Chapter 481 Land Exchange and Royal Petroleum Company
Arthur was in a very good mood, because the tests of the two Giant-class aircraft carriers were very successful. Australasia can be said to be the first country to master a true aircraft carrier.
Of course, the British's progress will never be slowed down too much, and Arthur's investment in the navy will never be reduced, let alone be deceived by the results achieved so far.
After encouraging and rewarding those who participated in the test, Arthur returned to the palace in a happy mood, preparing to hold a cabinet meeting to determine the tasks of the Australasian government in the new year.
To be honest, there were definitely many tasks in Australasia in 1919. In addition to the basic tasks of all aspects of national construction, the relocation plan of the new capital, the fourth phase of the Leonora Industrial Base, etc. are also major projects that require a lot of money and energy.
At the cabinet meeting, Arthur also specifically emphasized the importance of project quality and demanded that the government must strictly control the quality of all projects. If problems arise, everyone in the cabinet government must be held accountable.
In addition to these constructions, elections for a new cabinet government will also be held in 1919.
This has also made Australasia's political scene very busy since its arrival in 1919. After all, every time the cabinet government changes, a large number of politicians are busy with it, just to compete for the highest stage of power in their dreams.
In February 1919, Arthur received another good news, that is, the British government basically agreed to exchanges between Kuwait and the truce states, and Australasia could obtain the vast Persian Gulf coast land from the Saudi Arabian Persian Gulf coast to the United Arab Emirates. .
After this land exchange is completed, it is time to officially develop the oil resources along the Persian Gulf.
When the news that a large amount of oil is being exploited along the Persian Gulf coast is conveyed, the British will never give up their interests, and the Persian Gulf coast is destined to be controlled by Britain and Australasia.
You know, with the advent of airplanes and tanks, and the increasing popularity of cars in the world, the price of oil has experienced earth-shaking changes compared to more than ten years ago.
Gasoline and diesel made from petroleum are currently the main fuels for engines, and various petroleum products are also used in all aspects of the world.
Another advantage of jointly controlling the Persian Gulf coast with the British is that with the influence of Britain and Australasia, it can completely control international oil prices.
The Persian Gulf coast holds nearly 60% of the world's oil reserves, and its influence on world oil prices is irreplaceable.
As a result, it is unclear whether the various ethnic groups and countries in the Middle East can become independent as smoothly as they have in history.
After all, within 100 years, oil will definitely be the most important energy source in the world.
The Middle East, which has large oil reserves, is destined to be a hot spot for various countries to compete for, and it will never be separated from the disputes over the world situation.
Even if these countries can achieve independence, they will be influenced by, or even directly controlled by, more powerful countries.
After all, everyone knows that a man is not guilty, but he who possesses a jade is guilty. In this world where the weak and the strong prey on the weak, weak countries will be worried about their own resources.
After the land change, the Middle East colony was still named the Australian Persian Gulf Territory, which was land directly controlled by the Australasian royal family.
In order to successfully exploit oil along the Persian Gulf coast, Arthur decided to invest 5 million Australian dollars, combined with the government's 5.5 million Australian dollars and petroleum equipment, to establish the Royal Australasian Petroleum Company. The royal family and the government held 40% and 60% of the shares respectively. .
The large and small oil companies originally owned by Australasia have also been merged into Royal Petroleum Company. Royal Petroleum Company will also become the symbol of Australasia in the oil industry. It will definitely be a company that started as a Fortune 500 company.
Even relying solely on oil from the Persian Gulf coast, Royal Petroleum's potential is destined to even reach the top 50 in the world.
The news of the exchange between Kuwait and the UAE is definitely not big news in the UK and Australasia.
After all, these two areas are both located in the Middle East. Their land area is not large and their development potential is not very high. Neither country has attracted much attention.
Even the news clarified by the Americans was more popular than these two pieces of news, but not many people believed the clarifications by the Americans.
