Chapter 517 Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Arms
As time entered October of 1919, the influenza that had disappeared seemed to be spreading again.
Of course, compared with the second epidemic, which was more lethal, this epidemic is not that serious. Many people's symptoms are just a severe cold, which is not life-threatening in most cases.
Following Arthur's order, various departments in Australasia responded urgently to deal with the resurgence of the influenza virus.
Although data from Europe and the United States show that the fatality rate of the third round of influenza is not high, the Australasian government is still prepared and has not been careless or slack at all.
No matter what, the U.S. pandemic has caused huge damage to the country’s economy and society, as well as to people’s lives and safety.
Since the third round of influenza spread in Europe and the United States in early October, in just a few days, hundreds of thousands of people have been infected and thousands of people have died. The horrific figures have also made European newspapers and media once again scream wolf.
This pandemic has been completely classified as an American pandemic. The people who least want to see the flu continue to spread are Americans.
If nothing else, the name of the pandemic in the United States is enough to make Americans fearful of the flu.
When newspapers and media in almost all countries reported on the flu, they constantly mentioned the name of the American flu pandemic and attempted to blame the United States for the casualties caused by the flu.
There are even some good European media that are already promoting the conspiracy theory that the United States is spreading the flu again, which makes Americans who originally dare not keep a high profile in the international community completely become a coward, for fear that the World Alliance will once again blame them. .
Unfortunately, this kind of thing cannot be avoided by Americans if they want.
If the second spread was famous for its high mortality rate, then the third spread was famous for its high infection rate.
Areas that were not originally affected by the second round of influenza spread, such as some remote and closed islands and sparsely populated mountainous areas, have basically seen more or less cases.
It's okay if it's a relatively developed area, because of the improvement of medical facilities, the real mortality rate is generally maintained below 5%, and can even be reduced to about 2%.
But those areas where treatment is not developed, such as some islands in the Pacific and some indigenous tribes, can only suffer from the raging influenza.
The Dutch East Indies was severely affected again. In less than half a month, the number of infections exceeded one million, and the death toll exceeded 200,000.
Those Dutch people who used to walk proudly on the streets are now huddled in the city and dare not go out.
They were afraid that the influenza spread among the indigenous people would be infected with them. This also led the Dutch East Indies government to issue relatively strict restrictions, prohibiting any indigenous people from approaching the cities of the Dutch East Indies, and restricting the indigenous people in existing cities. Evict them all.
Many indigenous tribes even died in groups one after another, which also reduced the number of indigenous people in Southeast Asia.
Influenza was also spread among the indigenous people in Sulawesi under the control of Australasia. In order to solve this hidden danger, Arthur decided to expel some of the indigenous people to the Dutch East Indies to reduce the possibility of plague after the mass death of the indigenous people. A more serious crisis.
These natives have no concept of civilization and hygiene. In the best case, they will be buried on the spot. In the worst case, they will not even care. They either wait for the beasts in the forest to eat the corpse, or they can only wait for the power of nature. Let the corpse decay naturally.
Sulawesi has an indigenous population of approximately 5 million, and more than 1.5 million indigenous people have been recruited to work in Australasia.
Among them, as many as 800,000 indigenous people work in the mines. These people are also free labor in the mines.
Almost all of the remaining 3.5 million indigenous people are on the list of deportees from Australasia.
However, as the country develops, manpower such as indigenous people becomes less and less important, and sooner or later they will all be expelled from the land of Australasia.
However, the action of expelling the indigenous people is slow. It will take at least ten years or so for all five million indigenous people to be deported, or even longer.
The spread of influenza naturally also affected the United States and the Philippines, which was controlled by the United States.
In a short period of time, the influenza infected hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and killed thousands.
But there is also a good thing for the Philippines, that is, it can deepen the hatred between it and the United States and further arouse the Filipino people's dissatisfaction with the United States.
