Rise of Australia

Chapter 951 Declaration of the United Nations

It was quite easy to win over Turing. At least he accepted the position appointed by Arthur and joined the work in the computing laboratory.

Arthur also did not expect the newly established computing laboratory to yield any results in a short period of time.

For computer technology, it will take at least several decades before real results are achieved.

Of course, it is also necessary to make arrangements now. Otherwise, Arthur is not sure whether Australasia can gain an advantage in the future computer and network competition without any preparation.

Winning over Turing was only the first step in Arthur's deployment in computer technology.

Next, Australasia will absorb as much talent as possible in mathematics and logic to prepare for the birth of computers.

Speaking of which, as one of the leaders in British code-breaking in history, Turing must have had an impact on Britain's code-breaking of German code after coming to Australasia.

Although this was not Arthur's main purpose, it would definitely be a good thing if it could make the British suffer more losses.

By the time Turing joined the computing laboratory, the London Conference on the division of the world's interests had not yet concluded.

It will take at least some time for this major meeting to have a clear result.

Arthur was not interested in listening to the bickering between the British and the French. For Arthur, he only cared about the final outcome of the negotiations and whether Australasia's interests would be damaged.

However, considering the current importance of Australasia to this war, no matter how reluctant Britain and France are, they are unlikely to tamper with the distribution of the spoils of war.

On November 1937, 11, following discussions among various countries, the first consensus agreement was signed, which was the famous "Declaration of the United Nations" in history.

This "Declaration of the United Nations" has nothing to do with the division of interests. Its main purpose is to determine the signatory countries' combat attitude towards the Allied Powers led by Germany.

The Declaration of the United Nations stipulates that all contracting states must invest all human, material and financial resources in this war and may not sign an armistice agreement with the warring countries alone.

This undoubtedly cut off all of Germany's retreat routes. For Germany, they only had two choices, that is, to defeat all enemies or to be defeated by all enemies.

It's funny to say that this meeting has been going on for five days, and the only outcome that was finally confirmed is the "Declaration of the United Nations". There are still major problems with the distribution of interests among countries.

Arthur didn't have the patience to wait for the results of the meeting. On November 1937, 11, Arthur took a special car to Sydney to attend the official opening ceremony of the Sydney Metro Circle Line.

Speaking of Sydney's subway, it has a history of 11 years.

Sydney has currently built the north-south Line 1, the east-west Line 2 and the Ring Line, with a total subway length of over 75 kilometers.

Among them, Line 2 is the shortest, only about 12 kilometers, and the Ring Line is the longest, about 44 kilometers.

Subways are not unfamiliar to later generations and are of great help to urban development.

Take the world's earliest subway, the London Metropolitan Underground, for example. When the entire line was opened to traffic in 1863, it set a record of carrying 950 million passengers that year, which also made the British realize the importance of the subway.

This also makes us sigh at Europe's leading position in technology. Even in later generations, more than half of the people have never taken the subway, but in 1863, 160 years ago, the citizens of London were able to experience the subway as a means of transportation.

Although the earliest subways were no different from ordinary trains, building a sufficiently safe railway line underground is definitely not an easy task.

The good news is that because countries such as the United Kingdom have accumulated sufficient experience in building subways, the construction of subways in Australasia has become much easier.

Of course, the experience accumulated bit by bit by human technological progress is actually the result of hundreds or thousands of casualties.

It was precisely because he understood this that when the Sydney City Government decided to build the subway, Arthur specifically requested that the speed be slowed down to ensure the safety of the entire project.

In fact, as early as the beginning of this year, the Sydney Metro Line 3, which is the longest ring line in total, was completed.

But in order to follow Arthur's orders, the Sydney City Government tested the line for nearly a year before deciding to fully open the ring line subway.

The reason why Arthur decided to attend the opening ceremony of the Ring Line Subway in person was precisely because of the importance of the subway to urban development.

According to the tender announcement issued by the Sydney City Government when building the subway, the three railway lines are expected to greatly facilitate travel for all Sydney citizens and tourists and minimize traffic congestion in Sydney city.

Based on the current operating conditions of Sydney Metro Line 1 and Line 2, it is basically certain that the ring railway can effectively increase the development speed of Sydney.

It is precisely because of the importance of subway to urban development that the Melbourne City Government is currently actively requesting the construction of railways and seeking financial subsidies from the national government.

Arthur naturally would not favor Sydney and Melbourne, the two twin cities of Australasia.

Construction of Melbourne's Line 1938 railway began several years ago and is expected to be completed by mid-next year and open to traffic in .

But then again, the only two cities that currently need to build railways are Sydney and Melbourne.

Other cities, including Fort Saint-Asser, are not so densely populated and there is no need to build subways for the time being.

After all, the biggest purpose of the subway is to ease traffic congestion and improve people's travel efficiency. Only large cities like Sydney and Melbourne with a population of more than 300 million need to build subways.

In fact, in addition to building the subway, Arthur has an even more ambitious goal for the future development of Australasia, which is to build the southeast triangle urban agglomeration in Australia.

The urban agglomeration is centered around Fort St. Arthur, Melbourne and Sydney, and basically covers the most essential parts of the Darling and Murray River basins, as well as densely populated areas such as Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Sydney Territory.

Due to the special geographical environment of Australia, the population in the southeast of Australia is far greater than that in the west.

Currently, Sydney's population is close to 500 million, and Melbourne's population has exceeded 350 million, making them the two most populous cities in Australasia.

