Chapter 461: Diplomacy and Checks and Balances

According to the statistics of the soldiers' merits by the defense department, the enfeoffment ceremony to be held in the future will give birth to at least a dozen real nobles in the country.

And there will be more honorary titles such as knights, at least hundreds of them, which will greatly strengthen the noble class of Australasia.

In addition to military merits, knighthoods for political achievements, scientific research, etc., will all be one of the ways to become aristocrats.

Arthur does attach great importance to the military merits of soldiers, but he also attaches equal importance to the contributions of government officials, civilians and scientists.

All former government officials and all scientific researchers, even all civilians in Australasia, will be awarded awards, medals and titles according to the size of their merits.

With these government officials and scientific researchers, Australasia will add hundreds of nobles at one time, completely consolidating the rights of the Australasia noble class, at least the Australasia noble class is not in name only.

For a monarchy, the upward channels of various classes are very important. Even for all countries, ensuring that the lower classes have upward channels can stabilize the entire national order.

The upward channel in Australasia is very simple, that is, anyone can obtain land, funds, medals, and even titles by contributing to the country and the royal family.

In this way, Australasia seems to be a feudal country, but in fact, Australasia people can enjoy fairer treatment than those so-called free and democratic countries, which is the real justice and equality.

Although the aristocracy is the largest ruling class group in Australasia, any class retains the channel to become an aristocracy, which also means that anyone has the hope of becoming an aristocrat.

To give a simple example, in Australasia, even farmers and herdsmen, as long as they make certain contributions to the country, such as innovating new agricultural and animal husbandry technologies, will receive a lot of rewards and even titles.

As long as all classes and all civilians in Australasia have the hope of becoming aristocrats, they will not be hostile to the aristocracy, but will only work hard to create contributions for the country and the royal family, and then become aristocrats.

The reason why civilians are dissatisfied with the aristocracy and the interests in power is because the interests in power monopolize all the channels to become high-level.

When a person can't change his class no matter how hard he tries, it's time for the lower class to challenge the upper class.

Therefore, Arthur specifically stated in all the channels to rise to the nobility that as long as you are an Australasian citizen, you are qualified to become a noble.

The aristocracy is open to all Australasians, and as long as you can contribute to the country, you will be rewarded.

This is also Arthur's promise to all Australasians. As long as the channels for the rise of the civilian class are not monopolized, the aristocracy system in Australasia will be very stable.

This is like working in a company. A new employee will have hope for the company as long as he has the channel to become a senior executive or even a shareholder.

But if you are just a worker after all, you will face the risk of continuous exploitation or even unemployment from the company's senior executives. Employees will naturally have no loyalty to the company and will even try every means to change jobs or bring down the company.

Post-war data statistics and enfeoffment rewards are currently the most important things in Australasia.

After Prime Minister Kent hurriedly counted domestic affairs, he took all the members of the delegation on a battlecruiser to London to participate in the peace talks on the division of interests among all the Allied Powers.

In fact, the real place of the peace talks was not in London, but in Paris, the capital of France. But before the Paris Peace Conference, there was a small meeting in London, and the participants were the four original Allied Powers, Britain, France, Russia and Australia.

Although the Allied Powers had six major powers, anyone with a discerning eye could see that the real leaders were still the original four major powers.

As a country that jumped ship midway, and with its small contribution to the war, it was natural that Italy did not have enough say.

Although the United States was strong enough, it joined the war too late, and there was a suspicion of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight in the early stage.

Moreover, the biggest contribution of Americans to the war was to provide loans to all Allied countries. The casualties of the army were very few, and the merits of the army were also very few.

Such contributions by Americans were not enough to enter the core decision-making level of the Allied Powers, even if the overall strength of the United States had surpassed Russia and Australasia.

Among the four great powers of the Allied Powers, the status of each country has actually changed significantly.

France and Russia are the two countries with the greatest casualties among the four great powers, and they are also the only two countries among the four great powers that are adjacent to Germany by land.

These two countries have great demands for German territory, so they naturally come together.

Britain and Australasia did not suffer much loss in the war, and they are either too far away from Germany or separated by the strait.

