Rise of Australia

Chapter 481 Land Exchange and the Royal Oil Company

Arthur is in a very good mood, because the tests of the two giant-class aircraft carriers were very successful, and Australasia can be said to be the first country to master an aircraft carrier in the true sense.

Of course, the progress of the British will never be too slow, and Arthur's investment in the navy will never be reduced, let alone be fooled by the results achieved so far.

After encouraging and rewarding all those who participated in the test, Arthur returned to the palace in a good mood, preparing to hold a cabinet meeting to determine the tasks of the Australasian government in the new year.

To be honest, there were definitely many tasks in Australasia in 1919.In addition to the basic tasks of all aspects of national construction, the relocation plan of the new capital, the fourth phase of the Leonora Industrial Base, etc. are also major projects that require a lot of money and energy.

At the cabinet meeting, Arthur also specifically emphasized the importance of project quality and demanded that the government must strictly control the quality of all projects. If problems arise, everyone in the cabinet government must be held accountable.

In addition to these constructions, elections for a new cabinet government will also be held in 1919.

This has also made Australasia's political arena very busy since the arrival of 1919. After all, every time the cabinet government changes, a large number of politicians are busy for it, just to compete for the dream of the highest stage of power.

In February 1919, Arthur ushered in another piece of good news, that is, the British government basically agreed to swap between Kuwait and the truce states, and Australasia could obtain the extensive land along the Persian Gulf from the Persian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates .

After this land exchange is completed, it is time to officially develop the oil resources along the Persian Gulf.

The British will never give up their interests when the news of the massive oil exploitation along the coast of the Persian Gulf is communicated, and the coast of the Persian Gulf is destined to be controlled by Britain and Australasia.

You know, with the advent of airplanes and tanks, and the increasing popularity of cars in the world, the price of oil has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to more than ten years ago.

Gasoline and diesel oil made from petroleum are the main fuels for engines at present, and various petroleum products are also filled in all aspects of the world.

Another advantage of jointly controlling the coast of the Persian Gulf with the British is that with the influence of the United Kingdom and Australasia, they can completely control international oil prices.

The coast of the Persian Gulf has nearly [-]% of the world's oil reserves, and its influence on world oil prices is irreplaceable.

As a result, it is not known whether the various nations and countries in the Middle East can achieve independence as smoothly as in history.

After all, oil is definitely the most important energy source in the world within 100 years, not one of them.

The Middle East, which has large oil reserves, is destined to be a hot spot for various countries to compete for, and it will never be separated from the disputes over the world situation.

Even if these countries can achieve independence, they will be influenced by, or even directly controlled by, more powerful countries.

After all, everyone knows that a man is not guilty, but he who possesses a jade is guilty. In this world where the weak and the strong prey on the weak, weak countries will be worried about their own resources.

After the land change, the Middle East colony was still named the Australian Persian Gulf Territory, which was land directly controlled by the Australasian royal family.

In order to successfully exploit the oil along the coast of the Persian Gulf, Arthur decided to invest 500 million Australian dollars, 550 million Australian dollars from the coalition government and oil equipment to establish the Australasian Royal Petroleum Company. The royal family and the government accounted for [-]% and [-]% of the shares respectively. .

The large and small oil companies originally owned by Australasia have also been merged into the Royal Petroleum Company. The Royal Petroleum Company will also become a symbol of Australasia in the oil industry. It is definitely a company that started out as a Fortune 500 company.

Even relying only on the oil from the coast of the Persian Gulf, it is destined that the potential of the Royal Petroleum Company can even reach the top 50 in the world.

The news of the exchange between Kuwait and the UAE is definitely not big news in the UK and Australasia.

After all, these two regions are located in the Middle East, the land area is not large, and the development potential is not too high, so they have not attracted much attention in the two countries.

Even the news clarified by the Americans is more popular than these two pieces of news, but not many people believe the clarifications made by the Americans.

For the Wilson administration, it is currently the most important task to get rid of the responsibility of the US government and separate the pandemic from the US.

As long as the United States is still tied to the pandemic, the United States will never be able to take the initiative to expand outward, which will be more constrained in diplomacy.

Among other things, if President Wilson continues to put forward his own theory of establishing a new order, European countries will definitely take a sip and laugh at the Americans as wishful thinking.

Under the actions of the US government, various news about the flu began to spread frequently, and the responsibility for the flu was likely to be transferred to those financial groups and accidents.

However, the credibility of the U.S. government, which has experienced various incidents, is not too high. It seems that only some ignorant American people believe the surprise theory and consortium threat theory promoted by the U.S. government.

Sophistry is sophistry, and the attitude of the Americans towards reparations is still very positive.After all, Americans also know that post-war Europe is indeed short of money.

No matter how much the Americans are responsible for the flu, the Europeans are determined to blackmail the United States.

Americans can only bear such a big loss alone. After all, public opinion in the whole world is now biased towards Europe, and no one believes the explanation of the United States.

But Americans' response is definitely not limited to using the media to explain.According to the data investigated by the British intelligence agency, the Americans are already nervously building large and small warships to expand their naval strength.

After all, relying on the unique geographical advantages of the United States, it can defend the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and the US territory will hardly be threatened by any threats.

There are also neighboring countries such as Canada and Mexico in the north and south of the United States, but whether it is Mexico or Canada, they are not a big threat to the United States now, and naturally they will not be taken seriously by the US government.

It is precisely because of the crazy expansion of warships by the Americans secretly that the British are more alert to the Americans.

Among all the great powers in the world today, only France in Europe and the United States in America can truly influence the dominance of the British Empire.

The French are actually quite restrictive. After all, the strength of the Germans has not been weakened too much, and it is no problem to barely confront France.

But Americans are different.The geography of the American means that his homeland is hardly threatened.

