Chapter 774: Churchill's Death 5
Of course there are capitulationists in London, and their activity center is Buckingham Palace. After the release of the Cairo Declaration, the peace movement, which was once suppressed by Churchill, immediately showed signs of becoming active. The leaders of the Labour Party and the Fascist Alliance, who were ordered to stop political activities, have gathered at Buckingham Palace in the past few days and are planning to overthrow the cabinet with the Duke of Windsor day and night.
Of course, it is still a legal struggle - the white left Labour Party and the Duke who does not love the country are not ruthless people. They can't do such things as bloodshed in Buckingham or bloodbath in Downing Street.
And these people also think that legal struggle is enough, because the Labour Party itself is a major party in the House of Commons. As long as they contact some members of the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party, things will be successful.
As for the possibility that Churchill will ban Parliament from meeting, the leader of the Labour Party, Attlee, also has a way, which is to mobilize the masses to take to the streets. After the release of the Cairo Declaration, the Labour Party is fully capable of mobilizing hundreds of thousands or millions of people to take to the streets.
As long as there are enough people taking to the streets, Fatty Churchill will fall. Because he had neither the support of Parliament nor the support of the people, it was impossible for him to continue to control the army with only the "Imperial Defense Act" and the support of George VI in Canada. Moreover, the basis of the "Imperial Defense Act" was not the authority of George VI, but the "Bill of Rights". Article 6 of the Act stipulates that it is illegal to recruit or maintain a standing army in the kingdom in peacetime except with the consent of Parliament.
In other words, most of the British army (the Royal Guard is an exception) is the "Parliamentary Army", not the so-called Royal Army!
The "Bill of Rights" with only thirteen clauses has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in Britain and is the foundation of the country's political life. Even a strong prime minister like Churchill could not go against the "Bill of Rights".
When several capitulationists were discussing voting to repeal the "Imperial Defense Act" in Parliament and organizing the masses to take to the streets for peaceful petitions. Suddenly, crackling gunshots came from outside Buckingham Palace.
This scared the people who were meeting to discuss legal rebellion!
"What's going on? Where are the guns being fired?" The Duke of Windsor, who had been a king, was relatively calm, and he quickly called the commander of the First Guards Regiment of the Royal Guards, which was responsible for protecting Buckingham Palace.
"Duke, there seems to be a rebellion in London, and there are guns being fired in the East End!" The commander's tone was also a little flustered, "Many citizens have taken to the streets..."
"What? Citizens took to the streets?" The Duke of Windsor looked at the Labour Party leader Attlee, who was inexplicably surprised.
"It's not our Labour Party," Attlee shook his head, "I didn't give the order to mobilize the masses."
"Who is it? The Conservative Party and the Liberal Party?"
As soon as the Duke's question came out, the atmosphere in the entire conference room instantly dropped to freezing point.
Now there are two factions in London, the pro-war and the pro-peace faction, and the main force of the pro-peace faction is the Labour Party. The Labour Party of this era is still following the workers' line, so it controls most of the trade unions in the UK. The Labour Party leader will mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to take to the streets at the command of a single order.
The main force of the war faction is the upper-middle class, but most of them are not really willing to fight Germany to the end. They are all people with property and jobs, and it is not in their interest to turn the country into a scorched earth.
They just want peace by war and want better conditions. In the Cairo Declaration, only the general principles are mentioned, and there are still issues such as war reparations, whether German troops should be stationed in the UK, and whether Britain should follow Germany to fight against the United States and the Soviet Union. There is no negotiation.
If a victory can be won on the British Isles, then Britain will have some bargaining chips for peace talks.
So these "bourgeois war factions" are unlikely to create unrest in London to disrupt their positions.
"Duke, we must defend Buckingham Palace now," Mosley, the head of the British Fascist Union, is the most "wild" of all the anti-thieves and thinks more. "They are likely to come for you and the princess!"
"Against me and the princess?" The Duke of Windsor was startled, and he also felt that it made sense. It doesn't matter that he is a former king, but Princess Elizabeth is a big name - she can marry with the British Empire!
As long as Churchill holds her in his hand, he will have another bargaining chip.
"I will go to see the princess right away and ask her to give orders to the Royal Guard!" said the Duke of Windsor.
The British Royal Guard is loyal to the royal family. Before leaving London, George VI handed over the post of commander-in-chief of the Royal Guard to Princess Elizabeth. So the 17-year-old princess theoretically controls a Royal Guard with a number of up to 12,000 people and quite well-equipped.
Although Princess Elizabeth may not be able to command the Royal Guard to launch a coup to overthrow the Churchill administration, it is still possible to let them defend Buckingham Palace.
"Wait," Mosley of the Fascist Union saw the Duke of Windsor about to leave, and hurriedly called the Duke, "Duke, our people must also be mobilized, and we can't let the war party occupy the streets."
