Chapter 334 Food Collecting and Immigration
The British were able to complete the design of the 15-inch caliber main gun in more than two years from 1912 to 1915 and equip it on the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.
Arthur believed that Australasia, which integrated British and German artillery technology, may not and could not do such a thing.
Even if it takes more than two years to do so, it should not be difficult for Australasian technical experts to master the technology of a 15-inch caliber main gun within the World War I period.
Currently, Australasia is at the forefront of the world in terms of dreadnoughts and super-dreadnoughts, and is even one of the strongest countries.
Naturally, we must maintain this advantage, and we must work as hard as possible to continue to improve our advantages in this area.
With a cabinet meeting in November, Australasia has now determined a new task for the government, which is to prepare in advance for possible European wars in the future.
Not only must we reserve a large amount of strategic materials, food, medical care, supplies, military weapons and equipment, but also a variety of rare mineral resources, all of which are within the scope of the Australasian government's preparations.
As time came to the end of 1912, Arthur clearly knew that there was not much time left to prepare for Australasia.
Perhaps the prime time for Australasia to attract immigrants is the last half of the year.
If the war continues to break out in 1914 as it did in history, then I am afraid that starting from 1913, the introduction of immigrants to Australasia will not be so smooth.
After all, if these immigrants continue to stay in the country, they can serve as excellent sources of soldiers during wartime and can also be invested in civilian economic production.
After all, with the outbreak of war, after a large number of army soldiers are recruited, civilian production will always be delayed. At this time, a large number of people are needed to make up for the stagnation in production caused by the recruitment of young people.
"Prime Minister Kent, from now on, we will expand the scale of our food production as much as possible. And, except for some necessary food exports, reduce the scale of food exports as much as possible and increase the amount of food reserves." at the cabinet meeting. Go up, Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent with a serious face and ordered.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Prime Minister Kent also nodded solemnly.
"If necessary, the Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can cooperate with the action and release the news of future food shortages and price increases to the public, so that the people can spontaneously stock up on food. If a war breaks out in Europe, the food in our hands will not only bring us Bringing a lot of profits will also bring us more benefits. For the people, it is also beneficial for them to collect food." Arthur said with a smile.
The government stockpiled grain in order to sell it to foreign countries during the European war to obtain large profits and interests.
Encouraging people to stockpile grain is to prevent people from having to buy high-priced grain due to lack of food when food prices rise in the future.
After all, when food prices rise in the future, Arthur intends to trick the Europeans, not his own people.
Anyway, the price of food and meat in Australasia is not expensive now, and proper stocking of food will not be a big burden on the people.
After hearing Arthur's instructions, Foreign Secretary Daze nodded to express his understanding.
Australasian newspapers are under the control of the Propaganda Department, which is directly under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Foreign Minister Daze naturally understood the importance of this matter, and he also paid great attention to Arthur's instructions.
Thanks to the fact that public opinion in Australasia is basically under the control of the royal family, the royal family's two newspapers, the Australasian Daily and the Victoria Newspaper, have high credibility.
In addition to these two large newspapers covering most states, some local small newspapers in each state, as well as state-owned newspapers established by the government, all have good credibility in Australasia.
After all, public opinion in Australasia is basically under the control of the royal family and is also subject to the supervision of the propaganda department.
Under such circumstances, it is impossible for other small and medium-sized newspapers to report some fabricated news, otherwise they may face accountability from the propaganda department.
This also leads to the fact that Australasian people will immediately choose to believe any news published by large Australasian newspapers.
Especially the two newspapers of the royal family. The news seen by these two newspapers basically represents the truth in Australasia.
If someone says that the news published by these two newspapers is fake, I am afraid that the people around you will only chuckle disdainfully, and then say: "Go away!" What's more important is that newspapers, large and small, have no regard for the news they print
. All bear legal responsibility.
If someone dares to print false news, especially false news about the government and the royal family, in addition to the closure of the newspaper, all relevant personnel will face jail time.
Under such circumstances, as long as the newspaper office has a normal mind, it will basically not print fake news.
This has also greatly strengthened Arthur's control over public opinion. As long as the two newspapers under the royal family publish it, no newspaper or media has the right to refute it. On the second day of the cabinet meeting, many media outlets, including Victoria Newspaper and Australasian Daily News, began to publish news that droughts, floods and other disasters in various places may lead to a reduction in world grain production.