For the Wilson administration, it is currently the most important task to try to get rid of the responsibilities of the U.S. government and separate the pandemic from the United States.
As long as the United States remains tied to the pandemic, it will never be able to proactively expand outward, and it will be more constrained in diplomacy.
Apart from anything else, if President Wilson continues to put forward his theory of establishing a new order, European countries will definitely laugh at the Americans for wishful thinking.
Under the actions of the U.S. government, various news about the flu began to spread frequently, which often shifted the responsibility for the flu to those consortiums and accidents.
However, the credibility of the U.S. government, which has experienced various incidents, is not very high. Only some ignorant American people seem to believe the accident theory and consortium threat theory promoted by the U.S. government.
Sophistry aside, Americans still have a very positive attitude toward reparations. After all, Americans also know that Europe was indeed short of money after the war.
No matter how much responsibility Americans have for the flu, the Europeans are determined to blackmail the United States.
Americans can only bear such a huge loss alone. After all, the entire world's public opinion is now biased towards Europe, and no one believes the American explanation.
But Americans’ response definitely goes beyond using the media to explain. According to the data surveyed by the British intelligence agency, the Americans are already nervously building large and small warships to expand their naval strength.
After all, with its unique geographical advantages, the United States can defend the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and its territory will hardly face any threats.
There are also neighboring countries such as Canada and Mexico in the north and south of the United States, but neither Mexico nor Canada currently poses a great threat to the United States, and naturally they will not be taken to heart by the U.S. government.
Precisely because the Americans secretly and frantically expanded their warships, the British were even more wary of the Americans.
Among all the great powers in the world today, only France in Europe and the United States in America can truly have an impact on the dominance of the British Empire.
The French are actually easy to restrict. After all, the Germans' strength has not been weakened too much, so it is no problem to reluctantly confront France.
But Americans are different. The American's geography leaves his homeland virtually impervious to any threats.
Especially after the rise of the U.S. Navy, the United States no longer has to worry about the threat from Canada. It is the British Empire's biggest competitor in maintaining its world hegemony.
The French needed some time to recuperate after the war, but the Americans hardly did.
The Americans were not affected by the war, and they also made a small profit from the war by taking advantage of the arms trade after joining the war in the later period. This is why the British were on guard against the United States, and even decided to join forces with France to take a step when Australasia held the United States accountable for the flu.
Unlike European countries like Germany and France, countries like the United States have almost no natural enemies on their own soil and can only rely on united Australasia for restrictions.
In order to limit the Americans' crazy expansion of the navy, the United Kingdom proposed limiting the size of the navies of various countries at the World Alliance meeting, but the response was actually not very high.
First of all, the French do not agree with limiting the size of the navies of various countries. After all, after France received compensation from Germany, it did have the idea of competing with the United Kingdom.
At least now France has restored its status as the European hegemon. On the European continent, France is the most powerful country.
Although other countries have no intention of directly competing with the United Kingdom, no one wants to put an extra layer of shackles on their naval development for no reason.
In addition to the mediocre response from various countries, there is another important reason, that is, the United States is not in the world alliance.
As long as the United States does not sign the treaty, it can completely stay outside the treaty and wildly expand the size of its navy.
Therefore, the British gave up their plan to sign a naval limitation treaty, at least for a short time.
Unless all great powers and countries with the ability to build battleships can sign a naval limitation treaty, it will be unfair to the countries that signed the treaty.
Arthur maintained a wait-and-see attitude towards the British proposal. After all, Australasia did not need to significantly expand its navy in a short period of time. He was also happy to see other countries build a large number of super-dreadnoughts. They also invested in the construction of aircraft carriers. It will be a step slower.
Of course, Arthur was still very envious of the speed at which industrial powers like Britain, France, and the United States were building warships.
But even if it has enough funds, Australasia is completely unable to compete with industrial powers such as Britain, France and the United States in the warship race.
Improving the strength of Australasia's naval construction, building new shipyards and expanding existing shipyards are also the next steps.
