All in all, financially, the MacDonald consortium has made quite a bit. As for Edmundo, although he hasn't made a lot of money, and even his debts have increased a lot, he is also very satisfied, because after all, first, he is famous, and fame is a thing that can make money in many cases, and second, and most importantly, the follow-up market of the film is very optimistic, and in various cities in the United States, theaters that have newly purchased projectors have been approaching him and asking for cooperation. The MacDonald consortium also knew this, so it was not in too much of a hurry to force the debt. His cash flow is also fully able to maintain for now. At the same time, "The Diary of Anne Frank" continued to generate more income as more theaters bought movie projectors, so Edmundo believed that it was only a matter of time before he made a lot of money.

Of course, in order to maintain cash flow, and also to prepare for the next movie, borrowing money from the MacDonald consortium caused Edmundo to lose some of his equity. But there's no way around it. Although he could borrow money from other places, and perhaps even on better terms, Edmundo knew that without MacDonald's support, he would not have been able to make a film like The Diary of Anne Frank. Because some of the most basic technologies are still in the hands of the MacDonald consortium.

And now, there are more people hoping to make a name for themselves or make a fortune by making movies, and as far as Edmundo knows, there are at least fifteen theater companies in Cleveland and New York alone that are ready to switch to filmmaking. And Edmundo feels that as long as they can come up with money, or come up with good theme ideas, there seems to be no reason why the Macdonald consortium does not support it.

Still, Edmundo believes that these competitors will not threaten the status of "Dream Works" in the short term. Because it is definitely not that easy to make a work comparable to "The Diary of Anne Frank".

……

10 Downing Street

Senior officials of the British Empire were discussing the situation they were facing today. The film version of The Diary of Anne Frank put a lot of pressure on them, and now there seems to be a tendency for the whole of Europe to unite and put pressure on Britain on the Boolean question. The Germans, the Dutch, the Austrians, and the Italians had made it clear that the British would do everything they could to stop the bloody and brutal repression of the Boers. The Russians jumped out and said that "the tragedy has gone on too long and it should be over" or something, and even the French and Spaniards said that they were willing to help the British mediate. Hell, after paying such a big price, does the British Empire still need those crooked nuts to run out and take advantage in the name of "mediation"?

But pressure from across Europe cannot be ignored. When the German emperor jumped out to express his support for the Boers during the Jensen expedition, Empress Victoria was able to directly reprimand her grandson for "nonsense", but now facing the entire European continent, although Empress Victoria is the "grandmother of Europe", it is still unwise to reprimand the entire European continent at the same time. And "to make it impossible for those Europeans to agree on anything" was the core policy of the British Empire towards the European continent. So the British Empire must now find a way to change the continent's unanimity on the Boer question.

"The Empress is very dissatisfied with our work." The Marquess of Salisbury said with a heavy face, "She thinks that we have made too many mistakes in the matter of war. And there is too much power involved. She hopes that we can end this qiē as soon as possible. ”

Although the Empress has basically stopped interfering in court affairs, and the Empress has not been in good health for some time, people have been discussing how long the Empress who has reigned in the British Empire for more than 60 years will live. Even the Empress herself may have realized that her time was running out, so much so that she had already begun to bring Prince Edward, who had never been her liking, out to represent the royal family. But the empress still wields enormous influence. Her dissatisfaction, of course, will exert tremendous pressure on the government.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, we are very close to success. You see, this is the statistics of the battles in South Africa for the last two months. In the past two months, the number and intensity of attacks by the Boer guerrillas have been greatly reduced, and the exchange ratio between the two sides in the fighting has become more and more favorable to us. Even in the last month and a half, there has not been a single attack. Prime Minister, I am sure that if only one more month holds out, the Boers will completely surrender. Chamberlain, the colonial minister, took out a report and handed it to the Marquess of Salisbury.

