Rise of Australia

Chapter 282 St. Vincent Class Battleship

Arthur's operation of recruiting talents lasted for four days. In addition to Alexander Fleming and his mentor Dr. Wright, Arthur also personally visited Moseley, Joseph Thomson, William Henry Bragg, Many famous physical and chemical talents such as William Lawrence Bragg and Charles Gergover Baccarat are included in the list of solicited talents, and Arthur did not personally visit, including hundreds of physicists, chemists, Writers, historians, novel authors, artists, composers, scientists, medical scientists, etc., the total number of talents on the list reached 204 people.

Despite four days of hard work by Directors Arthur and David, there are now 115 people who have agreed to go to Australasia.

And there are nearly 70 people who have been visibly shaken and still need a few days to think about it.

Among the 204 people, only about 20 people were unwilling to leave the British Empire, and Arthur had nothing to do about it. After all, every country has pure patriots.

If nothing else, Australasia was able to acquire more than 204 of the 100 talents, which is a huge addition to Australasia's high-end talents.

It is a little regrettable that Arthur was not very successful in recruiting talents in the military industry.

However, this is also understandable. After all, as time entered the second decade of the 20th century, the contradictions and competition between the two major military blocs in Europe became more and more intense, and European countries' control and emphasis on military talents became higher and higher.

Under such a premise, it is basically impossible for Arthur to attract many military talents with some funds and benefits like other talents.

On June 1910, 6, a piece of news that inspired Britain and Australasia was jointly issued by the British government and the Australasian government.

After a long period of friendly negotiations between the British government and Australasia, the two sides decided to continue to maintain the aid treaty signed at that time, and on the basis of the treaty signed ten years ago, some clauses were strengthened and many additions were made. new aid.

In terms of aid, the British government has agreed to give higher aid to the Australasian government. According to current preliminary estimates, the annual aid amount will not exceed 1000 million pounds, but at least more than 700 million pounds.

The direction of assistance includes military industry, industry, machinery and various other industries. Arthur is very interested in French submarine technology, which has also been written in the aid treaty.

Of course, Australasia will not get so many benefits in vain.Britain and Australasia signed a peace treaty, and the ports of Australasia's Australian Timor and New Zealand regions were opened to the British Empire, and perhaps the fleet and merchant ships of the British Empire docked as a transit port and supply base for the British Empire .

Arthur has no problem with this. After all, with the good relationship between Australasia and the United Kingdom, British merchant ships and warships want to dock at these ports, and Arthur has no reason to refuse.

After all, the ports where these merchant ships call can also drive consumption in local port cities, and Arthur is not worried about the safety of these ports after opening to the UK.

On the premise that Australasia and the United Kingdom are not completely on the opposite side, there is no reason for the United Kingdom to take the lead in taking the lead against Australasia.

Australasia also entered into a further trade treaty with Great Britain.Australasia will officially become the UK's main importer of grain and meat.

Arthur also doesn't have to worry that the large increase in grain and meat production in Australasia will go unsalable. With the British Empire behind him, coupled with the consumption of future wars, this has formed a double-layer guarantee.

Of course, this trade treaty does not only include Australasia’s grain and meat exports to the UK, but actually includes all kinds of medical supplies, machinery and equipment, relatively advanced systems and various talents from the UK to Australasia. Output.

If it is said that during the reign of Edward VII, the British government turned a blind eye to Australasia's act of attracting talents, and neither supported nor opposed it, then during the next reign of George V , at least before the First World War, the British government expressed support for Australasia's behavior of attracting talents.

This is of great help to Australasia in attracting talents from the UK, and the number of British immigrants should also usher in a short-term increase.

King George V of England and Arthur are of the same generation, and George V is Arthur's cousin.

But George V, like William II, is currently 45 years old, a full round older than Arthur.

This also led to the fact that George V and Arthur did not have many topics, but this did not prevent George V and Arthur from pretending to be very close brothers outside, even closer than real brothers.

