Chapter 511 Technical Research
The Russian Civil War has been going on for a long time now. The armed intervention of the World Alliance has made the Russian Civil War the hottest news in recent times.
In Australasia, there was another person who paid more attention to the Russian Civil War than Arthur, and that was Queen Mary from the Romanov family.
After a normal cabinet meeting, Arthur saw Queen Mary, who looked a little unnatural, and asked curiously: "Mary, what do you want from me?" Under normal circumstances, Queen Mary would not disturb Arthur
. meetings with government officials.
It must be something unusual that would make Queen Mary uncharacteristic of herself.
"Well, Arthur, how long will it take for our army to reach Russia?" Queen Mary asked with some worry.
"Hasn't the time for the World Alliance's armed intervention been announced to the outside world? Our army will have to wait at least two months to arrive in Russia." Arthur smiled and took Queen Mary's hand, and asked about Queen Mary's treatment of her mother's family. The worry is very understandable.
In fact, Arthur would only think there was a problem if Queen Mary was not worried about the situation in Russia at all.
Although she has become the queen of Australasia, Russia is also the place where Mary has lived for more than ten years. It is not only her hometown, but also her relatives.
After hearing Arthur's answer, Queen Mary breathed a sigh of relief, and most of the sadness on her face disappeared.
In fact, the Russian civil war is really not an easy problem to solve. Even with the current military intervention of the World Alliance, Arthur is not optimistic that the Russian Civil War can be completely ended.
First of all, a peaceful and unified Russia must be a great power country and have the strength to compete with the British Empire in Europe and Asia. This is something the British absolutely do not want to see.
The reason why the British were willing to intervene with force to help the Tsarist Russian Empire was simply that they saw that Tsarist Russia could no longer resist the attack of Soviet Russia and wanted to find a balance between the two forces in Russia.
But when it comes to directly helping the Russian Empire end this civil war, the British really don't have such good intentions.
Apart from anything else, as long as the Russian Civil War continues, European countries will continue to export various materials to Russia, exchanging gold reserves, mineral materials, etc. from Russia.
Because of the reparations from the defeated countries and the reparations from the Americans for influenza, Tsarist Russia's financial situation is much better than in history.
This is also the reason why Tsarist Russia has been able to persist until now and has not been defeated by Soviet Russia in the civil war.
However, no matter how strong the family fortune is, it cannot withstand a long war. The crisis currently facing Tsarist Russia is not just financial.
Although Britain and France did provide assistance to Russia, the scale of British and French assistance was somewhat intriguing.
When the aid from Australasia has not arrived or has been consumed, aid from Britain and France will arrive in batches to ensure that Nicholas II can hold on.
But if assistance from Australasia or other countries had just been received by the Russian government, Britain and France would slow down their aid to Russia to ensure that Russia would not become too strong and the civil war would continue.
The embarrassing situation that Russia currently faces is that almost all major powers want the Russian civil war to continue.
There is no way, the profits brought by the arms trade are too huge, coupled with the export of various materials, this has formed a huge chain of interests, allowing the capital of various countries to influence the government, thereby promoting the continuation of the Russian Civil War.
If Britain and France had done their best to support Tsarist Russia, the Russian Civil War would not have developed to what it is now.
You know, Soviet Russia was very poor at the beginning and could not afford to support an army of millions.
Tsarist Russia has double reparations from the defeated countries and the United States. The income from reparations alone reaches tens of millions of pounds every year, and it has an overwhelming advantage in terms of funds.
But the difference between the two Russian governments is that the tsarist government represents the old forces, and the capitalist class and aristocracy that support the tsarist government are not so loyal.
But the working class that supported Soviet Russia was different. Under the influence of the Bolshevik Party, the entire Soviet Russia was united, which was beyond the reach of the Tsarist government.
Even though Nicholas II knew that the Russian Civil War had the result of British and French laissez-faire, Nicholas II had no choice.
After all, if Tsarist Russia wants to win the civil war, it must rely on the support of Britain and France. Today's Russia simply does not dare to offend Britain, France and Australasia.
As long as these countries cut off aid to Russia, this will be a fatal blow to Tsarist Russia, and may even directly lead to the end of the Russian Civil War and the demise of the Tsarist government.