Especially after the rise of the U.S. Navy, the U.S. no longer has to worry about the threat from Canada, and is the biggest competitor of the British Empire to maintain its world hegemony.

The French still need a period of recuperation after the war, but the Americans hardly need it.

The Americans were not affected by the war, and they also made a small profit in the war by using the arms trade after participating in the war in the later period.

This is why the British were on guard against the United States, and even when Australasia held the United States accountable for the flu, they immediately decided to step on the foot with France.

Unlike European countries like Germany and France, countries like the United States have almost no natural enemies on their own soil and can only rely on united Australasia for restrictions.

In order to limit the crazy expansion of the American navy, the United Kingdom put forward a proposal to limit the size of the navies of various countries at the meeting of the World Alliance, but the response was not too high.

First of all, the French do not agree with limiting the size of the navies of various countries. After all, after France received indemnities from Germany, it did have the idea of ​​​​competing with the United Kingdom.

At least now France has regained its status as the hegemon in Europe. On the European continent, France is the most powerful country.

Although other countries have no intention of directly competing with the United Kingdom, no one wants to put an extra layer of shackles on their naval development for no reason.

In addition to the mediocre response from various countries, there is another important reason, that is, the United States is not in the world alliance.

As long as the United States does not sign the treaty, he can completely dissociate from the treaty and expand the size of the navy frantically.

Therefore, the British gave up their plan to sign a naval limitation treaty, at least for a short time.

Unless all major powers and countries capable of building battleships can sign a naval limitation treaty, it will be unfair to the countries that signed the treaty.

Arthur maintained a wait-and-see attitude towards the British proposal. After all, Australasia did not need to expand its navy in a short period of time, and he was happy to see other countries build a large number of super dreadnoughts. It will be a step slower.

Of course, Arthur is still very envious of the speed at which industrial powers such as Britain, France, and the United States build warships.

But even if it has enough funds, Australasia is completely inferior to industrial powers such as Britain, France and the United States in the warship race.

Improving the strength of Australasian naval construction, building new shipyards and expanding existing shipyards is also the next step.

At present, the naval shipyards in Australasia are dominated by Sydney Shipyard, Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard.

These three shipyards have undertaken almost all the construction of warships in Australasia. Among them, the Royal Sydney Dockyard is the largest and can build more types of warships.

Although Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard can build tens of thousands of tons of warships, it is still somewhat difficult to build super dreadnoughts of nearly 2 tons.

Improving the speed and level of warship construction in Australasia is necessary for the expansion of these three major shipyards.

At a cabinet meeting, Arthur formally proposed the expansion of the shipyard.After a study by the cabinet government, it was decided to invest 1000 million Australian dollars to help the three major shipyards expand.

Among them, the expansion of the three docks of the Royal Sydney Dockyard.The three existing docks can build warships with a maximum of more than 2.5 tons, but the next warships will continue to expand, and 2.5 tons is obviously not enough.If you want to catch up with the naval powers such as Britain, France and the United States, you must at least expand the maximum construction tonnage of the three docks of the Sydney Royal Dockyard to more than 3.5 tons, and even better to reach 4 tons. construction capacity.

At the same time, the Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard will be expanded to ensure that these two shipyards also have the strength to build large warships exceeding 2.5 tons.

When the expansion of these three major shipyards is completed, Australasia will be able to start construction of at least five super battleships or five aircraft carriers at the same time, and the construction speed will be able to catch up with industrial powers such as Britain, France and the United States.

The expansion of the three major shipyards will take about two to three years to complete, and will basically not affect the construction of existing warships.

This expansion time is still enough for Arthur, and it will not affect the future naval expansion plan of Australasia.

In addition to the expansion of the shipyard, the construction of railways and roads in the mainland and colonies of Australasia is also the top priority of the transportation department's plan for the new year.

Among other things, the newly occupied territories need to deploy all railways and roads, so as to effectively improve Australasia's control over these areas.

Areas that focus on railway construction include the Persian Gulf Territory, New Guinea Island, Sulawesi Island, etc. Australia and New Zealand also need to further improve railway deployment.

In addition, road construction is also very important.The construction of railways is destined not to be popularized in every village and town, especially the colonies.

In this way, the construction of roads is particularly important, which is the case when the penetration rate of various agricultural machinery and automobiles in Australasia is quite high.

The ring-island railway and highway in New Guinea, as well as the roads and railways built in the Persian Gulf territories for oil development and transportation, will be the most important work of the transportation department in the next year.

With the research on aircraft in various countries, the popularization of passenger aircraft will soon be realized.

Australasia actually already has passenger aircraft, but there is no definite result on whether it will be put into commercial use.

At present, the maximum number of passengers on the plane is only about 12 people, not including the two pilots, and it can only carry 10 passengers.

Although the speed of the plane is faster than that of the airship, the cost of the plane is also higher than that of the airship.

At present, most of the passenger planes in Australasia are for private use. Arthur took it twice during his inspection, and at other times, important government officials occasionally took it.

But it has to be said that the stability of the aircraft is indeed higher than that of the airship.According to relevant tests conducted by Royal Australasian Airlines on airships and aircraft, the probability of an accident on an airship is about 9 in [-], and the probability of an accident in an aircraft is about [-] in [-], which is as high as [-] times. gap.

Although the probabilities of [-]/[-] and [-]/[-] seem to be very low, compared with the data in later generations where the probability of aviation accidents is less than [-]/million, aircraft and airships in this era are still relatively dangerous.

This is why Arthur tried to avoid traveling by plane and airship.If there is really an emergency, the country will also arrange a plane instead of taking an airship.

After all, the probability of one in [-] is still very low, so low that there have been no accidents in the current official flights of passenger planes in Australasia.

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(End of this chapter)