The British Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs on the sofa, Penderson, took a sip of wine with a wine glass, and said with a smile at Muts Saburo, Muts Saburo bowed at a thirty-degree angle, waved his hand, and asked all his attendants to retreat, in this lounge, only two heads of diplomatic delegations remained, and British Undersecretary Padson nodded towards the wine glass on the coffee table, "Minister Muts, you are not used to drinking Western wine, I have prepared your country's sake for you, let's have a drink together?" ”

"Thank you, Minister, for your kindness," Mutsaburo bowed again, "but I will never drink in diplomatic settings, so please forgive me." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

"Oh, that's the difference between East and West," Penderson raised his eyebrows and said nonchalantly, "Of course, it's necessary to keep a clear head, but according to our European rules, we always solve problems at the cocktail party, there is no doubt about that, you can see that at the cocktail party just now, many countries have communicated, and this kind of exchange is very effective, more effective than formal meetings," Paderson looked at Mutssaburo and said in his words, "In Europe, you have to abide by European rules, Minister, you'd better have a drink. ”

"Yes," Mutz Saburo's hands clenched tightly, and then relaxed, he also sat down, poured himself a glass of sake, and drank half a glass, the sake was very mellow and light, "This kind of sake is also very rare to drink in Tokyo, thank you so much, Minister Pandanson!" ”

"It's good if you like Minister Mutz," Pan Desen raised his wine glass towards Mutz Saburo, and after taking a sip, he shook it gently, and the ice cubes in the wine glass made a crisp sound, "So, what is the attitude of the Chinese?" Will they be willing to follow in the footsteps of the British Empire? ”

"They didn't show any attitude, the Chinese know very well that their weight, if China supports any country, that country will increase its momentum," Mutzsaburo said calmly, sake did not affect his judgment in the slightest, "so they are waiting for the price to be sold, waiting for other countries to offer a price." ”

Pan Deson shook his head and sighed, "These primitive people with pig tails really think that they are a dish worthy of going to the state banquet at Buckingham Palace?" It's so funny, and this meeting, I'm sure you know very well, Minister Muts, is ostensibly about the ownership of the Congo River basin, but in fact, it's not just about that, it's more, I think, not just me, the whole British Foreign Office thinks so, it's a conference to divide the African colonies. ”

"The content of the dispute over the land in the Congo River basin is just an appetizer, and this is of course irrelevant compared to the vast African continent, otherwise the question of the ownership of the Congo River basin would not have allowed all the great powers in the world to participate in this conference, and everyone knows very well that it is fundamentally for the sake of the increasingly serious and frequent colonial disputes in Africa."

Of course, what Padson said was the naked truth, in addition to the dispute here on the Congo River that needed to be resolved at this conference, the war in the Boer region also had to be resolved, and Britain and Germany had a very tacit understanding that the matter was not resolved at the conference, after all, between the two great powers, there was no need to hand this matter over to others for judgment. In addition to these, the competition between Britain and France in North Africa, and the competition between France and Portugal in West Africa, these have caused a series of disputes, as mentioned before, there are many good places in Africa, why break your head for a little bit of what is in front of you? So the countries seem to be very harmonious now, and they are staggered at the cocktail party, but I don't know how many discord and disputes there are inside, and there are only two countries that have no interests in Africa, one is Russia, and the other is China.

Needless to say, Russia has too much land that he can occupy and directly colonize in Central Asia and West Asia, and he simply has no energy to run overseas colonies, you must know that he gave up Alaska back then, and now he will not be interested in Africa, and China appeared at this Berlin Conference, this behavior made the British very nervous, do the Chinese also want to enter Africa? Africa is big enough to accommodate China, but Britain's entire world policy cannot tolerate China in Africa.

"So the British Empire has to take advantage of the Congo River valley and make all the nations understand that there can be no order without British consent," Penderson continued, "and only a British-led order can exist in Africa." ”

"I fully agree with this, Your Excellency Anderson," said Mutizaburo quickly, "that no country should go beyond the limits set by the British, and we in Japan are fully willing to express our views from the British standpoint, and I ask you to believe in that." ”

Paderson smiled reservedly, obviously he was very satisfied with Mutssaburo's words, "Thank you for your statement, this is why we in the United Kingdom will lead Japan into the meeting, of course, the British Empire is the empire on which the sun never sets, but we will not dislike more friends, so we need more help, including you Japan, but also China." ”

"So you're sorry for me to win over China, Your Excellency Minister Anderson," said Mutssaburo apologetically, "and I've disappointed you by not doing this." ”

Mutssaburo's words were so humble that he couldn't add to it, as if he was talking like facing his own superior, Pan Derson shook his head, "It's okay, this is the first day, I personally think that the content that needs to be determined by this meeting will make the entire meeting agenda very lengthy, so we don't need to rush at all, and if some things are finalized at a very early stage, these things are more likely to be reversed in the future, and the Chinese can't let him continue to fall to Germany," Pan Dessen is obviously different from those people in China, Some old stubborn people in China think that China just happened to win the Sino-French war, and it is completely impossible to pose any threat to Britain's global hegemony, and Padson is very keenly aware of it, and he has seen through the analysis of information about China over the past few decades that although China is lackluster in terms of scientific and technological progress, their national strength has indeed made slow and very considerable progress, and this progress is reflected in the opening ceremony of this conference, the Kaiser attaches great importance to it, and actually shows his friendliness to China. (To be continued.) )