No way, who gave the name of the flu the American Flu? The American influenza pandemic has caused such heavy casualties in the Philippines. If the Philippines doesn’t look to the United States, who will it look to?
Although due to the impact of influenza, operations in the Philippines have been temporarily suspended. However, the recruitment of troops by the three major local forces in the Philippines has not stopped at all. On the contrary, because of the dissatisfaction of Filipino people with the United States, more people are willing to join the resistance to the United States.
At the end of October 1919, the British, who had been silent for a while, finally planned to take action.
The British put forward three proposals at the new World League meeting. The first, as before, was a proposal to reduce the reparations for the Germans.
The second item is to limit the size of navies around the world to prevent unnecessary naval arms races like the one before World War I.
As for the third proposal, the United States is required to explain the spread of the third round of influenza and provide certain compensation.
Regardless of whether the fatality rate of influenza is high, the economic damage to countries around the world is quite serious.
Seeing the spread of the third round of influenza intensifying, Americans still have no say so far, and the British will not let them go.
For the British, if they have such an opportunity to suppress their competitors in a fair and just way, they will not miss it even if they think about it with their toes.
At present, the most important competitors of the British are France and the United States. Before France completely recovers, the threat level is not as great as that of the United States.
The main reason why the British proposed to limit the number of naval armaments in various countries around the world was to limit the Americans.
The French don't have much thought about building a navy at this time. The current competitor of the British Royal Navy is actually the American navy.
In terms of the current scale and comprehensive strength of the navies of various countries, the British Empire is still the well-deserved number one in the world, the United States is second in the world, and France is third in the world.
After that, Australasia, Italy, Russia, and island countries ranked fourth to seventh.
As for the eighth in the world, no one cares. There is already a big gap between the top seven.
Australasia's overall naval strength ranks fourth in the world. In fact, it can be seen how the status and strength of various countries in the world have changed dramatically after the end of World War I. In terms of navy, Australasia was far from a rival to the British Empire. Only France and the United States have the strength and capital to compete with the British.
The proposal to reduce German loans has once again been shelved. The resurgence of the flu is bound to cause economic losses to various countries again. Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible to reduce the proportion of German reparations.
The British's third proposal, which required an explanation and further compensation from the Americans, was endorsed and supported by most of the World Alliance member states.
The World League had already done something like this a year ago.
At that time, the Americans retreated quickly, and also shouldered a compensation of up to 20 billion US dollars, allowing the member countries of the World Alliance to make a small profit and save a large number of losses caused during the influenza period.
Obviously, the major member states of the World Alliance still want to repeat their old tricks and let Americans bear the losses from the flu.
Regarding the proposal to limit the number of naval armaments of various countries, the meetings and talks of the World Alliance were quite polarizing.
Most small and medium-sized countries maintain an indifferent attitude towards this. After all, even if there are no restrictions on the number and tonnage of warships, they will not build those super large warships, let alone compete with superpowers like the United Kingdom, because that will not only waste people and money, but It is a huge financial pressure that they simply cannot bear.
You must know that the cost of warships does not end when the construction is completed. Putting aside the cost of a warship, the fuel costs required to operate the warship, the salary of naval soldiers, and the maintenance and upkeep costs of some equipment, including the use and consumption of various weapons, as well as the daily expenses of the entire navy, plus It seems like a very huge number.
A super battleship has hundreds to thousands of soldiers, and all kinds of miscellaneous expenses add up to tens of thousands of pounds per year.
Whenever a warship has a problem during operation, the maintenance cost is enough to cause a headache for a small and medium-sized country, let alone maintaining a large fleet, which is something that even some great powers cannot do.
The only country that does not agree with limiting naval armaments, or is slightly prepared for it, is France.
Although the French industry and economy have suffered considerable losses, France is not currently short of money. After all, the compensation from Germany and the United States has turned France's finances from losses to profits. It is even more difficult to build a huge army. easy.
If a treaty on limiting naval armaments is reached, the disadvantages will definitely outweigh the advantages for a country like France.