Neither Britain nor Australasia has much demand for Germany, and even hopes that Germany will not be divided too much.

This has also led to the current division of the Allies into two factions, one led by France and Russia, and the other led by Britain and Australia.

But no matter what, the real dominant countries of the Allies are these four great powers. Therefore, the reason for the early meeting in London is to show other countries the strength and unity of the four great powers of the Allied Powers.

For the famous Paris Peace Conference in history, Arthur still wants to join in the fun.

But after thinking about it, he decided to give up. After all, no monarch would personally participate in such peace talks, and there was no point in arguing with those officials.

Even if Arthur didn't say a word, it would be uncomfortable just to sit there. With Arthur around, officials couldn't let go of their airs and compete for interests. Arthur was also bound by etiquette and sat there to suffer.

Instead of going to join in the fun, it is better to settle domestic affairs at home. Anyway, the status of a country is not determined by the size of the noble rank, but by the strength and military power of the country, with a fist like steel.

As the saying goes, the land is measured by cannons, and the coastline is guarded by naval guns.

Only when the military strength is strong can it win the respect of other countries.

As one of the four major powers of the Allied Powers, Australasia is still valued by many countries.

Especially on the Balkan front that the Australasia army was previously responsible for, many countries, including Serbia, found Australasia and wanted to seek Australasia's diplomatic support.

This kind of diplomatic move is very common in the international community. After all, the interests of small countries are basically decided by big countries.

To be more brutal, if the four great powers of the Allied Powers reached a consensus, even if they annexed all the interests, other countries would not dare to say much.

Perhaps the Americans would make a little noise, but before the US military was fully armed, Europeans did not care much about the actions of the Americans.

A powerful country is bound to have many small countries to rely on, and the powerful countries can provide more shelter for small countries, and small countries will also become the market of the powerful countries, while expanding their influence.

This can be regarded as complementary, and in this era of the survival of the fittest, this is also the best outcome for small countries.

After a peaceful Christmas, the Paris Peace Conference is about to be held.

On January 16, 1918, the four great powers of the Allied Powers met in London, England, and reached a consensus that the four great powers would dominate the Allied Powers, and reached a certain tacit understanding on the distribution of their respective interests.

Although there are still disputes in some aspects of the distribution of interests, at least a consensus has been reached in the general direction.

The meeting of the four great powers of the Allied Powers made the Americans feel dangerous. They were worried that the four great powers would likely exclude themselves from the distribution of interests, so they urgently united with Italy and mobilized a large number of media to launch a public opinion offensive.

Under the leadership of the Americans, many American and European media began to question the intention of the four great powers of the Allied Powers to meet, accusing the four great powers of the Allied Powers of conspiring to exclude all victorious countries and monopolize the interests of the victorious allies.

But such diplomatic means were not painful for the four great powers. The propaganda departments and intelligence departments of various countries acted together, and the public opinion in Europe soon disappeared.

Of course, the diplomatic departments of various countries also gave a unified explanation, saying that this was just a normal meeting of the four great powers of the Allied Powers. As for why the United States and Italy did not participate in the meeting, who asked them not to join the Allies early?

In order to wait for the end of the Paris Peace Conference, Arthur even postponed the annual report and victory parade, including the enfeoffment ceremony and rewards, which would be officially held after the end of the Paris Peace Conference.

On January 27, 1918, the Paris Peace Conference was officially held in Paris, France, with participants including all countries of the Allies and the Allies.

This conference will include the former allied countries Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The treaties signed by the Allied Powers and all the allied countries will be merged together and collectively known as the Treaty of Paris.

On the night of January 26, the day before the conference, Prime Minister Kent received a request for a meeting from US President Wilson.

Although he did not have a good impression of Americans, the United States is a powerful country after all, and it would be too rude to directly reject the request for a meeting from the president of a powerful country.

In the room prepared for representatives of various countries at the conference, Prime Minister Kent met the elegant US President.

As soon as the two met, they played the tradition of politicians. They looked like good friends who had not seen each other for many years. Both sides were very friendly and even talked about everything.

After chatting for a few minutes, Wilson said happily, "Prime Minister Kent, I think Australasia and the United States are very similar. They are both emerging countries that developed later and have very good industries, economies and military forces. If we add that they are both British colonies, my God, we are really brother countries!"