Although the British fascists are mild, they also know that the key to street politics is to occupy the streets-people have a herd mentality! So once the political opponents occupy the streets and create a momentum of popular support, the originally neutral or inclined masses may change.
The Duke of Windsor immediately turned his attention to Labour Party leader Attlee.
"I understand!" Labor leader Attlee knows that now is the time to call upon. If the Labor Party cannot mobilize enough people to take to the streets, then after the current political change, the Labor Party will have no place in the British political arena - the Labor Party originally People who rely on the strength of their numbers to stay in the political arena. If they lose in street protests, how will they stay in the political arena in the future? If they want to play gentlemanly politics, have they played it before the Conservatives and Liberals?
"I will immediately mobilize one million people to take to the streets!" Attlee gritted his teeth, "The streets of London will never be controlled by those who oppose us!"
…
The demonstrations and armed riots that took place on the streets of London on the morning of January 10 were actually initiated by the British Bolshevik Party.
Churchill's attempt to send troops to attack the Soviet Embassy was unsuccessful. Soviet Ambassador Maisky and British Bolshevik Party leader Pollitt escaped from the tunnel. This tunnel was secretly dug by Maisky in order to gain access to the British proletariat. When the revolution breaks out, the revolutionary leadership organs can be safely transferred from the embassy.
On January 9, this secretly dug tunnel really came in handy. The exit of the tunnel was a secret stronghold of the Third International disguised as a trading company. Maisky, Pollitt and others disguised themselves as merchants and left for a place in a workers' colony in East London specifically to lead an armed uprising. Prepare a stronghold.
The armed uprising was of course also uniquely British, starting with armed marches by workers (workers who supported the Bolshevik Party).
Because London was under martial law and the Bolsheviks acted a bit hastily, not many people were mobilized. In the working-class areas of East London, less than 10,000 people took to the streets, and about 2,000 of them belonged to the London Volunteers and were armed.
But before they left the East End of London, the troops sent by Churchill arrived. However, the bloody crackdown did not begin immediately. In the end, the government troops only set up roadblocks and fired warning shots to disperse the crowd.
What people in Buckingham Palace heard were the military warning shots.
However, the army's warning had no effect. The gathered crowd did not disperse. Instead, they began to sing "The Internationale" and shouted slogans such as "Bread and milk" and "Down with the dictatorship of Churchill D".
It turned out that through the internationalist fighters who ambush the War Cabinet Headquarters, Maisky and Pollitt already knew that Churchill had not been overthrown and that the troops who attacked the Soviet Embassy were sent by him.
This seems to indicate that Churchill has raised his butcher knife against the people and should be ready to surrender to the Axis powers.
So they immediately adjusted their strategy, using bread and milk and overthrowing the dictatorship of Churchill D as their slogans, and at the same time, they also asked the "Red Guards" who were armed and ready to rebel to hide their weapons under their coats.
And the slogan "Bread, milk and down with Churchill" confuses many Labor supporters, and that's exactly what they want!
As a result, the number of people marching increased rapidly, quickly reaching 100,000, and the entire East End of London seemed to be boiling.
The soldiers sent by Fatty Qiu to suppress them were all dumbfounded. No one dared to shoot indiscriminately - Viscount Brooke was to blame for this. The soldiers he sent to suppress were soldiers from the London County Division. Many people's I originally lived in the East District!
Moreover, these capital city soldiers are very good at asking for information. They now know that most of the American reinforcements are riflemen, and they also know that the Germans have landed in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough in central England!
The morale of the military is really shaken now. The British Island has been landed by the enemy. Can this war continue? And the war ended like this, and the majestic British Empire fell to this point. Who is responsible?
Isn’t it the fault of Churchill, the stubborn old man?
If France had negotiated peace with Germany after its fall, there would be bread, milk, and the British Empire, and the German Nazis would not have come!
Therefore, the officers and soldiers of the London County Division actually sympathized with the marchers.
The characteristic of street politics is that a spark can start a prairie fire! Once it cannot be suppressed with thunderous means in the early stage, things will get worse and worse. As it approached noon, the labor unions controlled by the Labor Party also began to mobilize the masses. This was a big deal. The Labor Party was originally the party of the working people of Britain, and its mass base was not comparable to that of the Bolshevik Party. What Attlee said about inciting millions of people to take to the streets was not Haikou at all.
But there is also something about the Labor Party that cannot be compared with the Bolshevik Party, that is, it is loosely organized and more like a political club than a closely united party.
To put it bluntly, the Labor Party is a party that plays elections, not a party that makes revolution in the streets. They could incite the masses into the streets, but they had no ability to effectively control them, at least not without the interference of the Bolshevik Party.
As a result, London is slipping out of control!