Chapter 390
Time passed quickly, and soon it came to the second year after the war, which was 1915.
Although the Australasian army arrived on the battlefield in October last year, although the British and French forces achieved great success in the Battle of the Marne, and although Germany just experienced a disastrous defeat, the current war on the Western Front is still a war of attrition, even though Germany has shown its Despite the decline, it is still not easy to defeat him.
War is a huge war of attrition, and this is true in any era.
Although the Australasian Expeditionary Force has only been in Europe for two months, the colonial army has suffered more than 82,000 casualties so far, and the Fourth Division has suffered more than 3,000 casualties, which is enough to prove the cruelty of this war.
Thanks to the exaggerated equipment of the Australasian army, the actual consumption of weapons and ammunition is even more exaggerated.
However, half of the military expenses of the expeditionary force to Europe are borne by the United Kingdom. Therefore, the burden caused by Australasia is not too great, at least for now, it is completely acceptable.
According to public or semi-public war reports from various places, a total of nearly 8 million troops have been invested in the current European war.
Especially the main countries, led by France and Germany, have now expanded their military numbers to more than one million people.
The total number and casualties of the armies of the European countries participating in the war are as follows:
Germany currently has 1.91 million troops, 114,000 war casualties, and 227,000 wounded.
France currently has 1.75 million troops, 198,000 war casualties, and 352,000 wounded.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire currently has 1.29 million troops, with 78,000 war casualties and 115,000 wounded.
The Tsarist Empire currently has 1.938 million troops, 172,000 war casualties, and 255,000 wounded.
The British Empire currently has 872,000 troops, with 58,000 war casualties and 112,000 wounded.
Australasia currently has 478,000 troops, with 33,000 war casualties and 52,000 wounded.
In just over four months in 1914, the war resulted in more than 600,000 deaths and nearly 1.1 million injuries.
What's even more exaggerated is that this data is limited to casualties counted by the military of various countries, and does not include civilians affected by the war.
If civilians were to be counted, a conservative estimate would make the casualty list at least twice as large.
Moreover, compared with the following year, these four months in 1914 were not too cruel.
Although the armies of various countries have doubled several times, they can still recruit more troops to join the war, which also means more casualties and consumption.
It can be predicted that in the coming year, the war will only become more cruel, because all countries have no retreat, either win the war or be destroyed in the war.
No one would hope that the enemy would spare them after defeat. The casualties of this war have been very tragic. Under this kind of hatred, the Allied Powers and the Central Powers have long been in a state of death or death.
On January 1, 1915, the annual report meeting of the Australasian Cabinet Government was officially held.
The reason why the meeting was delayed by one day was because of the delay in counting casualties on the front line. It was not until close to the early morning that casualty reports from Europe were received.
During the meeting, Arthur looked at Defense Minister Raul and asked with a serious face: "Minister Raul, tell us about the current casualties of our expeditionary force!"
Defense Minister Raul nodded and turned his gaze. Looking at everyone, he said with a heavy face: "Your Majesty, everyone. So far, our 316,000 expeditionary force has only 217,000 combat-ready soldiers. The Fourth Division has also suffered heavy casualties, with only 13,000 combat-capable soldiers. People around."
After hearing the news of such tragic casualties, ministers from various departments all looked at Defense Minister Raul.
You know, the total number of Australasian expeditionary forces is only 316,000, and they lost nearly one-third in just two months.
Doesn't this mean that in the new year, Australasia still needs to send a certain amount of colonial troops to maintain the scale of the expeditionary force in Europe.
Although most of the dead were indigenous people, they were not that distressed. But it actually costs a lot to train a native into a barely qualified soldier.
Therefore, the best situation is that the casualties of the indigenous people can be less, at least there is no need for Australasia to frequently transport indigenous people to the European battlefield.
"The French side is already asking, when can we send the second expeditionary force to Europe?" Minister Raul glanced at Arthur's reaction before continuing.
In fact, it is normal for the French to ask this. After all, according to the agreement at the time, Australasia needs to try its best to keep the total number of combat troops in Europe above 300,000, including at least one division of the main force.