Fortunately, the Romanov family had accumulated a lot of wealth during its hundreds of years of rule in Russia. Nicholas II was not short of money for the time being, and he did not need to lose face and borrow money from other countries.
Otherwise, it is hard to say whether other countries are willing to lend money to Russia. After all, it seems that Tsarist Russia's hope of winning the civil war is very slim.
Isn't lending money to Tsarist Russia a disguised attempt to help Tsarist Russia win the war? Otherwise, if Tsarist Russia failed in the civil war and the country simply ceased to exist, from whom would the loan be repaid?
Not to mention that Britain and France wanted to continue the Russian Civil War, even Australasia and Arthur could not refuse the huge profits brought by the Russian Civil War.
Through trade with Nicholas II during the Russian Civil War, Australasia has obtained a large amount of mineral materials and gold reserves from Russia, including even the immigrant population. These are relatively valuable properties of Russia. For Australia It also plays a big role in Greater Asia.
In particular, gold reserves can make Australasia's Australian dollar stronger, which is of high strategic significance to Australasia.
Judging from the current situation in the United States, it is impossible for the U.S. dollar to become a global currency.
Currently, relatively strong currencies include, in addition to the pound sterling of the British Empire, the French franc, the Australian dollar of Australasia, the U.S. dollar, and so on.
However, both the franc and the US dollar are depreciating, especially the franc, whose value cannot be guaranteed due to the impact of the war.
The British pound and the Australian dollar, which have not depreciated so severely, should be the two strongest currencies in the world.
Although the Australian dollar was established on the basis of the British pound, Arthur also has the ambition to promote the Australian dollar globally.
However, the current scale of Australian dollar issuance is not large, and in most cases it is only circulated within Australasia. This is also the biggest problem currently facing the Australian dollar.
To solve this problem, we must have more gold reserves so that we can print more currency and truly push the Australian dollar towards globalization.
Speaking of the globalization of the Australian dollar, next year's National Day also represents the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom of Australasia. Arthur will not only hold a grand military parade, but also plans to reform the currency.
At that time, the Australian dollar was promulgated more for the country to have its own currency. In many ways, it copied the British pound, which also resulted in a lot of overlap with the British pound. Arthur plans to turn the Australian dollar into a truly independent currency, linked only to gold, to increase the Australian dollar's influence around the world.
At the same time, a certain amount of commemorative currency will be issued to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom, and some corresponding activities will be promulgated.
In late September 1919, Arthur met with Einstein, Honorary President of the Royal Academy of Australasia, and Tesla, Honorary Vice President, and inquired about the scientific research work of the Royal Academy of Sciences in recent times.
The development of the Royal Academy of Sciences is still very rapid. The Victoria Prize attracts talents to Australasia, which also leads to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Australasia attracting many famous European and American physicists and chemists.
Up to now, the Royal Australasian Academy of Sciences has a total scale of more than 500 people.
Don't underestimate the size of these five hundred people. All of these five hundred people are famous scientists. At best, they have considerable experience and reputation in their own industries. It is no problem to be called intercontinental famous.
For these more than 500 people, Arthur invests up to 20 million Australian dollars in research funds to the Royal Academy of Sciences every year. The average research funding per person is as high as 40,000 Australian dollars, which is enough to show that Arthur attaches great importance to scientific research work.
Of course, some large-scale research projects of the Royal Academy of Sciences have consumed some funds, which has resulted in the actual research funds per person being only a little over 20,000, but it is definitely a lot.
You know, the Royal Academy of Sciences has cooperation with Australasian universities. Not only these 500 people are involved in the research project, but also many professors and college students from the universities. It can be said that basically all the high-level talents in Australasia are involved. .
Arthur has never been stingy with the research funds of the Royal Academy of Sciences. As long as it is not deliberately wasted, Arthur does not care too much even if it exceeds the budget.
At present, the main technical direction of the Royal Academy of Sciences' research is, first of all, the research and development of power transmission and transformation technology, which is also related to the development of Australasia's electrical industry and promotes the progress of Australasia's civil and industrial electricity.
Secondly, the Royal Academy of Sciences is also studying new elements of physics. This is mainly the responsibility of physicists, who spend hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars on research every year.
In addition, rocket and missile research and development, nuclear field exploration, crude oil and mineral material exploration technology, improvement of smelting technology, development and improvement of train power and braking systems, chemical industry, bioengineering and other technologies are also royal Research scope of the Academy of Sciences.
