The Rise Of Australasia - Chapter 345

Chapter 345: Chapter 298: The Crazy Shipbuilding Plan (Seeking monthly tickets!)_2

On September 26, 1911, Australasia’s expansion announcement was officially made public.

The announcement set off a storm of enthusiasm, almost overflowing recruitment centers in various cities of Australasia. Some people even queued up the night before to sign up as early as possible.

Royal financial group employees, military personnel, and officials should be the three most popular occupations in Australasia.

The reason is simple. Arthur’s Royal financial group is one of few companies in Australasia that thoroughly implement the eight-hour work system.

Moreover, employees of factories under the Royal financial group do not have to worry about wage cuts or reduced benefits.

Because if such problems are discovered and reported, they will not only receive a large amount of rewards but also not worry about losing their jobs.

As long as the report is true, the person who was reported would basically go to jail. Australasia is quite strict in punishing such behavior, and at the very least, the punishment would be imprisonment for more than ten years.

Obviously, no need to mention the military. The welfare and treatment of the military can even be regarded as one of the best in Australasia, plus there are certain rewards and gifts during holidays.

Moreover, with the pension system, reward system, and military merit system in place, the military has become a position that people in Australasia dream of.

Unfortunately, Australasia has a strict screening process for soldiers, and immigrants within three years cannot enter the military.

As for the last category of officials, it goes without saying. In any country, officials enjoy better benefits.

In addition to their salaries, officials’ welfare and various policies are also the most preferential, leading to their actual income being significantly higher than per capita annual income.

Even according to statistics from the Ministry of Finance, the average salary of all Australasia officials is as high as 190 Australian dollars, which is four times the average income of the Australasians.

Of course, this is actually due to the fact that the majority of ordinary officials have lowered the income of senior officials. For example, among the ministers of the Cabinet Government, the minimum income among them exceeds 6,000 Australian dollars. With various bonuses and welfare policies, the annual income is at least more than 10,000 Australian dollars.

However, while the income of Australasian officials is high, Australasia’s anti-corruption policies are very strict as well.

Although Arthur has not yet organized large-scale anti-corruption activities to date, according to Australasian law, embezzlement of more than 3,000 Australian dollars is a capital offense, and embezzlement of over 1,500 Australian dollars is life imprisonment.

The lightest punishment for embezzlement, which is not more than 200 Australian dollars, also faces dismissal and punishment, and the person and their immediate family members are prohibited from holding office for three generations.

For officials, it is not worth taking such a big risk to embezzle. After all, the income of Australasian officials is not low, and it is considered high compared to some European countries.

What Arthur and the Ministry of Defense did not expect was that the fuss over expansion within the country led to a total of 500,000 registration requests at local recruitment centers within a week.

Arthur originally thought that it would take at least a month to fill the 100,000 expansion quota.

Now it seems that even if all recruitment centers stop recruiting now, these 500,000 registration requests are enough to select more than 100,000 qualified soldiers.

The recruitment plan of the Ministry of Defense was promptly terminated, and the main task now is to select the best 100,000 soldiers from more than 500,000 registration requests and join the army.

As Australasia began to expand its military on a large scale, the situation on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe finally changed.

The first event was a revolt staged by the inhabitants of the previously Italian-occupied Tripoli region.

This forced Italy to expand its expeditionary forces to 90,000 and brutally suppress the Turkish people in the occupied areas.

Up until now, the development of the Italo-Turkish War has somewhat taken the Italians by surprise.

Despite having advanced equipment, a larger army, and sufficient preparations, Italy achieved good victories in the early stages of the war.

However, the war has now reached a stalemate, as the combat capabilities of the Italian army are not as strong, and the lack of coordination within the Italian forces has led to even poorer performance.

Yet, this news is a welcome sight for the Balkan nations and the Russian Empire.

A month ago, Australasia had already delivered 20,000 rifles and millions of bullets from the 50,000 rifle order agreed upon with Nicholas II to the Far East, as per his request.

This allowed Arthur to finally understand Nicholas II’s intentions, which were to sell Russian weapons to the Balkan League and use the profits to purchase German weapons from Australasia.

That was also the reason why Nicholas II requested that weapons and equipment be transported to the Far East.

Although the actions of the Russian Empire were somewhat underhanded, the fact remains that there are only interests between nations.

For Arthur, it did not matter who ultimately received the shipment of weapons. What mattered was that Australasia could expand its arms trade market overseas and also clear out the accumulated production inventory.

Indeed, several years ago, Arthur had already made preparations for the upcoming World War I. This has caused military factories in Australasia to continue production, despite no expansion of their forces in recent years.

So far, the military factory inventory includes hundreds of thousands of rifles and billions of bullets, as well as thousands of cannons and millions of shells.

In order to produce these weapons and equipment, Arthur has invested a significant amount of funds, waiting for the outbreak of World War I to make even more profits from these armaments.

The Balkan League in the Balkan Region has been formed for more than two months, and these small nations are already making intensive preparations.

If Arthur’s predictions are accurate, the First Balkan War should break out soon, as Italy and Turkey are now fiercely engaged in conflict, which is indeed the best opportunity for the Balkan League to take action.

Before the outbreak of the Balkan conflict, there was another important piece of news in Europe: the new shipbuilding plan announced by the Germans.

Speaking of shipbuilding plans, it is impossible not to mention the psychological impact of the Second Moroccan Crisis on the Germans.

Although the outcome of the crisis was that the Germans successfully obtained part of the French Congo colony, the close alliance between Britain and France during the crisis made it clear to the Germans that their biggest enemy had become the British and French, rather than just the French.

Being enemies with the British made the importance of the navy unparalleled, which is the real reason for the Germans’ announcement of the new shipbuilding plan.

So far, the Germans have a total of four Monarch-class battleships: Nassau, Westfalen, Rhine, and Posen.

And they also have four other battleships under construction: Helgoland (expected to be completed this October), Ostfriesland (expected to be completed this October), Rhine (expected to be completed this November), and Posen (expected to be completed next March).

This means that, by the end of this year’s shipbuilding plan, the Germans will have almost eight dreadnoughts.

But this clearly does not satisfy the appetite of the Germans, as the number of dreadnoughts publicly disclosed by the British far exceeds that of the Germans.

The British dreadnoughts include the world’s first dreadnought, the Dreadnought-class battleship, three Bellerophon-class battleships, three St Vincent-class battleships, and two Colossus-class battleships, totaling nine battleships. In addition, there is one Neptune-class battleship under construction (expected to be completed this November).

If the so-called battlecruisers built by the British are also counted, their current main battleships even total 11.

Such a huge gap in naval power makes the Germans anxious about their navy and prompts William II to be determined to expand the naval construction plan.