ribbentrop said. I think you should file a complaint with the League of Nations, and let the League of Nations send a mission to investigate the events of 6 September, and then adopt a resolution to ensure the neutrality of the Netherlands. ”

The League of Nations has not ceased to function, and the belligerent powers of Germany, the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain and Poland are all members of the League of Nations, and the Netherlands is of course a member of the League of Nations.

"Use the League of Nations to guarantee the neutrality of the Netherlands?" Wilhelmina and Princess Juliana look at each other.

It seems that the Germans are still reasonable.

"But Britain and France have a great influence in the League of Nations." Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands, Hendricus. Clariant reminded.

"You can suggest that the involvement of the participating countries should be excluded from the investigation and arbitration of the events of 6 September. The investigation should be carried out by representatives of neutral countries in the League of Nations. Moreover, you could propose the establishment of a neutral recognition and safeguard mechanism. ”

"It's ......," Queen Wilhelmina didn't seem to understand.

Ribbentrop explained: "Any European country that wants to remain neutral in this European war can make a request to the League of Nations to determine neutrality. If the written consent of the countries participating in the war is obtained, then their neutral status is confirmed. If a belligerent State has clearly violated its neutral status in the course of the war, it may file a complaint with the League of Nations, which may immediately impose collective sanctions on it. ”

There are many countries that have declared neutrality now, and the three low-lying countries of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg have all declared it.

But it is useless to declare neutrality, and the belligerents will not recognize you as well. So before the war, Hersmann figured out a principle of "confirmation of neutrality", which was proposed by countries that wanted neutrality, and then confirmed by the belligerents - some countries, such as Belgium, occupied German territory, took German reparations, and occupied the Ruhr area in the 20s. And now a "declaration of neutrality" can avoid the catastrophe? It's unrealistic, how can there be such a good thing? So Germany could not confirm its neutrality, but of course it could also settle the dispute through negotiations and confirm Belgium's neutrality.

And the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Norway, Sweden, oh, and Denmark, there is a Schleswig-Holstein issue between Denmark and Germany, but the German Ministry of Defense and the General Staff advised not to pursue it, so the neutrality of these countries can be confirmed by Germany.

As for why Germany abandoned North Schleswig-Holstein, it was actually for the sake of the neutrality of Iceland, the protectorate of Denmark, and Greenland, which was in fact a trap in international politics set for Britain.

This is because Articles 12, 13, 14 and 15 of the 1907 Convention on the Rights and Duties of Neutral States in Time of Naval War provide that warships of belligerents may anchor in neutral ports for 24 hours and replenish their fuel and supplies. Of course, neutral countries can legislate to prohibit it, but Denmark certainly does not dare.

That is, in the future, the German broken fleet could send supply ships to anchor and refuel in the ports of Iceland and Greenland, which would significantly extend the time of their activities in the North Atlantic! (To be continued.) )