At present, the warship shipyards in Australasia are mainly Sydney Shipyard, Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard.
These three major shipyards are responsible for almost all the construction of Australasian warships. Among them, the Royal Sydney Dockyard is the largest and can build more types of warships.
Although the Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard can build warships of tens of thousands of tons, it is still somewhat difficult to build super-dreadnoughts of nearly 20,000 tons.
To increase the speed and level of warship construction in Australasia, it is necessary to expand these three major shipyards.
At a cabinet meeting, Arthur formally proposed the expansion of the shipyard. After a study by the cabinet government, it was decided to invest 10 million Australian dollars to help the three major shipyards expand.
Among them, three docks at the Royal Sydney Dockyard will be expanded. The existing three docks can build warships up to 25,000 tons, but warships will continue to expand in the future, and 25,000 tons is obviously not enough. If you want to catch up with naval powers such as Britain, France and the United States, you must at least expand the maximum construction tonnage of the three docks of the Royal Sydney Dockyard to more than 35,000 tons, or even preferably to 40,000 tons, to strengthen Australasia's ability to develop super-large warships. construction capabilities.
At the same time, the Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard are being expanded to ensure that these two shipyards also have the ability to build large warships of more than 25,000 tons.
When the expansion of these three major shipyards is completed, Australasia can start construction of at least five super battleships or five aircraft carriers at the same time, and the construction speed will be able to catch up with industrial powers such as Britain, France and the United States.
The expansion of the three major shipyards will take approximately two to three years to complete and will basically not affect the construction of existing warships.
This expansion time is still enough for Arthur, and it will not affect Australasia's future naval expansion plan.
In addition to the expansion of the shipyard, railway construction and road construction in the Australasian mainland and colonies are also the top priority of the transportation sector plan for the new year.
Among other things, all newly occupied territories need to be deployed with railways and roads, so as to effectively increase Australasia's control over these areas.
Areas focusing on railway construction include the Persian Gulf territories, New Guinea, Sulawesi, etc., as well as Australia and New Zealand, which also need to further improve railway deployment.
In addition, road construction is also very important. The construction of railways was destined not to spread to every village and town, especially in the colonies.
In this way, the construction of roads is particularly important, especially when the penetration rate of various agricultural machinery and automobiles in Australasia is quite high.
The ring-island railway and highway in New Guinea, as well as the roads and railways built in the Persian Gulf territories for oil development and transportation, will be the most important work of the transportation department in the next year.
With the research on aircraft in various countries, the popularization of passenger aircraft will soon be realized.
Australasia actually already has a passenger aircraft, but there is no definite result yet on whether it will be put into commercial use.
The current maximum passenger capacity of the aircraft is only about 12, and it can only carry 10 passengers not counting the two pilots.
Although the speed of airplanes is faster than that of airships, the cost of airplanes is also higher than that of airships.
At present, most of the passenger planes in Australasia are for private use. Arthur flew on them twice during his inspection, and at other times, important government officials occasionally flew on them.
But it has to be said that the stability of airplanes is indeed higher than that of airships. According to the relevant tests of airships and aircraft conducted by Royal Australasian Airlines, the probability of an accident for an airship is approximately 3 in 10,000, and the probability of an accident for an aircraft is approximately 1 in 30,000, which is as high as 9 times. gap.
Although the probabilities of 3/10,000 and 1/30,000 seem to be very low, compared with the data that the probability of aviation accidents in later generations is less than 1/100000, the aircraft and airships of this era are still relatively dangerous.
This is why Arthur tries to avoid traveling by plane and airship. If there is a real emergency, domestic flights will be arranged instead of airships.
After all, the probability of one in 30,000 is still very low, so low that there have been no accidents in the current official flights of passenger planes in Australasia.
The second update of 4000 words, please vote for me and support!
Today, the daily number is 10,000, and it has been updated to 7200/10000. Please vote for me and support me!
(End of chapter)