Rise of Australia

Chapter 354 Receiving the Solomon Islands
According to the agreement between Australasia and the Allied Powers, when the number of Australasia's standing army reached 40, it was the time when Britain and France began to transfer their Pacific colonies to Australasia.

You should know that although the colonies in the Pacific Ocean only have a number of archipelagos and islands, the total area is not too large.

But this does not mean that transferring colonies is an easy process.Even if the distance between Australasia and the colony is relatively close, it will take at least half a year to fully receive it.

This also involves the admission and repatriation of the colonial population, the reconstruction of colonial order and government, the takeover of the colony's garrison, and so on.

More importantly, this area involves a small half of the Pacific Ocean, which also means that the Australasian navy must patrol this area to ensure the safety of the seas of these colonies.

But the good news is that Australasia currently has no opponents in this area, and it is backed by the Allied Powers, so it is not worried that the security of these colonies will be threatened.

Of course, if you want to count, the current United States may be a danger.

Because of the current South American war, the forces behind Argentina and Chile are actually competing in secret.

However, the United States should not have the guts to participate directly. Under the premise that the allies do not help the United States, the current comprehensive military strength of the United States is far inferior to that of Britain and France.

However, for safety reasons, Australasia will take the lead in receiving islands that are relatively close to the mainland, such as the British Solomon Islands protectorate that is very close to Australian New Guinea.

The land area of ​​the entire Solomon Islands is about 2.84 square kilometers, with a total population of nearly 22.

But the current Solomon Islands is divided and ruled by Britain and Germany. Germany occupies the two northern islands, and Britain occupies the entire Solomon Islands except these two islands.

After a note with the British ambassador to Australia, on September 1913, 9, the colony transfer officially began.

The population of the British Solomon Islands protectorate is about 15, of which less than 2 are British and European immigrants, and the rest are local aborigines.

What needs to be resolved is the question of whether the 2 people will stay or not.For the remaining indigenous population of nearly 13, the problem is easy.

Or, pay your own life for the future construction of the Solomon Islands.Or, be repatriated to Southeast Asia or other regions.

There is also a more difficult issue, that is, the resettlement of the Solomon Islands, or the political division level of the Solomon Islands.

At present, there are generally two ideas and methods. One is to separate the Solomon Islands and create a colony of the Solomon Islands.

The other is that because the Solomon Islands and New Guinea are relatively close, some officials proposed to incorporate the Solomon Islands into the Australian New Guinea colony without establishing another administrative division.

The impact of these two proposals on Arthur is actually not that great.

After all, the governor of the colony was appointed by Arthur himself, which also meant that the governor of the colony would be more loyal to Arthur than the elected governor.

Whether the Solomon Islands is incorporated into Australian New Guinea or treated as an independent colony, it is within the scope of the colony, so the difference is not too big.

After comprehensive consideration, Arthur, at the suggestion of Prime Minister Kent, decided to use the Solomon Islands as a separate colony, named the Solomon Islands Colony.

After all, the Solomon Islands are hundreds of kilometers away from Australian New Guinea, so it is not convenient to manage them uniformly.

More state-level administrative units are also beneficial for Arthur to reward his subordinates.At the same time, these colonial governors are equivalent to Arthur's loyal supporters, and they can also support Arthur's status to a certain extent.

On September 9, a 2-strong colonial garrison accompanied the first Colonial Governor of the Solomon Islands, Mark McOsland, to the Solomon Islands, which also represented Australasia's takeover of the Solomon Islands. In the Pacific Ocean, expand your sphere of influence again.

Before Mark McOslander left, Arthur specially met with him and tested Mark McOslander's ability.

What the Solomon Islands has to do now is to retain the population of the colony as much as possible and ensure the development of the colony.

The second is to stabilize the order of the colonies as soon as possible, so as not to cause possible chaos in the Solomon Islands.

The third is to establish a complete defense system in the Solomon Islands as much as possible. Coastal defense is also very important. After all, this is the actual northeastern border of Australasia.

Of course, these tasks are not difficult to actually accomplish.At least according to Mark McOslander's ability, it is not difficult to accomplish these.

After all, there are more than [-] indigenous people in the Solomon Islands that can be used. This is a labor resource that can be consumed at will, and can lay a solid foundation for various constructions in the Solomon Islands.

Taking advantage of this opportunity in the Solomon Islands, Arthur also revised the defense of all colonies.

The Solomon Islands and Australian Timor each stationed about 1000 troops.

Australian New Guinea and the Royal Territory have a garrison of 3000 troops.

These garrisons are separate armies and are directly under the Ministry of Defense.The colony has the right to apply for transfer, but the salaries, weapons and equipment of the garrison are all provided by the Ministry of Defense.

Doing so can weaken the power of the colonial governor and minimize the possibility of the colonial governor's mercenary self-reliance.

However, the colonial governor still has the power to mobilize these garrisons.After all, certain policies concerning the security of the colony also require the cooperation of these garrisons.

