I'm playing whack-a-mole in Siberia

Chapter 788: Not an Accident

Frank Kellogg's trip to Russia was fruitful. He and Felix not only reached an agreement on the price war, but also decided to carry out deeper cooperation with Russia.

In the briefcase that Frank Kellogg carried with him, the ink was still wet on the agreement he and Felix had just reached.

The agreement has not been signed and needs to be approved by the U.S. Congress and the Russian State Duma before it can become legally effective.

This agreement is beneficial to the United States regardless of whether it cooperates with the United Kingdom.

The cooperation with Britain was not decided by Frank Kellogg. Frank Kellogg was just a messenger.

At most, you can include some of your own personal messages when passing them on.

George's focus now is not on trade with Europe, but on the Australian civil war.

The insurgents' attack on the Western Austrian state parliament left 215 people dead, including 21 lawmakers.

Although the insurgents were completely wiped out by the military and police who arrived later, the state assembly was paralyzed due to the heavy losses.

Andrew Gordon returned to the Governor's Mansion and declared a state of war in Theo and decided to dissolve the State Legislature.

At the same time as Gordon dissolved the State Parliament, troops sent by the Theo government, led by Andy Boswell, arrived in Kalgoorlie.

Andy Boswell participated in the World War with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. As a Western Australian, Andy Boswell chose to support the Western Australian government and led his troops to Kalgoorlie to quell the rebellion.

Andy's deputy was Dimirov, who also participated in the World War.

Although Dimirov was of French nationality, he was actually a Slav.

Compared with the well-prepared Theo, Kalgoorlie's independence was like a farce. When the news that the Western Oklahoma government had sent troops to quell the rebellion reached Kalgoorlie, the army formed by the Golden Alliance dispersed, and Kalgoorlie's population was reduced by half from 2 at its peak.

The gold diggers were all speculators, and it was wishful thinking to expect them to arm themselves to defend Kalgoorlie.

The gold miners wanted to defend Kalgoorlie, but their first reaction was not to form an army, but to send their families to Canberra or even back to Britain. What kind of defense is that?

As for the miners—

Miners are indeed strong and suitable for military service.

But miners only want to make money, not risk their lives. It doesn’t matter who they mine for. If they mine for the Russians, their salary can be increased a lot.

In the gold mines taken over by Theo Mining Company, miners' wages generally increased by 20%.

James voted in favour of the Kalgoorlie referendum on behalf of Theo Mining.

After the vote, a mining protection team equipped with heavy machine guns was formed in the name of armed defense of Kalgoorlie.

this--

Everyone knows the relationship between Theo Mining Company and Yuriev Mining Company.

So no one can say whether the purpose of establishing the mining protection team is to protect Kalgoorlie or for other purposes.

Anyway, when the Golden Alliance asked for command of the mining protection team, James refused.

On December 12, Western Australian government forces occupied Kalgoorlie, and on the 10th they occupied Coolgardie, with only one death in the entire process.

This man was bitten to death by a poisonous snake.

After occupying Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie, the Western Australian government announced that all gold mines in the two areas would be nationalized and entrusted to the Western Australian Mining Company for operation.

On the 12th, the British fleet departed from Singapore and finally arrived in Perth.

That’s right, the British army did not go to the closer Port George, but instead went to Perth 5000 kilometers away. This is very British.

Port George was built by the Yuriev Mining Company. If the British army went to Port George, a conflict would probably break out, and it would be irreversible. Before Gordon went to the Pilbara, he declared Perth an undefended city, so the British army would not be attacked at least in Perth.

After communicating with Frank Kellogg, Chamberlain left Geneva and came to Coconut City, hoping to resolve the Theo crisis at a political level.

The reason for the Western referendum was trade autonomy, which is actually not unacceptable to the UK.

Chamberlain revealed to Frank Kellogg that if Britain and the United States could reach an agreement, Britain would consider allowing Canada independent diplomatic rights.

After Canada has diplomatic rights, it will definitely be the first to establish diplomatic relations with the United States, which will seriously weaken Britain's control over Canada.

Compared with Canada's diplomatic rights, Theo's trade autonomy is nothing.

The iron ore in the Pilbara is indeed tempting.

But even without the iron ore from the Pilbara, Rio Tinto can survive.

Compared with Britain's interests, Rio Tinto's interests are nothing.

Chamberlain hoped to organize negotiations between the Western Austrian and Australian governments.

Gordon's response was firm: No room for negotiation!

Theo's initial demand was indeed for trade autonomy.

But after the referendum, Theo's demands have been upgraded from trade autonomy to independence.

Gordon did not go too far. If London and Canberra agreed to Western Australia's independence, Western Australia would continue to remain in the Commonwealth as a country.

"Okay, then let's sit down and talk about this."

Chamberlain's humble attitude is a good start as long as he is willing to sit down and negotiate.

On the 15th, Gordon arrived in Coconut City by transport plane. Under the witness of King Alexander of the Grand Duchy of Yuriev, Chamberlain and Gordon began negotiations on the independence of Theo.

As long as Theo is willing to remain in the Commonwealth, it doesn't really make much difference whether or not he is independent.

On the contrary, if Theo decides to leave the Commonwealth, the situation will be very serious.

After South Africa's independence, it did not leave the Commonwealth and continued to remain in the Commonwealth as a member of the Commonwealth.

After three years of fighting, Ireland only established the Irish Free State, which was not the republic that Ireland hoped for. The Irish still recognized the British king as their king and allowed the British king to send a governor to govern Ireland.

Interestingly, although the King of England had the power to send a governor, the Irish Free State also had the power to refuse.

In other words, Ireland can refuse to accept the governor sent by the British king and has the right to ask the British king to replace him with another governor.

So far, the Irish Free State has the position of Governor but no Governor.

The Governor-General of Australia is John Bard, who took office just two months ago.

I wonder what Balde thinks of this inauguration gift given to him by the Western people.

Just as Chamberlain and Gordon's negotiations began, bad news came from Perth. A drunk British sailor broke into a resident's home in Perth, killed the male owner and raped the female owner, and then burned the house to destroy the bodies.

This is both an accident and not an accident.

In terms of probability, this incident was indeed an accident.

But from the perspective of British military discipline, this kind of thing is inevitable and will happen sooner or later.

The Royal Navy's military discipline is notoriously corrupt.

(End of this chapter)