Rise of Australia

Chapter 254 London Games

After the meeting, Arthur summoned Minister Grant again and asked about the current work of the Propaganda Department.

For Australasia, there is another more important event that needs to be added, which is the 1908 London Olympic Games held in London, England at the end of April.

Since the birth of the Olympic Games, it has been successfully held three times.According to historical data, 1908 countries signed up for the 22 London Olympics, and more than 2000 athletes participated in the Olympics.

This means that countries around the world have gradually begun to attach importance to the Olympic Games, a stage where they can demonstrate their national power through peaceful means, and no country in the world wants to lose face on such an occasion.

It is worth mentioning that New Zealand in the original history also participated in the Olympic Games under the name of a part of Australasia.

Australasia did not participate in the last Olympic Games. After all, the scale of the Olympic Games was not too large at that time, and the sports level in Australasia was not too high at that time.

It is still necessary to participate in this London Olympics. After all, there are many countries and athletes participating in the registration. It is also good for Australasia to show up appropriately.

More importantly, Arthur wants to host the next Olympic Games in Australia.

With the next Olympic Games to be held in 1912, the development of Australasia is sure to reach another level.

At that time, the construction of the army and navy had already taken shape, and it was time to announce the existence of Australasia to the outside world.

The 1902 Games were originally scheduled to be held in Germany, but in May 1909, the chairman of the German Olympic Committee died suddenly, so Germany gave up the right to host the games and instead placed the venue in Sweden.

This is somewhat similar to the experience of the 1908 Olympic Games this year.This year's Olympic Games was originally scheduled to be held in Rome, Italy, but because of repeated earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that caused Italy's economy to suffer huge losses, Italy finally gave up the right to host it.

In order to allow the Olympic Games to be held as scheduled, the International Olympic Committee turned to the United Kingdom for help, and finally held the Olympic Games in London.

It can also be seen from such incidents that the major countries do not attach so much importance to the Olympics. To put it bluntly, countries only care about their own prestige, not the number of medals won in the Olympics.

Currently, the Olympic Games include track and field, swimming, water polo, fencing, gymnastics, rowing, cycling, football, Greco-Roman wrestling, tennis and shooting.

The purpose of Arthur summoning Minister Grant is to allow Minister Grant to quickly form an Olympic team in China, and then go to London before the Olympic Games will be held on April 4 to participate on time.

The purpose of participating in the Olympics this time is just to show face, and the number of medals won is not important.

As long as the International Olympic Committee can recognize the existence of Australasia, and rely on its relationship with Germany to successfully take over after Germany gives up the right to host in the future, then the purpose of going to London this time will be successfully achieved.

The number of participants in the London Olympics is greater than the sum of the previous three Olympics. Of course, this is also because the host, Britain, sent the largest team of more than 700 people.

You must know that in this Olympic Games, the total number of athletes participating is only in the early [-]s, and more than one-third of them are sent by the United Kingdom itself.

In the final analysis, the functional departments of Australasia are too crude, and there is no real sports department to manage these things.

Therefore, the task of participating in the Olympic Games was also assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to be precise, the propaganda department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After discussing with Minister Grant, the approximate number of people participating in the Australasian Games was finally determined, with a maximum of 50 people.

Australasia's current awareness of competitive sports is still very weak, and it is better to select elite teams to participate than to form a large participating team.

As for the specific competition items, it depends on what the recruited athletes are good at.

After giving simple instructions, Arthur encouraged Minister Grant to work in the Propaganda Department, and asked Minister Grant not to forget to continue to supervise the actions of the Propaganda Department at home and abroad while preparing for the Olympics.

As the time enters early April, the Australasian House of Representatives election has also begun to warm up across the country.

Unlike the cabinet election, the election of the House of Representatives is considered a real national election. Legal citizens who have reached the age of 18 and have lived in Australasia for more than five years have the right to vote.

Of course, the right to be elected is more stringent. In addition to these conditions, you must have lived in Australasia for an additional ten years, and you and your family have never violated any laws in Australasia.

Walking on the streets of Australasia, you can hear people of various professions discussing the House of Representatives election at any time.

The development of political parties is also becoming more and more formalized, which also means that the game between political parties in the House of Representatives is becoming more and more intense.

Because this kind of game and competition has no impact on the rule of the royal family and the government, this kind of competition using peaceful and fair means is allowed.

Anyway, there are only so many seats in the House of Representatives. If you want to get more seats and more popular support, you must defeat other political parties, at least make public speeches that are more reasonable than other parties, and can impress talents more.

According to the regulations of the election, although the election has not yet started, people who have the right to be elected can already organize public speeches by themselves.

There is only one requirement, and that is that public speeches must use party activity funds, and personal speeches must use personal or family property.

Of course, these public speeches are basically supervised by the Propaganda Department, and the dissemination of information that may endanger the government and the royal family is not allowed.

However, the vast majority of people do not have the courage. After all, the rule of the royal family is very stable, and the rule of the government whose power comes from the royal family is naturally very stable.

As an autocratic monarch, Ase naturally cannot enjoy the leisure time of European monarchs.

Although the cabinet government can handle most of the government affairs, only Arthur has the right to make decisions on some of the more important affairs, and others only have the right to make suggestions.

Especially when it comes to military power and finance, Arthur basically needs to intervene.

But there is also good news. Although the government does not have the right to make decisions, the government will generally make suggestions in advance on such news. Arthur only needs to choose to adopt or modify it.

For the government's undecided ideas, holding a cabinet meeting every once in a while can basically resolve these matters quickly.

Therefore, this is also the reason why Arthur can get a certain amount of free time when he has a lot of power and realizes autocratic rule.

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(End of this chapter)