For Arthur, it is indeed necessary to have a good relationship with the United Kingdom at present. After all, it seems that the Allies have the greatest chance of winning.

You must know that in history, the Allied Powers still achieved victory even though Russia withdrew halfway.

Although the current Russia still has hidden dangers in the country, it is in a much better situation than Russia in history.

Russia still holds most of the interests of the Far East and is the absolute hegemon of the Far East.And the island country that should have stepped on Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, because it only gained the interests of the Korean Peninsula at that time, the development of the country seemed to have stagnated, and it has now become the weakest power in the world.

The island country has seven battleships so far, but all of them are old-fashioned battleships, and their combat effectiveness is not that strong.

Although the island country has a dreadnought construction plan, even the dreadnought construction plan was already formulated in 1907.

However, in order to reach a cooperation with Russia, the United Kingdom promised to suspend aid to the island countries during the validity period of the Anglo-Russian agreement.

Without the help of Britain, can the island nation independently manufacture dreadnoughts?the answer is negative.

The earliest dreadnought ship Hanoi-class battleship in the island country in history, even with the help of the United Kingdom, it was not officially completed until the end of March in 1912.

The second dreadnought was waited until the beginning of July in 1912. Among all the powers, except France, the island nation was the latest in the construction of the dreadnought.

But now, the island country does not have British assistance, and the plan to build a dreadnought ship has naturally been delayed for a long time.

Arthur has always been concerned about the island country. If the intelligence of the Royal Security Intelligence Service is correct, the construction of the dreadnought ship in the island country seems to be in trouble. Not to mention, as in history, they were built one after another in 1912 and can be seen in 1913. Their dreadnoughts are already pretty good.

But this doesn't matter to Arthur, after all, island countries are also potential enemies of Australasia.

The island nation's slow progress in dreadnought ships may not be a bad thing for Australasia.

After establishing a good relationship with the United Kingdom, Australasia has a good relationship foundation with the main countries of the Allies and the Entente.

This will be helpful for Australasia to join the World War I in the future, at least it can calmly choose the side with advantages to join.

However, Arthur did not intend to directly enter the European war until the European countries did not suffer heavy losses.

But the damage to European countries should not be too serious, otherwise the rise of the United States will become inevitable.

At least let European countries still have the ability to wrestle with the United States after the two wars, so that it will not be like in history. After the two world wars, facing the liberal nationalism exported by the United States and the Soviet Union, all European countries The big powers can only let the major colonies become independent because they are powerless.

The collapse of the colonial system was a serious loss for the old European powers, and it was not necessarily a good thing for Arthur.

After all, Australasia also has a large number of aborigines. Although these aborigines are not recognized now, their role is only free and cheap labor.

But when the colonial system collapses in the future, it is impossible to massacre all these aborigines in Australasia.

If these aborigines still exist after World War II, it is very likely that they will look for opportunities for independence under the influence of the United States.

This is also a headache for Australasia. After World War II, public opinion is not so easy to control if you want to massacre colonial aborigines unscrupulously.

At the invitation of George V, Arthur visited the Royal Fleet stationed off the coast of London, and personally boarded the first dreadnought, the battleship Dreadnought.

The three dreadnoughts in Australasia have also conducted joint training with the Royal Navy for several days. Judging from the combat effectiveness displayed, the combat capabilities of the Sovereign-class battleship and the Dreadnought should not be much different.

George V was also very interested in the battleships independently developed and manufactured in Australasia.

In fact, George V's prince career was called the Sailor Prince.

This is because George V, as a naval cadet, was sent to receive navigation education on the battleship Britannica.

During his service, George toured the British colonies in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and even traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, USA, South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt and East Asia.

At that time, because George V's elder brother, Prince Albert, was still alive, Prince Albert was the second heir to the throne and needed to prepare for the succession to the throne.

The order of George V's succession to the throne came after his father Edward VII and his brother Prince Albert, so his choice was to be a career officer in the navy.

George V's career as a naval officer has experienced the captain of a torpedo boat, the captain of a naval squadron, etc., but because of a severe typhoid, his naval career came to an end.