But as everyone knows that firewood, rice, oil and salt are expensive, Arthur has only one idea now, and that is to send troops as late as possible.
"Reply to France, it will take some time for our army to train, and the journey to Europe is long. For at least three months, Australasia will not have any reinforcements and can only provide certain material support." Arthur thought for a moment. After a while, he said this.
Although Australasia does need to make a certain contribution during the war in exchange for the distribution of benefits after the war.
But it was not in Arthur's plan to shed his own blood to support the French.
It seems that the casualties of the colonial army did not cause much damage to Australasia, but in fact, the training costs of these indigenous soldiers, as well as their weapons and equipment, etc., brought a considerable military burden to Australasia.
After all, the British only provided half of the military expenses of these armies, and would not provide the weapons and equipment of these indigenous soldiers when forming the colonial army.
Minister Raul nodded to show that he understood.
After the Ministry of Defense's interlude ended, the 1914 annual report summary meeting officially began.
According to reports from the Ministry of Civil Welfare, by the end of 1914, the total population of Australasia had successfully exceeded 15 million, reaching 15.37 million.
This is no small milestone for Australasia. After the population exceeded 10 million three years ago, the population of Australasia has once again reached a new number.
Of course, the population numbers also reflect the bad news, that is, since the outbreak of the European War, the number of immigrants in Australasia has dropped sharply.
Throughout 1914, Australasia's population grew by approximately 1.44 million people.
Although it seems like a lot, the number of newborn babies reached 378,000. This also means that the number of immigrants in 1914 was only 1.062 million, of which more than 800,000 were Russian immigrants, accounting for nearly 80% of the new immigrants in Australasia.
The number of immigrants decreased by nearly 300,000 as of last year, a large number of whom were British and German immigrants.
No matter how good the relationship between Australasia and the United Kingdom is, the United Kingdom will close immigration channels during war times to reduce the outflow of immigrants as much as possible.
After all, most civilians do not like war. If there are no restrictions on immigration during special periods, I am afraid that a large number of immigrants will take refuge abroad before the war is over. And this kind of loss of national strength during war is something that none of the major European powers want to see.
Not just the United Kingdom, but all European powers participating in the war enacted certain immigration restriction policies, which almost halved the number of immigrants flowing out of Europe in 1914.
Fortunately, Australasia still has a good brother, Russia, who can provide support to Australasian immigrants at any time.
After all, in order to attract more Russian immigrants, Australasia bribed Russia from top to bottom. Russia gave the Australasian immigrants a green light, except that they had to personally deliver the immigrants to Australasia. .
More importantly, because Australasia frequently transported supplies to Russia, the relationship between Australasia and Russia also entered a long honeymoon period.
Coupled with the marriage relationship between the royal families of the two countries, Russian immigrants are indeed the best source of immigrants during this period, without counting some revolutionary elements among Russian immigrants.
Due to the possibility of a crisis in Tsarist Russia in the future, Arthur has also made advance arrangements.
First, through screening of all Russian immigrants, thousands of Russian immigrants who recognized Australasia and were willing to be loyal were selected. After a certain amount of training, they were sent back to Russia to perform secret lurking missions.
Their approximate mission is to enter some revolutionaries and Russian rebels to find out more information for Arthur.
No matter how decadent Russia becomes, the Russian royal family still needs to be saved. Even if the ruler is not the current Tsar, at least he must be a close relative of the Romanov family.
This is not only the good relationship between the Australasian royal family and the Russian royal family, but also determined by Russia's geographical location.
As long as Russia exists, at least in the Far East, it will be Australasia's ally and help Australasia share the pressure from the island countries and the United States.
However, Russia is currently in a relatively chaotic state. Whether these more than 1,000 trained Russian immigrants can penetrate those people is also a question.
It is worth mentioning that some Russian lawless elements have already fled to Australasia by taking advantage of the opportunity of immigration.
But Arthur had already been prepared for this. Australasian customs had strict inspections on all immigrants.
Not only are they prohibited from carrying weapons, but immigrants from the same area are also not allowed to gather in one area too much.
