Chapter 738 William’s Engagement Ceremony
Arthur found that almost all localized colonies had a common shortcoming, which was their backwardness in education and medical care.
But if you think about it carefully, this is also an inevitable problem in localization work.
You must know that medical care and education cannot be built in a short time. It requires the local government to spend a lot of money, manpower and material resources, and a lot of time.
At present, in the whole of Australasia, Australia and New Zealand are basically the regions with better education and medical care, while other regions can only be said to be average or even slightly behind.
This is also something that can't be helped. There are only 50 universities in Australasia, and 43 universities in Australia and New Zealand.
The remaining colonies including New Guinea, Timor, Sulawesi, Java, Sumatra and a large number of archipelagos and islands combined have only 7 universities, which is enough to prove the huge disparity between regions in education.
Such a huge gap cannot be filled in a short time, unless Arthur is willing to spend all his money, manpower and material resources to fill it.
But the problem is that government development also requires a lot of energy and effort from Arthur, and it is naturally impossible for Arthur to focus all his attention on the education work in the colonies.
After all, the local area is the most important, and this is also the prerequisite for the great development of Australasia.
In view of this situation, Arthur can only say that he should try his best to consider the current situation of each colony in his educational work and strive to have the royal government provide certain support to the state governments.
More depends on the efforts of the states, such as the development plan formulated by Yuri.
Among the educational and medical development planned by Governor Yuri for Java Island, the construction of universities and large hospitals is the most important subject.
Governor Yuri plans to build a total of three universities and two large hospitals in the next eight years, which will be comparable in scale to Australia.
It is very difficult to do so, but Governor Yuri is still very confident. It is nothing more than a consumption of some funds, but for Java, which has rubber and abundant food production, it may not be unaffordable.
At the Java State Government, Arthur expressed his affirmation of Governor Yuri's development plan and said that the government would provide support and bear one-third of the total financial expenditure of the Java State Development Plan.
Don’t underestimate this third. According to Governor Yuri's development plan, one-third of the total financial expenditure will be at least 5 million Australian dollars, or even more.
Moreover, the support mentioned by Arthur also includes support for university faculty, teaching and scientific research equipment, medical talents, and medical equipment. These are valuable resources that the Java state government cannot exchange for money.
The situation in the remaining islands of Sumatra and Java is not much different. Sumatra is larger and closer to the Strait of Malacca.
Compared with Java Island, which focuses on economic development, Sumatra Island is more like the bridgehead of the northern border defense for Australasia at present, and it is also the front line for controlling the Strait of Malacca.
Once Britain got into trouble, Arthur would try to accept Britain's Straits Settlements and take full control of the Strait of Malacca.
But as far as the current situation is concerned, unless World War II breaks out, it is basically unlikely that the powerful British will get into difficulties.
Of course, civil unrest may also count. But if today's British Empire is to be dragged down by civil strife, in addition to the desperate resistance of the Indians, other colonies, including the Americans, must also find something to do.
For Arthur and Australasia now, the strength of the British has certain benefits.
Of course, the premise is that the British cannot be too powerful. A strong Britain is in the interest of Australasia, but if it is a powerful Britain that other countries cannot resist together, that may not be a good thing for Australasia.
After this tour, Arthur had a certain idea of the progress of localization in various regions of Southeast Asia.
Although localization has achieved initial success, these localized colonies still have a long way to go compared to Australia and New Zealand.
Of course, a big reason is also because Australasia has a relatively small population and it is difficult to fully develop these areas.
Judging from the current progress of localization, in 30 years, these localized colonies will not develop very well at all, and can only develop a small part of the area.
In order to fully develop these areas, the population of Australasia must be at least 200 million, which may not be seen during Arthur's reign.
However, Arthur did what he should do by leaving such a huge land to future monarchs.
Even if the territory is not expanded in the future, the current land size is completely sufficient for Australasia's development plan in the next 200 years.
Before the population reached 500 million, the land area of Australasia was absolutely abundant, and there was no need to worry about resource consumption and food supply.
Especially after acquiring land in tropical Southeast Asia, the land with three crops a year is an excellent production area for food.
I left St. Arthur's Castle on August 1st, and it was already mid-September when I came back.
This is also something that can't be helped. Australasia's land area is so vast that even just inspecting individual areas would take at least months.
Although there is a faster way to fly, that is the aircraft that has become popular among high-level officials in various countries.
But airplanes are not omnipotent. Moreover, out of consideration for Arthur's safety, Arthur will still mainly travel on warships in the short term.
After returning to St. Arthur's Castle, Arthur immediately started busy with another matter, which was the engagement of his eldest son William.
The engagement involves the royal families of the two countries, and one of them is Arthur's eldest son. This also means that the scale of the engagement must be quite grand.
The engagement is scheduled for October, and the Danish fleet is already on its way and is expected to arrive in Australasia by the end of September.
William's engagement ceremony will be held at the Palais des Nations in St. Arthur's Castle, presided over by Archbishop Steed personally, and representatives from other countries are invited to participate.
Although it is just an engagement ceremony, the scale is not small at all. The engagement ceremony is expected to cost more than 2 million Australian dollars, and the navy, army and air force will also be dispatched.
Of course Arthur attaches great importance to his eldest son and heir to the throne.
In addition to bringing William into the public eye, this engagement ceremony also aims to build momentum for William.
After all, as the second King of Australasia after Arthur, William must also have his own excellence in order to be better accepted and recognized by the people.
If you want the kingdom to remain strong, and if you want the royal family to be the ruler of the kingdom forever, it is important to train the next king.
