Chapter 254 London Games

After the meeting, Arthur summoned Minister Grant again to inquire about the current work of the Propaganda Department.

For Australasia, there is another important event that needs to be included, that is, the 1908 London Olympics held in London, England at the end of April.

Since its birth, the Olympic Games have been successfully held three times. According to historical data, 22 countries signed up for the 1908 London Olympics, and the number of athletes participating in the Olympics reached more than 2,000.

This means that countries around the world have gradually begun to pay attention to the Olympics, a stage that can show national strength in a peaceful way, and countries around the world do not want to lose face on such occasions.

It is worth mentioning that New Zealand in history also participated in this Olympics as part of Australasia.

Australasia did not participate in the last Olympics. After all, the scale of the Olympics was not too large at that time, and Australasia’s sports level was not too high at that time. If it went, it would only be at the bottom, which was really unnecessary.

It is still necessary to participate in this London Olympics. After all, there are many countries and athletes participating, and it is also good for Australasia to show up appropriately.

More importantly, Arthur wanted to host the next Olympic Games in Australia.

The next Olympic Games was held in 1912, and the development of Australasia would definitely reach a new level.

At that time, the army and navy had already formed a scale, and it was time to announce the existence of Australasia to the outside world.

The 1902 Games were originally scheduled to be held in Germany, but because the chairman of the German Olympic Committee suddenly died of illness in May 1909, Germany gave up the right to host the Games and instead placed the venue in Sweden.

This is somewhat similar to the experience of the 1908 Olympic Games this year. This year's Olympic Games were originally scheduled to be held in Rome, Italy, but because of multiple earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that caused huge losses to Italy's economy, Italy finally gave up the right to host the Games.

In order to hold the Olympic Games as scheduled, the International Olympic Committee asked Britain for help, and finally held the Olympic Games in London.

From such events, it can also be seen that major countries do not attach so much importance to the Olympic Games. To put it bluntly, each country only cares about its own reputation, not the number of medals won in the Olympic Games.

At present, the Olympic events include athletics, swimming, water polo, fencing, gymnastics, rowing, cycling, football, classical wrestling, tennis and shooting.

The purpose of Arthur summoning Minister Grant was to let Minister Grant quickly form an Olympic delegation in the country, and then go to London before the Olympic Games on April 27 to participate on time.

The purpose of participating in the Olympics this time is just to show off, and the number of medals won is not important.

As long as the International Olympic Committee can recognize the existence of Australasia, and rely on the relationship with Germany to take over smoothly after Germany gives up the right to host in the future, then the purpose of going to London this time will be successfully achieved.

The number of participants in the London Olympics is more than the sum of the previous three Olympic Games. Of course, this is also because the host country Britain sent the largest team of more than 700 participants.

You know, in this Olympic Games, the total number of participating athletes is only over 2,000, and more than one-third of them are sent by Britain itself.

In the final analysis, the functional departments of Australasia are too simple, and there is no real sports department to manage these things.

Therefore, the task of participating in the Olympics was also assigned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or more precisely, the Propaganda Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After discussions with Minister Grant, the approximate number of people participating in the Games in Australasia was finally determined, with a maximum of no more than fifty people.

Australasia's current awareness of competitive sports is still very weak, and it is better to select elite teams to participate than to form a large participating team.

As for the specific participating events, it depends on what the athletes recruited later are good at.

After a simple instruction, Arthur encouraged Minister Grant's work in the Propaganda Department, asking Minister Grant not to forget to continue to supervise the Propaganda Department's actions at home and abroad while preparing for the Olympics.

As time entered early April, the Australian House of Representatives election has begun to warm up nationwide.

Unlike the cabinet election, the House of Representatives election can be regarded as a real national election. Legal citizens who are over 18 years old and have lived in Australasia for more than five years have the right to vote.

Of course, the right to be elected is more stringent. In addition to these conditions, you must also live in Australasia for ten years, and you and your family have never violated any laws in Australasia.

Walking on the streets of Australasia, you can always hear people from all walks of life discussing the House of Representatives election.

The development of political parties is becoming more and more formalized, which also means that the competition between political parties in the House of Representatives is becoming more and more intense.

Because this kind of competition has no impact on the rule of the royal family and the government, this kind of competition using peaceful and fair means is allowed.

Anyway, there are only so many seats in the House of Representatives. If you want to get more seats and more public support, you must defeat other political parties. At least the public speeches must make sense and move people more than other parties.

According to the rules of the election, although the election has not started yet, people who have the right to be elected can organize public speeches on their own.

There is only one requirement, that is, public speeches must use the party's activity funds, and personal speeches must use personal or family property.

Of course, these public speeches will basically be supervised by the Propaganda Department, and it is not allowed to spread information that may endanger the government and the royal rule.

However, most people do not have this courage. After all, the royal rule is very stable, and the rule of the government whose power comes from the royal family is naturally very stable.

As an autocratic monarch, Arthur naturally cannot enjoy the leisure time of European monarchs.

Although the cabinet government can handle most government affairs, only Arthur has the right to decide on some major affairs, and others only have the right to suggest.

In particular, military power and finance basically need to be asked by Arthur.

However, there is also good news. Although the government has no decision-making power, the government will generally make suggestions in advance for such news. Arthur only needs to choose to adopt or modify it.

For the government's undecided ideas, a cabinet meeting will be held every once in a while, which can basically solve these things quickly.

Therefore, this is also the reason why Arthur can get a certain amount of free time when he has a lot of power and realizes autocratic rule.

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