The opposition between the world's two major currency blocs also exposed British weakness to the world. Though they still wielded enormous influence across the Americas, they had already lost on the Old Continent.
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the world's center had still been Europe. The consequences of declining influence in Europe were exceedingly severe.
To reverse this unfavorable situation, the MacDonald Government extended olive branches to the four unaligned nations—Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
The British attempted to resolve the German-French and Italian-French conflicts through outside means, forming a Western European Alliance to confront Bulgaria.
Clearly, this would be difficult to achieve, yet Britain persisted.
It was not that the MacDonald Government was stupid. They simply had no other choice!
Only by reconciling the conflicts among the Western European nations could everyone unite, and only by combining the strength of Germany, Italy, France, and Spain could they possess the power to contend with Bulgaria.
As for more distant potential allies, Soviet Russia had been worn to the bone by Japan. At this time, Soviet Russia was not the vast Soviet Union of later days. Though its territory was enormous, it simply did not have enough people!
Even if they pulled them in, it would be useless. Worse, they might spread revolutionary ideas over here—the hidden danger was simply too great.
Japan in the Far East was not within their considerations at all. An alliance without shared interests had no value in existing.
The benefits the Japanese wanted were basically all in British hands. Even if Britain wished to compromise, Japan's appetite was simply too enormous.
From Australia to the South Seas, from Indochina to India, all were targets of their covetous gaze. If they could compromise over all that, John Bull might as well compromise with Bulgaria—the