One of the reasons why Arthur asked William to get married early was to let William have children early and then raise them for him.
No matter how far away Arthur is, he can't control it, but Arthur, the third generation heir, still wants to train it himself.
In this way, it is at least guaranteed that the royal power can be passed down for more than three generations, which is also Arthur's top priority as the Australasian monarch and the helmsman of the royal family.
Although it was just an engagement ceremony for a prince, it still attracted the participation of many countries.
After all, this prince is no ordinary prince. He has been determined to be the heir to the throne of Australasia and 100% the next king of Australasia.
Although Arthur's move has the intention of weakening the royal power, it still cannot change the reality that Australasia is currently a monarchy with real power.
Facing the royal family of a powerful country that controls national power, few countries can avoid being on good terms, unless it is a feud or hostile relationship.
Although the little guys Peter and George are still in Australasia, their countries, the Kingdom of California and the United Kingdom of the West Coast, also sent their blessings, and officials from the two kingdoms personally participated in the ceremony to express their importance to William.
In addition, all the major powers also sent representatives to express their attention to Australasia and their respect for the royal family.
As well as countries that have marriage relationships with Australasia, including many that have certain connections, there are dozens of countries together.
This also has to admit Arthur's high status in the European royal family. As Arthur grew older, especially his actions in helping Greece restore its throne and was helping Portugal restore its throne, he gained the favor and admiration of many European royal families.
What does this mean? This means that their throne is guaranteed. For a country's royal family, inheritance is more important than power.
If inheritance can't be achieved, what's the use of holding power in your hands?
Although Arthur is not too old, he is indeed one of the talkers in the European royal family.
If you have to name a few candidates who can connect all European royal families, then Arthur is definitely one of them.
Such a status is relatively equal, and the previous one was a monarch like Queen Victoria who had been in business for decades.
In fact, if you think about it, the current power in Australasia is considered huge.
The five countries of the Philippines, Kalimantan, California, West Coast United Kingdom, and El Salvador are equivalent to the puppet states of Australasia.
The four countries of Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Tsarist Russia all have a very close relationship with Australasia.
Together these can be considered quite a force. Although it is not as large as the huge sphere of influence operated by the British, it is definitely among the top three in the world and can be considered huge.
When it comes to engagement, it actually means that marriage is imminent.
According to the agreement between Arthur and the Danish royal family, after William and Princess Alexandrine get engaged in October this year, their wedding will be held in Australasia next winter (July), allowing the Australasian royal family to Add one more person.
Of course, as a bride price, Arthur will present a battleship to the Danish royal family, as well as valuable supplies and equipment.
This includes a large amount of funds, which will definitely not lag behind other countries in terms of ranking. This is also the confidence of Arthur as the controller of the royal consortium.
To be honest, it’s just that the exchange and acquisition of information are not that convenient now. Through the financial groups controlled by Arthur, Arthur's status as the world's richest man has basically been determined.
Of course, the real richest man is hidden. The richest man that ordinary people can see is naturally a representative elected by people like Arthur, not the real richest man in the world.
According to legal theory, Arthur's property also included the entire Australasia. What kind of huge value does this have?
Talking about the battleship presented to Denmark, it was actually a St. Vincent-class battleship eliminated by Australasia.
Battleships of this level are dreadnoughts, and logically speaking, they are already behind the times.
But for a country like Denmark, such a dreadnought can still serve for a while, and it is also the strongest firepower Denmark can control.
As for the current top battleships, even if Arthur gives them to Denmark, Denmark may not be able to afford the maintenance costs of the battleships.
After all, the size of the country is there, and having a powerful battleship is not a good thing, and will also arouse the fear of the surrounding neighbors.
Of course, the technology of the St. Vincent-class battleship is also given as a gift.
It also includes some aircraft technology and finished aircraft, etc. Although these technologies also lag behind the times, they are relatively advanced technologies for Denmark.
Arthur's purpose is also very simple, to strengthen Denmark's strength as much as possible and cultivate Denmark into his staunch ally.
Of course, this is simply impossible to achieve based on one generation of in-law relationships. However, Denmark has a special geographical location and it is worth Arthur spending a lot of time on it.
If you can control Denmark and Finland, it is actually equivalent to being able to block the entire Baltic Sea. This threat and deterrence to the Nordic countries is huge.
At the same time, Denmark could also serve as Australasia's bridgehead in World War II and influence the European situation in World War II to a certain extent.
If missiles were deployed in Denmark, the battles in World War II would have been exciting.
In order to better welcome the guests at the engagement ceremony, Arthur generously dispatched Australasian Airlines directly to pick up and drop off all guests arriving in Australasia for free.
This may be a huge burden for other airlines, but for Australasia, the manufacturer of the most advanced aircraft at present, it is just extra fuel and maintenance costs, which is not worth mentioning at all.
Of course, there are exceptions, and that is guests from island countries.
I don't know whether Arthur forgot or something else, but there are no islanders in the list of guests that the airline accepts for free, and Australasian Airlines will not add them on its own initiative.
Before September arrived, Queen Mary returned from Europe with William and Anna to prepare for William's engagement ceremony.
This visit to Europe was quite fruitful and led to William's marriage with the Danish royal family.
As for Anna, who still hasn't found the one she likes, Queen Mary can only say let nature take its course.
Anyway, the Australasian royal family is very wealthy and doesn't care about the impact of Princess Anna's intermarriage.
If Princess Anna really likes it, it wouldn't be a bad idea to grant a few more titles.
I will start two updates tomorrow, and then I will be busy with the last day tomorrow.