However, this does not hinder Prince George's love for the navy and warships, and his title of Prince of the Sailors is also named after this.

It is worth mentioning that during his naval service, George V has been under the command of his uncle, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.

During this time, George V fell in love with Princess Mary, the daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh.Immediately afterwards, George fell in love with a princess of the Kingdom of Fortenberg, also named Mary.

It is a pity that George V's eldest brother, Prince Albert, was engaged to Princess Mary, which also broke the relationship between the two brothers who had a very good relationship.

It is worth mentioning that, six weeks after Prince Albert and Princess Mary announced their engagement, Prince Albert died unexpectedly of pneumonia.

Prince Albert's fiancée, Princess Mary, also became engaged to George V at the behest of Queen Victoria, and became Queen Mary of George V.

George V finally got his beloved woman, although the process was a bit bloody and bumpy.

Arthur saw that George V was very interested in the Sovereign-class battleship, and invited George V to visit the battleship HMS Australasia.

This move also won the favor of George V. At least in the past few days when Arthur was in the British Empire, George V has always been very affectionate to Arthur.

Arthur also took the opportunity to put forward his own request, hoping to reach a deeper cooperation with the British Empire in warships.

Specifically, Arthur is willing to exchange the design drawings and materials of the Sovereign-class battleship from the British Empire for the construction drawings of the St. Vincent-class battleship currently under construction in the UK to strengthen the warship design of Australasia.

Arthur's request made George V a little embarrassed.

The St. Vincent-class battleship is an improved model of the Bellerophon-class battleship, and its combat effectiveness has been improved compared to the Dreadnought and Bellerophon-class battleships.

In terms of artillery, the St. Vincent-class battleship is equipped with a 305mm 50-caliber twin gun, while the first two dreadnoughts have a 305mm 45-caliber gun.

This improvement has greatly increased the firepower output of the St. Vincent-class battleship.Coupled with a slight improvement in armor and an increase in horsepower, the speed of the St. Vincent-class battleship has been able to steadily maintain at around 21 knots.

It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most advanced dreadnought ship currently under construction, and it is also the main battleship of the British Empire's 1910 construction plan.

But the problem is that St. Vincent is not the most advanced battleship that the British Empire has designed so far.

After the St. Vincent-class battleship, the British Empire has designed the Neptune-class battleship and the Mammoth-class battleship, but the construction will not be until 1911.

This aspect can also reflect the current strength of the British Empire's warships.When Germany was still stuck at the 283mm main gun, the technology of the British 305mm main gun had broken through 50 times the diameter, and several levels of dreadnoughts had been developed.

The importance of the St. Vincent-class battleship is self-evident, but it is not so important that it is absolutely strategically confidential.

At least for George V, it is acceptable to exchange warship blueprints with Australasia. This will quickly allow George V to gain the reputation of loving his cousin and emphasizing feelings, which is very beneficial for him to stabilize his rule .

After all, Arthur is the favorite of the British people now, and it is absolutely right to have a good relationship with Arthur.

Besides, Australasia is not giving nothing.There are many German technologies in the Sovereign-class battleships, which is also helpful for Britain to figure out German technology.

Although George V had already agreed to the conclusion of the deal in his heart, he did not directly agree, but said that he would try his best to discuss it with the cabinet government.

Arthur nodded, understanding.After all, George V has not officially ascended the throne yet, and even if he does, he will not have too much power to speak in the cabinet in a short time.

Such a matter has to be decided by the British cabinet government, but George V does not object, which is considered good news.

After the discussion, Arthur ordered Director David to have someone visit some officials of the British cabinet government late at night.

Some officials had a good relationship with the old Duke Arthur before. Presumably, under Arthur's manipulation, a few should stand up to support Arthur.

As long as a quarter of the cabinet government directly supports him, Arthur is confident that the deal will be done.

　Just 4000 or [-] words today, brothers, please take a leave of absence (something more important)
　　Continue tomorrow!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)