Part 3 - The Treaty of Cardigan
In January of 1938 the Foreign Office received a request from Nationalist China to join the Allies as the Japanese were overrunning China. Following standard procedure for the time the Foreign Office Asia Department immediately stuck their heads in the sand (1). However a clerk at the FOAD was secretly in the employ of the East India Cartel(2) and realising what an opportunity this might be for the EIC he forwarded it on to his superiors. Eventually the Chinese request reached the EIC board where Chamberlain decided to send a diplomatic team to dictate terms (Britain doesn't negotiate with future colonial subjects it dictates terms). A deal was quickly drawn up
The Treaty of Cardigan (public clauses)
1. China gets to join the Allies
2. Britain declares war on Japan
3. Britain alone will get to negotiate a peace deal with Japan
4. Hong Kong is now sovereign British land (rather than leased for 150 years)
5. Britain pays China £1 for Hong Kong (on credit, with no interest)
6. China pays Britain £100,000,000* in silver and gold**
7. The Chinese ambassador must bow before King George VI on behalf of his nation
The Treaty of Cardigan (secret clauses)
*(per year for 50 years)
**(the other £4,900,000,000 is to be paid back over the next 200 years with 12% interest per year)
1. China pays the EIC £10,000,000 for expenses incurred in making the deal (transport, bribing parliament, accommodation etc)
2. China immediately makes the opium trade legal
3. China makes the EIC the sole legal supplier of opium in China
4. China will heavily subsidise EIC opium
The treaty before it was signed had to be ratified by parliament. Labour was against for four reasons 1. It would drag Britain into a war 2. During a war it would be much harder for unions to make workers do less work 3. It would expand the Empire and 4. It would make Britain some money. The Liberal Party for some reason was split between the Liberals and the National Liberals (long story short one votes one way and the other one votes the other way to oppose them). The Conservative party was also split on the issue. The dove faction didn't like the war (I wonder why) and the small government conservatives were unhappy as well(3)
(1) At the time all overseas departments of the Foreign Office had bags of sand on hand for this procedure
(2) The East India Cartel is an offshoot of the now defunct East India Company. It was formed when the EICompany was disbanded after the Indian Muntiny. It was formed as a partnership between senior Tory (Conservative) politicians and the former EICompany board. It quickly took control of the Opium trade and now (1938) over 90% of Opium worldwide comes from the EIC. Its profits go to getting Conservative politicians elected as well as lining the pockets of the board. The current board is... Neville Chamberlain (chairman), Winston Churchill (chief lobbyist-his job is to keep India in the Empire at all costs), James Frankton 5th Lord Ponsonby (head of production-he overseas the poppy plantations in northern India) Stanley Baldwin (any Conservative Prime Minister automatically gets a seat on the board) and lastly Thomas Jameson 8th Baron Silverbrook (head of sales and enforcement-job role censored)
(3) The small government conservatives (think Rand Paul for you Americans) were unhappy for two reasons 1. Wars tend to make the government bigger (with the spending loads of money on more weapons and ships) and 2. The money from China would be spent and therefore make the government bigger
Notes
-Names for divisions are needed, please keep them 1930s British Empire (e.g. The first name I have decided on is the 1st New Zealand Royal Marine Division, with the Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago brigades. The Canterbury Brigade is made up of the Canterbury Regiment, the Tasman Regiment and the West Coast Regiment (10 points if you can guess where those names came from))
-I got slightly off topic with the EIC
-next time on Britannia Rules the Waves I bash the Labour Party some more
Draft
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