After such a mobilization, the troops stationed in the northern colonies and royal territories were greatly reduced, and there were only 8000 troops at full strength.

However, with the cooperation of the Australasian Navy, the security of these colonies can still be guaranteed.

As for the 15 colonial divisions currently owned by Australasia, they were mobilized by Arthur to the mainland of Australasia for unified and standardized training.

Before the First World War started, they also had to undergo a period of training to ensure that they had certain combat capabilities.

Of course, what is more important is to cultivate the loyalty of these indigenous soldiers.At least there will be no chaos and no defection during the war, which is also the most basic requirement.

But thinking about it, it probably won't.After all, these troops will arrive in the European battlefield in the future.Who can they defect to?Defect to Germany?

You must know that racism in Europe is much more serious than in Australasia. They may not escape the danger of their lives if they flee the battlefield.

It's better to fight for Australasia. After winning, they will also get the reward promised by Arthur.

Yes, in order to arouse the motivation of these soldiers and ensure that there will be no chaos in these aboriginal armies, Arthur promised that as long as these aboriginal soldiers have served in Australasia for ten years, they will be rewarded with a sum of money, and with him Together with his family, he was sent to live in Southeast Asia.

This is the first time Arthur has publicly promised to send the aborigines to Southeast Asia safely since he took control of the whole of Australasia.

This also gave hope to some aborigines who thought they would die in Australasia with a tragic fate, even if it was just for their own families, they had to cling to this life-saving straw.

In order to make these indigenous soldiers believe in their own words, and to cultivate the combat effectiveness of these indigenous soldiers, to ensure their loyalty.

With a big wave of his hand, Arthur also provided meat to these native soldiers, but it was only once every two days.

But this is much better than the lives of these aborigines before.On the basis of daily obedience training, they can get enough food. A meal of beef, mutton and fruit every two days, even if it is just a tomato or apple, is enough to make these natives excited.

In addition, these colonial divisions all have instructors set up by Arthur, who are actually officials in charge of brainwashing.

Therefore, since the training of these 15 colonial divisions began, there has not been too much chaos, and the training is proceeding in an orderly manner.

In fact, this is also very normal. After all, after these aborigines join the army, the treatment of them and their families will be much better.

One of the many benefits of indigenous soldiers is that their families can be exempted from forced labor and become regular laborers under the government or colonial government, and their work will also be paid.

This also means that after these aborigines join the army, the safety and life of their families are guaranteed.

At the same time, more generous rewards and guarantees will be given to some natives who have been promoted to serve as squad leaders and officers. With these natives conducting internal supervision, the control of the entire colonial division can be more secure.

The most critical one to ensure that the colonial division had a certain degree of loyalty, Arthur established a rule among the native soldiers, which Arthur simply called the whistleblowing rule.

As long as you can expose the disloyalty of your comrades and officers, once verified, you can get rich rewards.

The reward includes a certain amount of money, as well as freedom for the whistleblower and his family.

This also means that if the exposure is successful, it is very likely that I and my family will be free directly.

Even if money is not moved by others, Arthur believes that there is no native who would not yearn for freedom.The promulgation of this disclosure rule, even if the aborigines do not have the courage to expose their comrades-in-arms and officers, will make some aborigines with ulterior motives jealous and create a rift between the aborigines and the aborigines.

At the same time, within a colonial division, there will not be too many native soldiers from one area.

This kind of rule is even deepened to the class unit. In the same combat squad, there will basically not be more than two natives from the same area.

This also means that these aboriginal soldiers are relatively unfamiliar with their comrades-in-arms, which also increases the possibility of aboriginal soldiers exposing their comrades-in-arms, and increases the distrust and suspicion between aboriginals and aboriginals.

The best way to manage these natives is to divide the natives from the natives and use the natives to manage the natives.

Under various policies, even if the loyalty of the colonial division is not too high, it can barely be used for combat.

Anyway, after these colonies were sent to Europe, their life and death was not important to Arthur.

Of course, Arthur will do what he says.After the end of World War I, most of the aborigines would be repatriated by Arthur, even those who did not join the army.

All Aboriginal soldiers were uniformly equipped with Lee Enfield rifles, which also consumed part of the rifle stocks of the Royal Military Factory.

But the good news is that the British Empire supported part of the funds for this batch of equipment, and the Australasian Ministry of Defense did not contribute too much.

In addition to rifles, the colonial division is equipped with very few heavy weapons.Each colonial division is only equipped with a few machine guns and more than a dozen artillery pieces, and the heavy firepower weapons are just for show.

Compared with the luxuriously equipped regular troops and guard divisions, the equipment of the colonial division is a bit shabby.

But after all, it was a unit that Arthur used as cannon fodder, and it was quite good to be able to equip some machine guns and artillery.

In terms of training, the colonial division also has a relatively large gap with the conventional troops.

The most important training for the colonial division is discipline and discipline training, and simple English training.