These immigrants from all over Russia will also be dispersed to various regions of Australasia, including New Zealand and all colonies.
Of course, they can also refuse to accept the government's allocation, at the cost of losing the government's welfare policies.
Although such regulations are a bit tough, they are not unacceptable to civilians who just want to come to Australasia to live a plain and happy life.
After all, Australasia’s current immigration policy is also very generous. As long as you pass the immigration assessment that takes about six months to one year, you can successfully obtain Australasian citizenship, obtain 4 to 8 acres of land (depending on the location and fertility of the land), and also have the opportunity to enter Australasia. Job opportunities in major factories in West Asia.
You know, with the increase in per capita income in Australasia, the salaries offered by major factories have also become very generous.
Although the income level is still lower than that of top powers such as Britain, France and Germany, the consumption level in Australasia is also relatively low, especially in terms of beef, mutton and grain, and the prices are much lower than those in Europe. This has also brought Europeans and Australia closer. The living standards of the people of Greater Latin America.
According to statistics, in terms of beef, mutton and grain consumption, the per capita consumption of Australasia even exceeds that of some parts of Europe, including some powerful countries.
In addition, the eight-hour work system is strictly implemented in Australasia, and there are corresponding subsidies and overtime pay for overtime work, and wages are also guaranteed.
Therefore, Australasia's factories attracted a large number of citizens and immigrants, allowing Australasia's various industries to develop very rapidly.
Although more than 1 million immigrants are added every year, these people will be dispersed into various aspects such as agriculture and industry. This has also resulted in the unemployment rate in Australasia not being affected much.
According to statistics from the People's Livelihood Department, as of the end of 1914, Australasia's per capita income was 52.7 Australian dollars, still in a relatively stable state of growth.
Economic growth can be seen from the gross national product.
Throughout 1914, Australasia's GDP reached US$1.677 billion, equivalent to 335 million pounds and 670 million Australian dollars, with a growth rate of about 6%.
Although the growth rate has slowed down compared to the previous year, the war broke out in the second half of 1914, so such a growth rate is already good.
If Arthur is right, the major European powers involved in the war, especially France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, have absolutely negative economic growth.
You know, war takes a huge toll on a country. In order to better prepare the country for war, these countries have mobilized some civilian factories to enter military production. The skilled ones produce more complex military equipment and weapons, while the unskilled ones produce simpler military uniforms and helmets.
Although it has greatly eased the military demand pressure on the front line, it has also caused a huge impact on the civilian economy, and the country's economic growth has been slow or even negative.
The situation in the UK is relatively better. After all, the mainland has not been affected by the war. But after all, being in Europe, the impact is definitely there, at least much greater than in Australasia.
In terms of government revenue, Australasia's government revenue in 1914 was A$107.2 million, an increase of approximately 5.6% compared to the previous year.
Australasia's economy was not greatly affected, and it even made a small profit due to the export of a large amount of materials to Europe.
In terms of financial expenditures, because half of the military expenditures of the expeditionary force were borne by the United Kingdom, Australasia's military expenditures dropped to just over 38 million Australian dollars.
The total fiscal expenditure of the Australasian government was 98.71 million Australian dollars, and the fiscal surplus increased compared with the previous year, reaching about 8.5 million Australian dollars.
Although military spending has dropped a lot, the government's total fiscal expenditure has not dropped much.
After all, in the midst of a war, it would cost more to introduce immigrants from Russia. At the same time, in order to stabilize domestic production, a certain amount of payment was inevitable.
However, these efforts are destined to be earned back from the Allied Powers. But as the war becomes more intense in the new year, the Allied Powers will truly lack weapons, equipment and supplies.
At that time, Australia was making a lot of money. The trade in food and weapons and equipment alone is enough to make a lot of money for the royal family and the Australasian government. Not only can they pay off all the government's debts, but they can even make a small fortune.
If it were not for the previous war between Argentina and Chile, the relationship between Australasia and the United States had declined.
Arthur even wanted to borrow a large sum of money from the United States, which could be repaid in francs or marks.
That’s it for today. I’m taking a leave of absence. I’ll update two more tomorrow.
(End of chapter)