The Australasian Daily also made a prescient prediction that world food may suffer major fluctuations within a few years, and encouraged the people of Australasia to stock up on food in advance to cope with possible food crises in the future.
At the same time, seemingly in response to the news from these newspapers and magazines, the Australasian government announced the next day that, in addition to partial cooperation with the United Kingdom and Germany, it would significantly reduce grain exports to foreign countries and increase domestic grain reserves. scale.
The country is about to start stockpiling grain. Can this news be false?
With such expectations, Australasians responded to the calls of major newspapers and media and began to enter the grain harvesting stage.
Of course, the reason why the people are called on to start stocking up on food is to prevent them from being troubled by rising food prices in the future.
Therefore, the government will also impose certain restrictions on the scale of people's grain harvesting.
Theoretically, each household is only allowed to purchase 500 kilograms of grain to avoid the crisis of insufficient food reserves due to large-scale hoarding of grain by the public.
Only with the government's reassurance and assurance that the government would increase its grain storage and prevent Australasians from lacking food, did the people accept the 500 kilograms of grain purchase limit.
In addition to increasing strategic reserves of food, attracting population is also a key topic of discussion at this cabinet meeting.
Everyone knows that it is impossible for great powers to allow large numbers of people to immigrate abroad during wartime.
This will not only reduce the country's control over certain areas, but also weaken the country's potential before war breaks out.
In addition, there are always people who are afraid of death in every country, and the number of these people is quite large. If there are no restrictions on these people during the war, then I am afraid that once the war breaks out, dozens or even millions of people will be dispersed in a short period of time.
These people have different occupations, and they may even be talents in important positions. Allowing the loss of these people would be tantamount to disrespect for the war that broke out.
Therefore, now, before the war breaks out, and perhaps before the war ends, is the last chance for Australasian immigration.
In order to attract more immigrants before the war, Arthur issued an order to have the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the support of the cabinet government, attract immigrants on a large scale in major European countries.
This time, the conditions for attracting immigrants to Australasia have become more generous, which has increased by nearly 30% compared to the previous conditions for immigrants.
In addition, as long as someone wants to immigrate to Australasia, the Australasian government can reimburse the ship ticket and provide shelter and food for the new immigrants before arriving in Australasia and before officially obtaining citizenship.
Once such an immigration policy is enacted, it will inevitably attract more immigrants to Australasia.
In this era, there were still a large number of Europeans who wanted to immigrate abroad.
Especially now that war in Europe seems to be getting closer and closer, many peace-loving people who do not want to see war have already made plans to immigrate to peaceful countries.
Countries like the United States and Australasia, which are far away from the disputes in Europe and have a unique geographical location, even a large scale of industry and economy, and the status of great powers, are naturally the first choice for those who want to immigrate.
At present, the priority of European immigrants can be divided into the following categories: the United States and Australasia are in the first tier, European colonies are in the second tier, South American countries are in the third tier, and Asian countries are in the fourth tier.
Although Australasian immigration has set a new record this year, who can have too many things like population?
Even Arthur's goal attracted at least more than 200,000 immigrants in the last two months of 1912.
Changes in immigration policy have raised Australasia’s immigration appeal to a new level.
But at the same time, the cost of immigration is also growing. In order to attract more immigrants, Arthur also relaxed restrictions on the source of immigrants.
As long as it is a European country with a white population, immigration restrictions will be relaxed and all white European populations will be encouraged to immigrate to Australasia.
In order to complete the tasks assigned by Arthur, the Australasian government spent a lot of effort.
If immigrants are allowed to buy their own ferry tickets, this will also be a huge expense. Therefore, the government specially chartered more than ten large cruise ships from Europe to transport immigrants safely to Australasia.
At the same time, Australasia not only took care of the immigrants' boat tickets, but also provided them with free food during the journey, which also attracted more immigrants.
In addition, the government also decided to use warships to escort, firstly, to ensure the safety of cruise ships and immigrants, and secondly, to demonstrate Australasia's naval strength and tell all European immigrants that Australasia has the ability to protect all citizens.
The third update of 3,000 words, please vote for me and support!
(End of chapter)