Chapter 282 St. Vincent-class battleship
Arthur's operation to recruit talents lasted for four days. In addition to Alexander Fleming and his mentor Dr. Wright, Arthur also personally visited Moseley, Joseph Thomson, Many famous physical and chemical talents such as William Henry Bragg, William Lawrence Bragg, and Charles Gagever Bakla were included in the list of talents. Arthur did not personally visit, and there were also hundreds of physicists. Scientists, chemists, writers, historians, novel authors, artists, composers, scientists, medical scientists, etc., the total number of talents on the list reached 204 people.
After four days of hard work by Arthur and David, there are currently 115 people who have agreed to go to Australasia.
There are also nearly 70 people who have obviously wavered 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. Arthur had nothing to do about this. After all, there were pure patriots in every country.
If nothing else happens, Australasia will be able to obtain more than 100 of the 204 talents, which is a huge addition to Australasia's high-end talents.
It is a little regrettable that Arthur's efforts to attract talents in the military industry were not very successful.
However, this is understandable. After all, as time enters the second decade of the 20th century, the contradictions and competition between the two major European military groups have become increasingly fierce, and European countries have increasingly controlled and valued military talents.
Under such a premise, it is basically impossible for Arthur to attract many military talents with some funds and benefits, just like other talents.
On June 25, 1910, a piece of exciting news for Britain and Australasia was jointly promulgated by the British and Australasian governments.
After a long period of friendly negotiations between the British government and Australasia, both parties decided to continue to maintain the aid treaty signed at that time, and on the basis of the treaty signed ten years ago, they would strengthen some provisions and add many more New aid.
In terms of aid, the British government has agreed to provide higher aid to the Australasian government. The current preliminary estimate is that the annual aid amount will not exceed 10 million pounds, but it must exceed at least 7 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 gain so many benefits in vain. Britain and Australasia signed a peace treaty. The ports of Australasia's Australian Timor and New Zealand regions were opened to the British Empire, allowing the British Empire's fleet and merchant ships to dock and serving as transit ports and supply bases for the British Empire. .
Arthur had no problem with this. After all, with the good relationship between Australasia and Britain, British merchant ships and warships wanted to dock at these ports, and Arthur had no reason to refuse.
After all, the ports where these merchant ships dock can also drive consumption in local port cities, and Arthur is not worried about the safety of these ports after they are opened to the UK.
As long as Australasia and the UK are not completely on opposite sides, there is no reason for the UK to take the lead in taking action against Australasia.
Australasia also concluded a further trade treaty with Britain. Australasia will officially become the UK's main importing region for grain and meat.
Arthur does not have to worry that Australasia's massively increased grain and meat production will become unsaleable. The British Empire will cover the bottom line, and coupled with the consumption of future wars, this has formed a double-layered guarantee.
Of course, this trade treaty does not only cover Australasia’s exports of grain and meat to the UK. It actually also covers various medical supplies, machinery and equipment, relatively advanced systems and various talents from the UK to Australasia. Output.
If during the reign of Edward VII, the British government turned a blind eye to Australasia's efforts to recruit talents, neither supporting nor opposing it, then during the subsequent reign of George V , at least before the First World War, the British government expressed support for Australasia's efforts to attract talent.
This will be of great help to Australasia in attracting talents in the UK, and the number of British immigrants should also see 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, which is more than one round older than Arthur.
This also resulted in the fact that George V and Arthur did not have many topics to talk about, 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. After all, it seems that the Allies have the greatest chance of winning.
You know, historically the Allies still achieved victory even when Russia withdrew midway.
Although Russia still has hidden dangers at present, its situation is much better than that of Russia in history.
Russia still controls most of the interests in the Far East and is the absolute hegemon in the Far East. As for the island country that was supposed to step on Russia to take power in the Russo-Japanese War, because it only gained the interests of the Korean Peninsula at that time, the country's development seemed to have stagnated, and it has now become the weakest among the great powers.
The island country so far has seven battleships, but all of them are old battleships and their combat effectiveness is not that strong.
Although the island country has a plan to build a dreadnought, the plan to build a dreadnought was already formulated in 1907.
However, in order to achieve cooperation with Russia, Britain promised to suspend aid to island countries while the Anglo-Russian Agreement was in effect.
Without the help of the United Kingdom, can the island country independently manufacture the dreadnought? the answer is negative.
The Hanoi-class battleship, the island nation's earliest dreadnought in history, was not officially completed until the end of March 1912, even with the help of Britain.
The second dreadnought was not built until early July 1912. Among all the powers, except for France, the island nation was the latest in the construction of dreadnoughts.
Now, the island country does not have British assistance, and the plan to build a dreadnought has naturally been delayed for a long time.
Arthur has always been concerned about the island country. If the information from the Royal Security Intelligence Service is correct, the construction of the island country's dreadnoughts seems to have been in trouble. Not to mention that as in history, they were built one after another in 1912 and could be seen in 1913. Their dreadnoughts are already pretty good.
But this doesn't matter to Arthur, after all, the island country is also considered a potential enemy of Australasia.
The island nation's slow progress in dreadnoughts may not be a bad thing for Australasia.
After establishing good relations with the United Kingdom, Australasia has a good foundation for relations with the major countries of the Central Powers and the Entente.