The combined population of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory in the west of Australia is only comparable to that of these two cities, which is enough to prove the huge development gap between the east and west of Australia. This is indeed the biggest problem in Australia. The most suitable land for development is actually the southeast, which is why Arthur wants to build a southeastern triangle city cluster.

The good news is that with the promotion of the two super cities of Sydney and Melbourne, and the catch-up of the capital Fort Saint Arthur, there is still hope for the construction of the triangular city cluster in the southeast of Australia.

Apart from anything else, the population of the three corners that make up the urban agglomeration has exceeded 10 million, accounting for more than one-fifth of the population of Australasia.

With the support of many small and medium-sized cities around the urban agglomeration, it will be no problem to create the most prosperous region in Australia and compete for one of the most prosperous urban agglomerations in the world.

After attending the opening ceremony of the Sydney Metro Circle Line, Arthur took some government officials to experience the first officially opened subway train on the Circle Line.

In general, the experience is pretty good, and overall comfort and safety are guaranteed.

In order to ensure sufficient air circulation inside the subway, vents are built at certain intervals during construction, and fans are used to supply sufficient air to the interior.

Each subway entrance will also have a corresponding escape exit to ensure that in the event of any accident, subway passengers can quickly escape to the ground through the escape exit.

The entire subway does not run very fast, and because it stops at many stations, the overall speed is only about 35 kilometers per hour.

But the advantage is that the subway does not need to go through all the twists and turns on the ground, and can basically go to the destination in a straight line.

At current driving speeds, it would take no more than half an hour to drive from the northernmost part of Sydney to the southernmost part.

Similarly, it only takes about half an hour to drive from the easternmost part to the westernmost part, which basically meets the needs of Sydney citizens from their residence to their office.

The railways that crisscross the north and south and east and west, plus the ring line that encircles the city, ensure that most people can quickly reach their desired destination via the subway.

Of course, the subway is not omnipotent and it is definitely impossible to allow everyone to go to their desired destination.

However, Sydney already has dozens of subway stations, and it is still possible to quickly shorten the travel time between two locations through the subway.

According to current ground car driving data in Sydney, the time required to drive from the westernmost to the easternmost part of the city is about the same as that of the subway.

But the problem is that due to the huge size of Sydney city and its large population, there are also many vehicles in Sydney.

Once a traffic jam occurs, the time required for cars to travel will be extended indefinitely.

But the subway does not have this kind of trouble. The travel time required for the subway is completely unified, which also means that for some people who do not want to drive, the subway is definitely a more convenient means of transportation.

The most important thing is the subway ticket price. After all, whether a means of transportation is good or not, in addition to safety, practicality and speed, there is another particularly important factor, that is, the cost of using this means of transportation.

Just like the current airplanes, which are indeed the fastest means of transportation for humans. For airplanes, the time required to fly around the world is calculated in days.

This is different from previous circumnavigations. If a ship is used, a circumnavigation would take nearly half a year at the slowest and several months at the fastest, and the time spent in the two directions is completely disproportionate.

But here comes the terrible thing: even with the rapid development of airplanes today, the ticket prices for civilian airliners are still very high.

As Australasia is one of the major manufacturers of passenger aircraft, the cost of air tickets should be very low.

But in fact, according to aviation industry statistics on major airlines, short- and medium-haul flight fares in Australasia are generally above A$35, and medium- and long-haul flight fares are as high as over A$60.

Although the current per capita income has exceeded 200 Australian dollars, a flight costs at least two months' salary, which is still an unaffordable expense for most people.

This also means that the potential users of aircraft are currently only middle and senior management of enterprises and companies, who will only use aircraft, a faster means of transportation, when traveling on business.

Of course, there are also those rich people who really have no shortage of money. After all, for the truly wealthy, a plane ticket of a few dozen Australian dollars is just a drop in the bucket, and they may even pursue more expensive flights with better experiences.

In fact, when pricing the subway ticket, Arthur took into account that compared to airplanes, subways are the means of transportation that are truly used by ordinary people in large quantities.

Therefore, regarding the pricing of subway tickets, considering reducing the living pressure of ordinary people, Arthur also indicated that the national government should provide certain subsidies for subway construction to reduce the cost of subway construction by municipal governments, and thus reduce subway ticket prices in disguise.

The most expensive part of subway construction is to build underground subway stations and subway lines. The locomotives and carriages of subways are not much different from trains, so the funds required for this are not much, after all, the train industry in Australasia is also quite developed.

If the train-related industries were not developed, Arthur would not have been able to build railways across the country in just a few decades.

While Arthur was experiencing the Sydney Metro Circle Line, the subway department established by the Sydney City Government also announced the price of subway tickets to the public.

The prices are still the same as those of Lines 1 and 2 before. There are two types of prices for the Metro Ring Line: metered and full-trip.

计站式票价每站1便士（1澳元=10澳先令=100澳便士），按照乘客具体乘坐的站数来计费，坐一站只需要1便士。

The full-trip fare has only one price, no matter how far you travel or how many stops you make, which is 1 shilling and 2 pence.

The two pricing methods correspond to two types of passengers, short-distance passengers and long-distance passengers.

For most people, they may only need a short subway ride.

At this time, the one-stop-one-fare method is very suitable, which can allow this group of people to save some subway fees.

The full-trip ticket can also save money for passengers who need to travel through many stops. This measure has indeed achieved the goal of reducing the cost of living for ordinary people.

It is also because of this that since the announcement of this subway fare charging method, Sydney citizens have been relatively welcoming to it, and even specially thanked Arthur and the Sydney City Government.

(End of this chapter)