Prime Minister Kent smiled contemptuously at President Wilson's words. The United States gained armed independence from Britain, while Australasia was peacefully divided. There is a basic difference in the way the two countries were established.

What's more, the races in the United States are more chaotic, while Australasia is a pure white population, which is closer to the blood of Europe.

Just the large amount of chocolate in the United States makes Prime Minister Kent have no good impression of the United States, let alone talking about brother countries.

But there is no way, there are still some diplomatic etiquettes. Prime Minister Kent smiled and said, "Maybe, Mr. President."

"Not maybe, but of course, Mr. Prime Minister. We are very similar brother countries, and we both have sufficient strength and status. Sir, don't you think we should rely on our own strength to establish a new world order? It is necessary for emerging countries to increase their voice. We should negotiate with old powers such as Britain and France to deal with conflicts and jointly maintain world peace." President Wilson shook his head and said with great certainty.

Prime Minister Kent nodded in his heart, but he did not react on the surface, waiting for President Wilson's next speech.

Let’s not talk about whether the Americans have a big appetite. Even if Australasia and the United States unite to establish a new order, they will definitely not be able to withstand the alliance of Britain and France.

To put it bluntly, Australasia is still very backward in population and economy, and the United States is still very backward in military, and is far behind the comprehensive leading powers such as Britain and France.

Moreover, Australasia ignores the big legs of the British and turns to cooperate with the Americans who also have defects. Isn’t this a brain hole?

There are inherent contradictions between emerging countries. Even if Australasia and the Americans can develop, sooner or later they will have conflicts because of the Pacific Ocean.

The relationship between Australasia and the Americans is far less stable than that with the British, and the benefits Australasia has gained from the United States are far less attractive than those gained from the United Kingdom.

As Prime Minister Kent expected, President Wilson’s next words were all about establishing a new order, how Britain and France are backward, and how Australasia and the United States are advanced and powerful.

Prime Minister Kent sneered at President Wilson's speech. Perhaps the United States has some advanced aspects compared to Britain and France, but it is still far from being as powerful as Britain and France.

The current world order can only be established on the basis of the four major powers of Britain, France, Russia and Australia. Other countries have not yet changed the status of these four major powers.

After a few casual chats, Prime Minister Kent sent President Wilson away and ended this meaningless meeting.

However, Prime Minister Kent still thought deeply about the real intention of President Wilson's visit.

There is still a huge gap in strength between the United States and Britain and France, and I believe that Americans can also see this.

Logically speaking, Americans should not be stupid enough to challenge the status of Britain and France now, which is something that even the United States, Australia and Italy cannot do together.

In this case, it proves that the Americans are not interested in wine. It seems that they want to establish a new world order by uniting emerging countries like Australasia.

In fact, perhaps they want to win over some allies and seek more diplomatic support to avoid being excluded from the core layer of the new world order.

In this way, Australasia has no need to cooperate with the United States. Australasia would have been one of the core layers of the new world order. Although it was the weakest among the four great powers, its status was far superior to countries like Italy and the United States (in the Allied Powers).

If the United States were allowed to join the core layer of the Allied Powers, Australasia's status would inevitably drop one more place.

Isn't this equivalent to shooting oneself in the foot? Prime Minister Kent cursed secretly. The Americans were tricking Australasia into stabbing itself in the back, and the impression of the Americans also dropped a lot.

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Kent immediately called British Prime Minister Asquith, mentioned President Wilson's words inconspicuously, and said with a smile: "Some people are already restless."

I believe that the British will take action. Even if the British did not think of excluding the United States from the core layer of the Allied Powers before, they will definitely change their minds after hearing what Prime Minister Kent said.

After all, no one likes a restless country, especially such a potential enemy, a challenger to national interests.

The Americans certainly would not only target Australasia, but they certainly could not have imagined that Prime Minister Kent would call Prime Minister Asquith right after President Wilson left, and directly point out the Americans' purpose.

The British had planned to support Australasia against the United States before the war. Faced with such a good opportunity, how could the British, who are proficient in balancing policies, give up?

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