The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 48

Chapter 48: Returning to Australia

Translator: 549690339 |

October 24,1900, the first day after Queen Victoria’s death.

As soon as the queen stopped breathing yesterday afternoon, someone was assigned to collect Queen Victoria’s body and transport it back to the British mainland for burial.

Although Queen Victoria always wanted to stay on White Island, as the monarch of the British Empire and the queen admired and revered by all British people, her body was ultimately to be buried in the royal cemetery on the British mainland.

The transportation of the body was very difficult; traveling from White Island to the British mainland took at least half a month, and the time could be even longer if resupplying along the way was taken into account.

To have Queen Victoria transported to the British mainland as soon as possible, Crown Prince Edward ordered the HMS Renown to be responsible for the operation.

As one of the fastest warships in the Royal Navy, the Renown could cover the voyage from the British mainland to New Zealand in just over twenty days.

While Britain was busy transporting Queen Victoria’s body, there was no reason for the royal families and upper echelons of other countries to continue staying on White Island.

Everyone bid each other farewell and then boarded warships to return to their own countries.

Among them, the only one with some friendship with Arthur was William II. Before leaving, William II specifically called Arthur aside, and the two talked for a while.

William II was very surprised by Queen Victoria’s care and love for Arthur. Originally, he planned to stay beside his grandmother Queen Victoria last night to win the good graces of the British people.

However, to his surprise, it was because of Arthur that he, as an emperor, did not approach Queen Victoria last night.

However, William II did not mind; he only reaffirmed the cooperation treaty between Germany and Australia.

After all, it is evident to anyone with eyes that after Queen Victoria handed over the administration of British New Guinea and New Zealand to Arthur, Australia would become the most powerful country in the Southern Hemisphere with no rivals in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

The only competitor to Australia, the British Empire, not only had the soon-to- be King Edward agree to a non-aggression treaty under Queen Victoria’s request but also promised to protect Australia as an independent country for ten years.

With ten years and the dual support of the British Empire and Germany, Australia could undoubtedly fully integrate the power of British New Guinea and New Zealand, and even the British Empire would be helpless to deal with this monster it created.

However, William II was still happy about it since Germany had little interest in this area other than a piece of German New Guinea.

But in reality, whether it’s British New Guinea or German New Guinea, the population is not very large; even the entire New Guinea has just reached a population of 1.4 million.

In William H’s heart, if he could exchange German New Guinea for the strong support of the integrated Australia for Germany in World War I, that would be acceptable.

If the Australia before integration could only harass France’s colonies from the rear, the integrated Australia would have the ability to threaten France’s colonies in future wars, and even annexation of some remote areas would not be a problem.

Take French New Caledonia, for example, which is very close to the Australian mainland. If a conflict between Australia and France broke out, could France defend this area?

It should be known that the logistical costs brought by distance are measured in tens of times, and the cost of defending this area by France may far exceed the value of the area itself.

Therefore, William H’s intention to win Arthur over was even more apparent, even specifically promising to arrange support for Australian industry after returning and expedite German-Australian cooperation.

The reason for William Il’s urgency was that, before Queen Victoria’s death, she had specifically instructed the British Empire to provide at least 5 million pounds of support to Australia each year for ten years and not to cut off the source of immigrants.

This would bring Australia, which was already breaking away from the United Kingdom, even closer to the United Kingdom, which was not in the interests of William II.

In order to win over Arthur, William II decided to initiate a plan for German immigration to Australia. As long as more than half of Australia’s population was German, wouldn’t Australia’s policies subtly lean towards Germany?

Arthur did not know William Il’s inner thoughts, but even if he did, he would only give a light smile.

To change the population structure of Australia, at least 4 million Germans would have to emigrate to Australia.

Such a huge number is simply impossible for Germany to accomplish even in twenty years, let alone ten.

And during these twenty years, Australia could attract millions or even tens of millions of immigrants from all over Europe and even the world, making it even more impossible to change the entire immigrant structure.

The only way to turn the majority of Australians into German descendants is to introduce immigrants only from Germany to Australia in a short period of time.

But Arthur is not stupid, although the German population has a relatively high literacy rate and is generally more educated.

However, after all, in an immigrant country like Australia, it is necessary to ensure the advantage and proportion of the main ethnic group.

Although Arthur is willing to accept immigrants from other countries, this must be based on the condition that the proportion of Australians of British descent remains more than fifty percent of Australia’s total population.

An immigrant country needs diversification, but the right to speak requires only one. In order to prevent future immigration from giving birth to many problems, it is necessary to increase the proportion of the main ethnic group.

After saying goodbye to William II, Arthur also set sail for Australia on a warship.

But this time, in addition to Prince Edward, there were two thousand Royal Guards and hundreds of attendants around Arthur.

The Royal Guards are naturally the elite troops of the British Army. With Arthur’s original guards, the scale of the guards will reach four thousand, making Arthur’s position even firmer.

Queen Victoria’s gift of these attendants to Arthur is not without intent. After all, Arthur is an outsider in Australia, and although he has successfully seized power and gained the support of most Australians, some things still need to be guarded against.

In addition, Arthur’s forces in the United Kingdom have been completely thrown away. It would theoretically be very difficult for Arthur to recruit loyal attendants.

After all, no one can guarantee the loyalty of the newly recruited attendants. People’s hearts are separated by their stomachs.

But the attendants of Queen Victoria are different. Most of them have served in the British royal family since childhood, with extreme loyalty to Queen Victoria.

After Queen Victoria gave these attendants to Arthur, their loyalty changed to Arthur as well.

These people are much more loyal than the attendants Arthur had painstakingly recruited in Australia, and they are even more experienced in serving people and as subordinates.