However, after the British Empire took over some German warships, the gap has widened compared to the United States and France, which are second and third.
The British fleet deployed on the mainland alone is enough to give the French a headache, not to mention the Indian Ocean Fleet deployed in India and the Far East Fleet in East Asia.
The Royal Navy with the three major fleets combined has no problem against the combined navies of the United States and France. This kind of pressure on the navy is huge.
What the French are more curious about is that in order to reach such a treaty restricting naval armaments, it is necessary to impose restrictions on all countries that have concluded the treaty.
This is not a good thing for the British Empire. After all, the British have to build warships in accordance with the treaty. It is almost impossible to maintain their huge advantage over the United States and France.
If the British made any small moves in the treaty, this would be impossible. After all, the United States and France are not vegetarians. At worst, they will tear up the treaty and not recognize the agreement.
From this point of view, the proposal put forward by the British may shoot themselves in the foot. What are their intentions?
The British also understood which countries this naval arms limitation treaty was aimed at. Therefore, they deliberately skipped countries that did not have the ability to independently build battleships, and only required countries to sign treaties with countries that had the ability to independently build battleships.
In the entire world, there are currently only a few major powers that can independently build the most advanced dreadnoughts.
To be honest, as long as the treaty proposed by the British is fair, basically no country will reject this treaty.
At least Arthur would not refuse. After all, Australasia did not have the idea of attacking the British naval supremacy in a short period of time, and naturally it would not be stupid enough to initiate a naval arms race.
However, it is not easy to come up with a completely fair restriction agreement. The restrictions on the naval tonnage of the major powers must be kept within a range acceptable to all major powers. Otherwise, no one will be willing to sign this treaty, and even if they sign it, they will not be willing to implement it.
But the problem is that the situation in each country is hugely different, and the restrictions for each country should also be different.
For example, the United States now ranks first in the world in terms of industry and economy, but its current naval strength only ranks second, and there is still a huge gap between it and the British Empire.
If there are restrictions on the size of the U.S. Navy, which data to refer to and what restrictions will be implemented are things that the British have to consider.
Britain is not as good as the United States in terms of industry and economy. This does not mean that the restrictions on the British should be higher, and the Americans should build a larger navy.
But the problem is that the British purpose of proposing this naval restriction agreement is definitely to restrict the navies of other countries. Doing so would run counter to the British purpose.
Arthur also received the news, but was not in a hurry.
How to sign this agreement is a headache for the British. It is the British who made the proposal and the British who want to sign the agreement. Other countries have no intention of signing this agreement, at least they will not take the initiative to go to the British. Of course.
After many meetings of the World Alliance and private meetings with the major powers, a preliminary agreement was finally reached, which is the basis for delineating the size and proportion of each country's navy in the naval restriction agreement.
To determine whether a country is strong or not, industry and economy are an integral part. Therefore, in this naval restriction agreement, a very important part of the basis for determining the size and proportion of each country's navy is the actual industrial and economic situation of each country.
It takes a long time to investigate the actual industrial and economic conditions of various countries. Coupled with the impact of the current influenza, I am afraid it will not be possible within one or two years.
This also means that the signing of this agreement to restrict the navy will have to wait until at least two years later.
In addition to the industrial and economic scale of each country, the existing naval scale is also a major reference factor. After all, the British industry and economy are not the largest in the world, but the scale of the navy is actually the largest in the world.
What is different in history is that the international status and influence of Americans have changed significantly.
According to Arthur's estimation, the American naval share will not be as large as in history. There will be a certain gap with the British, ranking second or third in the world.
In the end, the proportion of navies in each country should follow the situation of Britain > United States ≥ France > Australasia > Russia ≥ Italy ≥ island countries, but the actual shares and proportions will depend on the actual data surveyed by each country.
I'm just being lazy today, so I'll update this one, and two more updates tomorrow
(end of this chapter)