The Marquis of Salisbury took the report and looked through it carefully, and after a long time he raised his head and said, "The effect is indeed good. It's just that in a month's time, I'm afraid that those guys will be able to make a lot of mess out again. Fortunately, Bismarck's old fellow is no longer the German Prime Minister...... We must first react to the attitudes of the European countries. ”

"Mr. Prime Minister, we can't afford to give up halfway now. Otherwise, all the price paid in front will be in vain. "We can try it and see if we can divide Europe diplomatically." ”

"Mr. Prime Minister, Germany and the Netherlands are the toughest on this matter, and their targets are in conflict with ours the most. But France, and a number of other countries, sided with the Germans in this matter more because of the pressure brought to them by the public opinion offensive of the Germans and the Americans. As for the United States, the United States is a complete-stirring stick, they wish that the world would be in chaos so that no one bothers them to do whatever they want in the Americas, and for them, the longer we are dragged in South Africa, the happier they will be. The new foreign secretary, the Marquis de Lansdowne, put it this way, "I think we should first engage with France, Spain, Italy, and other countries and make some concessions that do not affect the overall situation, so as to break up the unanimous attitude in Europe today." ”

The Marquess of Salisbury nodded, he had always been the Foreign Secretary in his capacity as Prime Minister, but recently he had to resign as Foreign Secretary because there were too many things. So, to be honest, the Marquess of Salisbury himself knows even better about the current state of diplomacy than Landsdowne, who has just taken over as Foreign Secretary.

"What kind of concessions do you think will be able to calm down the French and Italians?" The Marquis of Salisbury nodded and said.

"I spoke with the French ambassador yesterday and he told me that France has no objection to the Empire's sovereignty over South Africa, which is the position of many other countries." The Marquis of Lansdowne replied.

This is completely understandable. France has the second largest number of colonies in the world after Britain. Moreover, France now has no desire to compete with the British for world colonial hegemony, although for a considerable period of time after the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck tried his best to make the French turn their eyes from the European continent to interests outside Europe, and wanted France to quarrel with the British in order to cover the rise of Germany. But the French were not so stupid, and would stupidly throw the army aside when there lived next door to a guy who had ceded his land and the army was still superior to him, and went to compete with the British for overseas interests. Therefore, France's attitude towards overseas countries is that if it can take advantage of Britain, it will not take advantage of nothing. But we must not devote too much force overseas - we are still guarding against the Prussian barbarians. Therefore, on the issue of overseas colonies, the French do not like any colonial rebellion or anything like that, even if it is a colonial rebellion of someone else's. Because, what if, what if those natives of the French colonies also follow suit? France is now not in a position to make any expeditions.

"So what are the thoughts of the French?" The Marquess of Salisbury asked.

"The French want the situation in South Africa to be more civilized, because, after all, the Boers are also white, civilized people, anyway. So they wanted us to make sure that the Boers in the camps were treated in accordance with humanitarian standards, and that we would allow observers from other countries to visit the camps. The Marquis of Lansdownne replied.

This concession is not unacceptable to the British. After all, this was not to ask the British to abolish the concentration camp system, and as long as the concentration camps could be maintained, there would be no real change in the tide of the war. Of course, there is another issue here, and that is the issue of cost. If the Boers were to be treated "in accordance with humanitarian standards" in the camps, the cost of running the camps would have risen considerably. And this war was already fought to empty the British treasury.

The Marquis of Salisbury pondered for a while, and then asked Chamberlain, the colonial minister, "How much more would it cost to provide the rebels in the concentration camps with basically reasonable treatment?" When you go back, you can count it out as much as you can, and give me the number. If the Empire can afford it, it is not impossible to use this concession to break up the unanimity of the European continent. ”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, if such a decision is made, I think we should take the initiative and invite the countries to send observers, and declare it to the outside world to refute the rumours of the Boers and their sympathizers." The Marquis de Lansdowne, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said so.

……

A few days later, the British Empire announced to the world that, in order to refute the rumors that smeared the British Empire, it had decided to invite observers from various countries to visit the concentration camps in South Africa.