This will be helpful for Australasia to join the war in the future, at least it will be able to calmly choose a side with an advantage to join.
However, Arthur did not intend to directly enter the European war before the European countries suffered heavy losses.
But the damage to European countries cannot be too serious, otherwise the rise of the United States will become inevitable.
At least European countries should still have the ability to compete with the United States after the two wars, so that they will not be like what happened in history. After the two world wars, faced with the liberal nationalism exported by the United States and the Soviet Union, European countries will Because the big powers were powerless, they could only allow the major colonies to become independent.
The collapse of the colonial system was something that the established European powers could not afford to lose, and it was not necessarily a good thing for Arthur.
After all, Australasia also has a large number of indigenous people. Although these indigenous people are not recognized now, their role is only free and cheap labor. But when the colonial system collapses in the future, we can't massacre all the indigenous people in Australasia.
If these indigenous people still exist after World War II, they will most likely seek independence under the influence of the United States.
This is also a headache for Australasia. After World War II, if you want to massacre colonial natives without restraint, public opinion is not so easy to control.
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 HMS Dreadnought.
Australasia's three dreadnoughts also conducted joint training with the Royal Navy for several days. Judging from the combat effectiveness displayed, the combat capabilities of the Monarch-class battleships and the Dreadnought battleship should not be much different.
George V was also very interested in battleships independently developed and built in Australasia.
In fact, during his princely career, George V was known as the Sailor Prince.
This is because George V, as a naval cadet, was sent to the battleship HMS Britian to receive navigation education.
During his service, George toured the Caribbean, the British colonies in South Africa and Australia, and even traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, US, South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, and East Asia.
At that time, because George V's brother Prince Albert was still alive, Prince Albert was the second heir to the throne and needed to prepare for inheriting the throne.
George V was ranked after his father Edward VII and brother Prince Albert in the order of succession to the throne, so his choice was to become a professional naval officer.
During George V's naval officer career, he served as captain of a torpedo boat, captain of a naval squadron, etc. However, his naval career came to an end due to a severe typhoid fever.
However, this does not hinder Prince George's love for the navy and warships, hence his title of Sailor Prince.
It is worth mentioning that while serving in the Navy, George V was under the orders of his uncle, Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh.
During this period, 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.
Unfortunately, Prince Albert, the eldest brother of George V, was engaged to Princess Mary, which also caused a breakdown in 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 unexpectedly died of pneumonia.
Prince Albert's fiancée, Princess Mary, also became engaged to George V at the behest of Queen Victoria, becoming George V's Queen Mary.
George V finally got the woman he loved, 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 board the battleship Australasia for a visit.
This move also won the favor of George V. At least during the few days that Arthur was in the British Empire, George V had always been very affectionate to Arthur.
Arthur also took the opportunity to make his request, hoping to achieve deeper cooperation with the British Empire in warships.
Specifically, Arthur is willing to use the design drawings and information of the Sovereign-class battleships from the British Empire in exchange for the construction drawings of the St. Vincent-class battleships currently being built in the United Kingdom to strengthen Australasia's warship design.
Arthur's request made George V a little embarrassed.
The St. Vincent-class battleship is an improved model of the Bellerophon-class battleship. Its combat effectiveness has been improved compared to the Dreadnought battleship and Bellerophon-class battleship.
In terms of artillery, the St. Vincent-class battleships are equipped with 305 mm 50-caliber twin guns, while the gun caliber of the first two classes of dreadnoughts is 305 mm 45-caliber.
This improvement has made the firepower output of the St. Vincent-class battleship much higher. Coupled with slight improvements in armor and horsepower, the speed of the St. Vincent-class battleship has been able to be steadily maintained at around 21 knots.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most advanced dreadnought currently under construction and the main battleship in the British Empire's 1910 construction plan.
But the problem is that the St. Vincent is not the most advanced battleship the British Empire has ever designed.
After the St. Vincent-class battleship, the British Empire has currently designed the Neptune-class battleship and the Mammoth-class battleship, but their construction had to wait until 1911.
This aspect can also reflect the current strength of the British Empire's warships. While Germany was still stuck with the 283mm main gun, the British 305mm main gun technology had exceeded 50 times the caliber, and several levels of dreadnoughts had been developed.
The importance of the St. Vincent-class battleship is self-evident, but it is not important enough to maintain absolute strategic secrecy.
At least for George V, it is acceptable to exchange warship drawings and materials with Australasia. This will quickly gain George V a reputation for caring for his cousin and valuing relationships, which is very beneficial to him in stabilizing 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 doesn’t pay nothing. There is a lot of German technology in the Monarch-class battleships, which is also helpful for the British to understand German technology.
Although George V had mentally agreed to the deal, he did not directly agree. Instead, he said that he would try his best to discuss it with the cabinet government.
Arthur nodded in understanding. After all, George V has not officially ascended the throne yet. Even if he ascends the throne, his voice in the cabinet will not be too high in a short time.
Such matters still have to be decided by the British cabinet government, but it is good news that George V does not object.
After the discussion, Arthur ordered Chief David to 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 operation, a few of them would stand up to support Arthur.
As long as a quarter of the cabinet government directly supports it, Arthur is confident that the deal can be reached.
Just 4,200 words for today. Brothers, please take a leave (for more important things)
and continue with 10,000 words tomorrow!
(End of chapter)