Last year, the Royal Academy of Sciences conducted more than 400 studies, with an average cost of 50,000 Australian dollars per research project. This is definitely not a small number.
Judging from the current per capita income in Australasia, the research funds for each project are enough for an Australasian to work for more than 800 years without eating or drinking. This is a very exaggerated range of figures.
It can be seen that the research of the Royal Academy of Sciences covers civilian and military fields, as well as practical and theoretical research.
Among them, Einstein was responsible for exploration in the nuclear field, while Tesla was responsible for electric current transmission and transformation projects.
Basically, every large-scale project will have a sufficient number of technical personnel to serve as the main R&D, and there will also be a large number of famous experts and university professors to perform auxiliary work.
The participation of college students can also improve their knowledge level and learn some knowledge in such a large-scale study.
For Arthur, these university students are the next generation of technical experts in Australasia, who will be trained in advance. It’s also good for Australasia.
A strong youth makes a country strong, this saying is not just a saying. Only when the knowledge level of these college students meets the needs of Australasia's development, will the country's development proceed steadily rather than stand still.
Basically, every college student will have the opportunity to intern and study in a research laboratory, it just depends on the number of opportunities.
Generally speaking, there are not a few college students who have made progress in such internship and learning opportunities, but there are also many college students who are dawdling.
Arthur does not expect to train all college students into top talents. After all, the country also needs some middle- and low-end talents, right?
Among all the research projects of the Royal Academy of Sciences, what Arthur attaches more importance to, or the most important ones are actually research in the nuclear field and missile and rocket projects.
As the most powerful weapons of later generations, as well as the most powerful conventional weapons, nuclear weapons and missiles have no doubt about their external deterrence and are definitely a country’s trump card.
As long as we have these two weapons, the advantages of manpower are no longer advantages, and the flaws of manpower are no longer flaws.
Of course, this is only about war. Manpower is still very helpful for economic and social development. After all, it is more difficult for a country with fewer people to develop than a country with more people.
There is no doubt about the power of nuclear weapons. As a taboo weapon that can easily cause hundreds of thousands or even millions of casualties, it has only been used a few times in later generations, and they were all aimed at the same country.
But the achievements shown by nuclear weapons these few times have made all countries in the world crazy, and the major powers are researching nuclear weapons at all costs.
The research on missiles and rockets is also very important for the development of the country. Under the premise that nuclear weapons cannot be used, missiles have become a country's most powerful weapon, and they are also one of the carriers of nuclear weapons.
In later generations, nuclear weapons were carried in a variety of ways, including aircraft, warships, submarines, missiles, etc.
The most powerful deterrents are submarines and missiles.
Because submarines have good concealment, they can cause devastating strikes by surprise. Nuclear submarines are also one of the main directions for the development of submarines in later generations.
Missiles are the most direct way to carry nuclear weapons. Intercontinental missiles allow the range of nuclear weapons to cover the entire world, and also greatly increase the influence of countries that possess nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles.
After all, this is a super weapon that can really cover the whole world without leaving home. Not many countries in the world will be able to control it 100 years from now.
Having said this, we have to lament again the promotion of science and technology by war.
Before World War I, the development of science and technology was actually very slow. World War I directly made aircraft and tanks the most advanced weapons. World War II not only developed more advanced aircraft and tanks, but also missiles and nuclear weapons.
During the subsequent Cold War confrontation, space shuttles, manned rockets, nuclear-powered submarines, and the moon landing that mankind has dreamed of for thousands of years have all been realized. This is something that mankind could not even imagine a few decades ago.
If there had not been two world wars, even though human science and technology would still have progressed, it would never have been as exaggerated as in later generations.
In order not to fall behind other countries, countries invest huge amounts in military science and technology, which is even an important reason for bringing down countries in wars.
Among other things, the tens of billions of dollars spent each year by the European powers, especially Britain, France and Germany in World War I, are something that even Australasia cannot afford now.
However, it can also be clearly seen that such a huge cost has harmed these countries, which is why Australasia is currently able to surpass France in industry.
Even if it weren't for the huge gap in population, there might not be a clear answer as to whether Australasia's overall strength is stronger than France's.
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(End of chapter)