Chapter 307 Military layout in 1912 (please vote for me!)

On December 31, just a few days after the Christmas holiday, the Australasian government entered into tense government affairs again. new

The last day of the year is often also the time for the annual government report meeting of the cabinet.

However, because the new cabinet government has only been working for a few months, and the summary is also a summary of the previous cabinet government, the content of the annual report is still relatively small.

Of course, the top priority of this meeting is actually the new cabinet government’s plan for its term of office.

Because of the chaotic situation in Europe and around the world, no one can be sure whether war will come tomorrow.

This also means that the task of the fourth cabinet government is extremely arduous. During their term of office, it is very likely that they will experience an unprecedented war that the world has never seen.

This also means that the role of the fourth cabinet government is very important. A little carelessness or a wrong choice may destroy the country's ten years of development.

Although the history of later generations can give Arthur many experiences and lessons, who can guarantee that the development of this world will be like the history of later generations?

Will Italy quit? Will the United States join the war? Will there be a revolution in Russia?

Putting aside these three issues, Australasia itself is also a factor that Arthur cannot be sure of.

Theoretically, whichever side Australasia joins can provide some help within its capabilities and even change the direction of future wars to a certain extent.

But Arthur's purpose is more than that. What Arthur planned was for Australasia to gain a higher international status in this war, absorb the achievements of the defeated countries, and after World War I, at least become a chess player instead of a pawn.

Although the annual report meeting has been greatly streamlined, what is reported is basically relatively important news.

As of the 1st, the population of Australasia has officially reached more than 10.51 million, the population of Australia is 8.27 million, and the population of New Zealand is 2.14 million.

The colonies of New Guinea, Australian Timor, and the Crown Territory have populations of 73,000 and 1, respectively.

Australasia also officially has its second city with a population of over one million, Melbourne.

Melbourne's current population has reached more than 1.04 million people. It is the economic center of Australasia after Sydney. Together with Sydney, it is known as the two brightest pearls of Oceania.

After more than ten years of development, at least within the cities of Australasia, the development level has initially caught up with ordinary European cities.

The scale and development of cities with a population of one million like Sydney and Melbourne are no less than those of first-class European cities. new

In fact, this is normal. After all, to put it bluntly, the current situation in Australasia is to use the entire country to develop these two cities.

It is difficult for these two cities to find rivals in Australasia, which has also contributed to the current dominance of the two cities in Australasia.

Even under the advice of Minister Grant, Arthur had already formulated and promulgated relevant immigration laws, vigorously encouraged immigration in remote areas, colonies, small cities, etc., and cut welfare benefits for big cities to a certain extent.

But this still cannot stop the fact that among the nearly one million immigrants every year, more than 40% choose to stay in big cities, or at least go to cities with a population of hundreds of thousands like state capitals.

After all, only in big cities can there be more jobs and more development opportunities waiting for these immigrants to find.

What else can you do in a small city? Except for the special existence of the Leonora Industrial Base, most small cities are only engaged in agricultural development, and at most they are just farmers.

The immigrants had a dream of getting rich suddenly, and they were not happy to be forced to work as farmers.

A population of tens of millions is a threshold and a necessary condition for officially becoming a powerful country.

In the current world, a country with a population of less than 10 million is destined to be impossible to become a powerful country.

But in fact, a population of tens of millions is really just a condition. If Arthur wanted to realize his goals and ambitions, Australasia's population of tens of millions was not enough.

The combined standing and reserve armies of European countries are in the millions or close to 10 million.

Although full mobilization will damage the foundation of the country, it also means that these countries have the courage and trump card to mobilize the whole country and fight to the death.

Looking at Australasia, half a million troops may be the current limit. Any more would be very serious damage to the country's development.

But if Australasia wants to become a great power with international status, in addition to a powerful navy, it is also very necessary to have an army of more than one million people.

This also means that the population of Australasia must exceed 20 million in order to have the means and confidence to compete with other powerful countries.

Judging from the current pace of introducing immigrants to Australasia, it will take at least more than ten years for the population to exceed 20 million.

If you include the outbreak of war in Europe, countries will definitely restrict the emigration of people. This also means that immigration from Australasia will definitely decrease, perhaps even significantly, before and during the war.

In other words, it may take twenty years for Australasia's population to exceed 20 million. New 🅇.🄲🄾🄼

Twenty years later, World War II may be about to start. By then, Australasia will have a certain degree of confidence in terms of population. It will be too late.

It seems necessary to use some means to speed up the absorption of immigrants before and after the war.

There is also good news for the Australasian government, that is, total government revenue hit a new high, reaching 78.41 million Australian dollars.

The continuous growth of total fiscal revenue actually means that the results of Australasia's development have gradually been revealed.

Of course, it cannot be denied that fiscal revenue growth depends on arms trade, food exports and other orders, but this is good news anyway.

Of course, the government's total fiscal expenditure is also growing. 1 The government’s total fiscal expenditure reaches a current fiscal surplus of more than 11.41 million Australian dollars.

Among them, military expenditures have reached 28.71 million Australian dollars. Although the size of the navy has not increased, the army has expanded by a full 100,000 troops. Coupled with various weapons and equipment, Australasia's military expenditures have fully occupied the government More than 40% of the total expenditure can be regarded as a major feature of this era.

In fact, the military expenditures of European countries are generally high. After all, everyone knows that the enemy they are about to face is a combination of several major powers.

If military spending is not high at this time, the losses to the country and government in the future will be much higher than the expensive military spending in recent years.

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In order to expand and develop their military, some small countries do not hesitate to borrow large amounts of money from domestic and foreign countries to expand their military.