This is to facilitate these soldiers to better communicate with Europeans after they go to Europe, and it also allows these soldiers to better obey the command of the Australasian officer.

As for target training, although the colonial division also has it, it is not as frequent as the regular army.

Generally speaking, these indigenous soldiers can conduct target training every five days, and each target training consumes about ten rounds of bullets per person, with an average of two bullets per day per person.

This also means that 30 indigenous soldiers consume as many as 60 bullets per day, which is also a test for the production capacity of the Royal Military Factory.

However, such consumption is also effective.At least these indigenous soldiers have improved their marksmanship a lot since joining the army.

Of course, the Ministry of National Defense did not count on how good the marksmanship of these indigenous soldiers was. It can be seen from the target shooting training every five days that the requirement of the Ministry of National Defense is actually to allow these indigenous soldiers to master the use of firearms proficiently, so as to avoid getting lost. The battlefield doesn't even know how to fire a gun.

Anyway, when it came to the European battlefield, the consumption of these indigenous soldiers was basically provided by the British Empire.

As for whether these native soldiers will waste a lot of bullets, it depends on whether the logistics capabilities of the British Empire are strong or not, and whether the production of military factories is fast.

While the Colonial Division was undergoing heavy training, the Australasian Regular Corps, two Guards Divisions and three Regular Divisions, did not cease training either.

This has also led to the fact that the current Australasia is only a very large number of soldiers' daily training consumption.

At present, ordinary soldiers use up to 160 rounds of bullets per target training, which also means that the total number of bullets consumed by all ordinary soldiers per target training is as high as [-] million rounds.

This does not include the training consumption of the colonial division, otherwise the number would be even higher.

Of course, regular troops do not conduct target training every day, after all, there are many other trainings.But in theory, soldiers in the regular army conduct target shooting training at least three times a week.

In this way, all Australasian armies consume nearly [-] million rounds of bullets every year.

If Arthur hadn't ordered the Royal Military Factory to expand wildly and increase the production speed of weapons and equipment early in order to cope with the future world war, I am afraid that the consumption in Australasia alone would be enough to cause headaches for the Royal Military Factory.

The current Royal Arms Factory is one of the largest enterprises in Australasia.

The Royal Military Factory has a total of 1.7 employees, a main factory and two branch factories.

Adding up the production capacity of the three factories, the Royal Army Factory can produce 500 Lee Enfield rifles, 98 Gew200 rifles, 90 artillery pieces of various types, 30 heavy machine guns, 110 submachine guns, and 400 grenades per day.

In terms of ammunition, the Royal Military Factory can produce 50 rounds of rifle bullets, 15 rounds of machine gun bullets, and 8700 rounds of artillery shells per day.

If we can concentrate on the production of certain weapons or ammunition, then the output value of such weapons and ammunition should be doubled, but the disadvantage is that the output value of other weapons and ammunition will decrease.

However, the good news is that the production capacity of the Royal Military Factory is still increasing, and it will increase almost every few months.

Moreover, in addition to the Royal Arms Factory, all kinds of civilian arms factories in Australasia, including those invested by the government and royal consortia, can also produce 100 rifles per day and more than [-] rounds of various ammunition per day. .

A sufficiently developed military industry is the confidence for Australasia to dare to participate in the First World War, and it is also the confidence of Arthur to gain sufficient benefits in the First World War.

You must know that during World War I, countries around the world were very short of weapons, ammunition and supplies.

During the war, the problems caused by the lack of weapons and ammunition also made these countries miserable.

In particular, Australasia's current ally, Russia, is one of the hardest-hit countries lacking weapons, ammunition and other supplies.

仅在1915年，俄国便向盟国和各中立国订购了300万支步枪、20亿发子弹和1200万发炮弹，不过这些军火实际仅到货8-15％。

This also means that the arms market of World War I is infinite. Whether you can eat this cake depends not only on the strength of the country, but also on the degree of development of the military industry.

With Arthur's preparations, the Royal Arms Factory and the Australasian military industry, it was not difficult to obtain enough weapons orders in World War I.

For this reason, under Arthur's urging, the Royal Military Factory has begun to frantically stockpile weapons and equipment, including various weapons and ammunition.

According to Arthur's understanding, the Royal Military Factory currently has more than 50 rifles of various types in stock, 2.5 million rounds of ammunition, 1200 machine guns, 750 artillery pieces, 6700 million rounds of machine gun bullets, 110 million rounds of artillery shells, 20.9 grenades, etc. Weapons and equipment, and it is still growing.

If it weren't for the fear of harming the normal development of Australasia, Arthur would even plan to frantically expand the Royal Arms Factory and other military factories, and madly lay down production lines for various weapons and ammunition.

At least in World War I, weapons and ammunition were not worrying about selling.How much weapons and ammunition can be produced means how much money and interests you have.

As a member of the Allied Powers, Australasia can sell weapons and ammunition to Britain, France and Russia. Why not do it if you can gain the favor of the three countries.

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(End of this chapter)