The foreign minister of the island, Kazushige Ugaki, personally greeted Hopkins at the airport. When he saw the B-17 bomber and heard about it, Ugaki Kazusei immediately went up to meet it.
The huge B-17 bomber brought great shock to Ugaki Kazushige. Although he doesn't understand military affairs, he knows that the island country does not have such a huge fighter plane as the B-17 bomber. On the one hand, island countries lack relevant technologies. On the other hand, building heavy bombers is too costly and resource-intensive. The resources of the island country are not rich in the first place, and there are not so many resources to waste. If you have the resources to build heavy bombers, you might as well build a few more Zero fighters.
Of course, this does not prevent the islanders from hating heavy bombers. The senior officials of the Army Air Force of the island country have applied for the construction of heavy bombers many times. In particular, Germany began to carry out strategic bombing against Russia, and the powerful power of heavy bombers was revealed, which made the islanders eager to own such heavy bombers. But unfortunately, the high-level officials of the island country still rejected their request. Because war is about to break out. All the resources of the island nation must be used to win the war. Unless the island countries occupy Southeast Asia and Australia and have a lot of resources, it is impossible for them to build such heavy bombers.
Hopkins came down the gangway. With a smile on Ugaki's face, Ugaki immediately went up to meet him.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the two sides drove to the Prime Minister's Office.
Originally, Kazusei Ugaki planned to arrange for Hopkins to go to the post house to rest first. After all, in this era, taking a long-distance flight by plane is definitely not an enjoyment, but a deep torture. Hopkins also looked tired when he got off the plane.
However, Hopkins was unwilling to waste time and directly asked for talks with the Prime Minister of the island country Fumimaro Konoe.
When Hopkins arrived at the prime minister, the five cabinet ministers of the island were all gathered here. They will all participate in this meeting. Of course, Konoe Fumimaro talked with Hopkins most of all. Others are at best offering opinions.
"Your Excellency Special Envoy, welcome to the island country!" Konoe Fumimaro smiled.
In the conference room at this moment, there are no other people except Hopkins and the five ministers of the island's cabinet. The translation was performed by Foreign Minister Kazunari Ugaki. It can be seen that this meeting is undoubtedly very confidential.
"Your Excellency, hello. I am an envoy to the island country under the order of Your Excellency the President. Presumably, you are also very clear about my purpose. The current war situation is already very critical. The war launched by Germany against Bu-Russia, let Bu Russia has already paid a huge price. Now, the Russian government is almost unable to survive. Therefore, the US government hopes that the island country government can fulfill its promise and start war against Germany as soon as possible! Otherwise, if it continues to drag on, it may be An accident happened. Once Germany wins this war, it will be a disaster for other countries in the world, and no country will be able to mobilize Germany’s hegemony anymore! Other countries will suffer The Germans were suppressed and even destroyed." Hopkins said straight to the point. He did not hide anything about his intentions and the intentions of the US government. In fact, there is no need to hide it. After all, it's a well-known fact. He believes that the island government also understands this very well.
Besides, now they can be said to be people on the same boat. If the ship sinks, no one can escape.
The cabinet ministers of the island country are also well aware of this. They all know that no one can change the fact that they participated in the war. It's just that they hope to take this opportunity to grab as many benefits and benefits as possible for the island country.
"Your Excellency, we promised to go to war with Germany in January this year. This will never change. However, the Germans are too strong, and we must use all means to defeat the Germans. Therefore, we are War will not be declared against the Germans until the actual attack is launched. However, our troops will be dispatched!" Konoe Fumimaro said.
Hopkins finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Fumimaro Konoe say this. The islanders did not push back and forth, which left a lot of trouble. As for the way the islanders will adopt undeclared war, although it is a bit despicable, if the Germans can really make the Germans pay a big price for it, then the United States will undoubtedly be happy to see it.
"However, Your Excellency, Special Envoy, we also have our own difficulties. Although we have already prepared for war, we have mobilized more than 3 million troops for this purpose. We will invest more troops in the future. However, our foundation is too weak. Once a war breaks out, the consumption of various resources will continue to soar. Therefore, we hope that the US government can support us as much as possible and provide us with sufficient war resources. Otherwise, there is no way to fight this war Go down." Konoe Fumimaro said.
"This is laissez-faire. The United States will increase the steel and oil resources of your government. In addition, our spies have obtained a piece of information from the Germans. I believe you will be interested." Hopkins laughed. said.
The important ministers of the island government are all engrossed.
"The Germans sent many geologists to investigate Southeast Asia and Australia. They discovered a large number of oil fields with huge reserves in the Dutch East Indies in Southeast Asia. It's just that the Germans did not exploit them. On the one hand, Germany The Middle East controlled by humans has been able to provide them with enough oil. On the other hand, it is from the perspective of war security. In Australia, the Germans also found a large number of iron ore mines. However, they also did not exploit them. If your army can defeat the Germans and occupy these areas, then resources will no longer be your country's bottleneck," Hopkins said.
This information was obtained from Germany by the US intelligence agencies at a great cost. They believe that this will be an irresistible temptation for the island nation.
In fact, this is indeed the case. After hearing the news, the important ministers of these island countries couldn't help but feel a little short of breath. Resource issues have always been the biggest bottleneck plaguing the development of island countries. This has also made the people of the island countries always sigh with emotion, why other countries have rich territories and resources, but tens of millions of them have to live on small islands with poor resources, dense volcanoes, and frequent earthquakes. If the resource-rich and fertile Southeast Asia and Australia can be snatched during the war, the bottleneck that plagued them will disappear. By then, the island nation will become even stronger.