This can also be regarded as a game. The winner gets the territory, population and war compensation. Not only can it fill the vacancies of previous loans, but it can even further expand the country's potential.

As for failure, for these guys who dare to play, maybe they really haven't thought about the consequences of failure.

Of course, countries that dare to play games actually have some confidence. In the ongoing Italian-Turkish war, Italy relied on the power of the great powers, its powerful navy, and the opportunity to determine that other great powers would not intervene, so it vowed to launch the war.

The Balkan countries that are currently preparing for the war are not only expanding their armies for the war, they have also received support from the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire's attention has been attracted by the current Italian-Turkish war. This is what they dare to do Reasons for preparing for war against Turkey.

The current naval and arms race in Europe can also be seen as the fact that the two major European military groups do not have the full confidence to defeat each other, so they can only hope to wildly expand their own armaments to gain more advantages against their enemies.

The current available funds of the Australasian government have exceeded 250 million Australian dollars. This can be regarded as a bit of confidence for the Australasian government to expand armaments on a large scale and enhance the country's strength when war is imminent or when war comes. Defense force.

If we include a large number of private loans and domestic and foreign loans, I am afraid that Australasia can consume at least 500 million in funds. It does not seem impossible to build a navy that is among the top three in the world.

After a brief report, the next step is the new cabinet government's governance plan for the next four years.

Judging from the current situation in Europe, war may break out at any time. This also means that the development of the military industry will be very important in the next four years.

The first is the fiscal budget for the coming year. In terms of national defense alone, the cabinet government approved the fiscal budget of the Ministry of National Defense. However, it also made several requirements for the Ministry of National Defense. It is necessary to speed up the training of newly formed troops and at the same time strictly control the daily operations of all troops. Training should ensure that all armies become an elite army that can be used.

As for the navy, Arthur hopes that the navy can organize several more high seas exercises to improve naval soldiers' familiarity with warship operations and also to strengthen the navy's combat effectiveness.

There is a saying that once the cannon goes off, there is a thousand taels of gold. This cannon also includes naval guns on warships.

Even naval guns consume far more money than ordinary artillery. Organizing any naval exercise can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of Australian dollars.

If the entire fleet is dispatched for a large-scale exercise, the cost may increase several times.

However, various drills must also be done. After all, in the absence of various wars, apart from daily training, this kind of exercise is the only way for the navy to increase its combat effectiveness.

The defense budget of up to 30 million Australian dollars is prepared for a large number of army and navy exercises and training.

Arthur even directly stated that if military expenditure exceeds the government's budget, the royal family is willing to subsidize 2 million Australian dollars per year. But the condition is that the military subsidies must be spent in real terms. We are not afraid to spend money, but the money spent must be effective.

The current royal consortium is not short of money. Its annual net income is as high as about 50 million Australian dollars, which is not much different than the government.

The tax revenue brought to the government by the royal family consortium is more than 8 million Australian dollars every year, and it is also a major contributor to the government's tax revenue.

The total assets of the royal family are currently as high as 400 million pounds, which is a full 800 million Australian dollars.

In addition to the 100 million pounds lent to the government, the total value of various factories and enterprises invested and constructed by the royal consortium is also as high as more than 100 million pounds.

In addition, the royal consortium also has a cash flow of up to 150 million pounds, or 300 million Australian dollars, and tens of millions of Australian dollars in stocks.

In the past few years, the main income of the royal consortium relied on Benz cars, but now, the income of Benz cars is less than half of the total income of the royal consortium.

It is no exaggeration to say that the income of the royal consortium is enough to support the entire army in Australasia, and it can even have a surplus of more than 20 million Australian dollars every year.

This also led to the royal family's private army, the 1st and 2nd Guards Division, being extremely equipped and the only troops in Australasia that were equipped with military trucks.

Of course, the real reason why the two Guards Divisions are equipped with military trucks is because they are mostly stationed near Sydney and are responsible for guarding the security of the capital and the palace.

The transportation environment near Sydney is very convenient, so traveling by truck is naturally more convenient.

But other troops are different. Most of the other troops are stationed in mountainous or remote areas, and truck transportation is not so convenient.

Of course, insufficient government budget is another major reason. I believe that after the expansion of military spending in the new year, other standing forces should also be able to see some military trucks.

The wealth of the royal family also gave Arthur the confidence to develop advanced military weapons including tanks, aircraft carriers, and aircraft.

You know, so far, the research and development of all these advanced military equipment has consumed funds from the royal consortium.

Although the research scale of these three weapons is small, it still costs millions of Australian dollars every year.

If it weren't for the royal family's deep pockets, I'm afraid the government wouldn't dare to bear such expenses at will.

This is actually the confidence to have money. If you don't have money, let alone start research, even recruiting talents will be in the way.

Speaking of which, we have to thank Arthur’s grandmother, Queen Victoria.

You know, the legacy left to Arthur by the old Duke Arthur was only more than 80 million pounds, and the rest was given to Arthur by Queen Victoria.

Even New Zealand and New Guinea were gifts to Arthur from Queen Victoria.

If it weren't for Queen Victoria's will, I'm afraid it would not be easy for Australia to acquire these two areas.

After all, with the relationship between Arthur and Edward at that time, even if these two areas were basically not important to the British Empire, Edward VII would secretly obstruct them.

Maybe this is the advantage of birth! Born in the direct line of the British Empire's royal family, and the only son of Queen Victoria's favorite son, it seems natural to obtain these.

For a person with a family background, making reasonable use of his background will also allow him to gain more benefits and avoid detours.

The first update of 4,000 words. Please support and vote for me!

I wish everyone a happy May Day. Today, 10,000 per day has been updated to 4,000/10,000. Please vote for me and support me!