Chapter 481 Land Exchange and Royal Oil

Arthur was in a very good mood, because the tests of the two giant aircraft carriers were very successful. Australasia can be said to be the first country to master the real aircraft carrier.

Of course, the British progress will not be too slow, and Arthur's investment in the navy will not be reduced, and he will not be blinded by the current achievements.

After encouraging and rewarding the personnel who participated in the test, Arthur returned to the palace in a good mood and prepared to hold a cabinet meeting to determine the tasks of the Australasia government in the new year.

To be honest, Australasia has a lot of tasks in 1919. In addition to the basic tasks of national construction in all aspects, the relocation plan of the new capital, the fourth phase of the construction of the Leonora Industrial Base, etc., are also large projects that require a lot of money and energy.

At the cabinet meeting, Arthur also specifically instructed the importance of project quality, requiring the government to strictly control the quality of all projects, and even hold everyone in the cabinet government accountable if there is a problem.

In addition to these constructions, the election of a new cabinet government will also be held in 1919.

This also makes the political arena of Australasia very busy since the arrival of 1919. After all, every time the cabinet government changes, a large number of politicians are busy for this, just to compete for the highest power stage in their dreams.

In February 1919, Arthur received another good news, that is, the British government basically agreed to the exchange of Kuwait and the truce states, and Australasia could obtain the vast Persian Gulf coast land from the Saudi Arabian Persian Gulf coast to the UAE.

After the completion of this land exchange, it is time to officially develop the oil resources along the Persian Gulf coast.

When the news of the large-scale exploitation of oil along the Persian Gulf coast is conveyed, the British will never give up their interests, and the Persian Gulf coast is destined to be controlled by Britain and Australasia.

You know, with the emergence of airplanes and tanks, and the increasing popularity of cars in the world, the price of oil has undergone earth-shaking changes compared to more than ten years ago.

Gasoline and diesel made from oil are currently the main fuels for engines, and various petroleum products are also flooding all aspects of the world.

Another benefit of jointly controlling the Persian Gulf coast with the British is that, with the influence of Britain and Australasia, international oil prices can be completely controlled.

The Persian Gulf coast has nearly 60% of the world's oil reserves, and its influence on world oil prices is irreplaceable.

In this way, it is unknown whether the various ethnic groups and countries in the Middle East can be independent as smoothly as in history.

After all, oil is definitely the most important energy in the world within 100 years, without a doubt.

The Middle East, which has a large amount of oil reserves, is also destined to be a sweet pot for all countries to fight for, and it will never be separated from the disputes of the world situation.

Even if these countries can gain independence, they will be affected by more powerful countries, or even directly controlled by more powerful countries.

After all, everyone knows that a man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing a treasure. In this world where the strong prey on the weak, weak countries are coveted for having resources.

After the land was replaced, the name of the Middle East colony was still the Australian Persian Gulf Territory, which was the land directly controlled by the Australasian royal family.

In order to successfully exploit the oil along the coast of the Persian Gulf, Arthur decided to invest 5 million Australian dollars, 5.5 million Australian dollars from the coalition government and oil equipment to establish the Royal Oil Company of Australasia, with the royal family and the government holding 40% and 60% of the shares respectively.

The large and small oil companies originally owned by Australasia were also merged into the Royal Oil Company, which will also become the symbol of Australasia in the oil industry and will definitely be a company that started out as a Fortune 500 company.

Even relying on oil from the coast of the Persian Gulf, the Royal Oil Company is destined to have the potential to even reach the top 50 in the world.

The news of the exchange between Kuwait and the UAE is definitely not big news in the UK and Australasia.

After all, both regions are located in the Middle East, with small land areas and low development potential, and have not attracted much attention in both countries.

Even the news clarified by the Americans is more popular than these two news, but not many people believe the clarification of the Americans.

For the Wilson government, trying to get rid of the responsibility of the US government and separating the influenza pandemic from the United States is the most important task at present.

As long as the United States is still tied to the flu, it will never be able to actively expand outward, which will also be more constrained in diplomacy.

Apart from anything else, if President Wilson continues to put forward his theory of establishing a new order, he will definitely be spitted by European countries, who will laugh at the Americans for being wishful thinking.

Under the actions of the US government, various news about the flu began to spread frequently, and the responsibility for the flu was shifted to those consortiums and accidents.

However, the credibility of the US government, which has experienced various events, is not very high. The accident theory and consortium threat theory advocated by the US government seem to be believed by only some ignorant American people.

Sophistry aside, the attitude of Americans to pay compensation is still very positive. After all, Americans also know that post-war Europe is indeed short of money.

No matter how much responsibility Americans have for the flu, Europeans are determined to blackmail the United States.

Such a big loss can only be borne by Americans alone. After all, the public opinion of the whole world is now biased towards Europe, and no one believes the explanation of the United States.

But the Americans' response measures are definitely not limited to using the media to explain. According to the data from the British intelligence agency, the Americans are already busy building warships of all sizes to expand their naval strength.

After all, with the unique geographical advantages of the United States, it can defend the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, and the US territory will hardly be threatened.

There are also neighboring countries such as Canada and Mexico in the north and south of the United States, but neither Mexico nor Canada poses a great threat to the United States now, and naturally the US government will not take it to heart.

It is precisely because the Americans are secretly expanding their warships that the British are more vigilant against the Americans.

Among all the great powers in the world today, only France in Europe and the United States in America can truly influence the ruling position of the British Empire.

The French are actually easy to restrict. After all, the strength of the Germans has not been weakened too much, and it is no problem to barely confront France.

But the Americans are different. The geographical environment of the Americans means that his homeland will hardly be threatened.

Especially after the rise of the US Navy, the United States no longer has to worry about the threat from Canada, which is the biggest competitor of the British Empire to maintain its world hegemony.

The French still need some time to recuperate after the war, but the Americans hardly need it.

The Americans were not affected by the war, and they made a small profit in the war by taking advantage of the arms trade after joining the war.

This is also the reason why the British were wary of the United States, and even decided to join France to step on it immediately when Australasia blamed the United States for the flu.

Unlike European countries such as Germany and France, countries like the United States have almost no natural enemies in their homeland and can only rely on joining Australasia to restrict them.

In order to limit the Americans' crazy expansion of the navy, Britain proposed a proposal to limit the size of the navies of various countries at the meeting of the World Alliance, but the response was not very high.

First of all, the French did not agree to limit the size of the navies of various countries. After all, after France received compensation from Germany, it did have the idea of ​​competing with Britain.

At least now France has restored its position as the hegemon of Europe. On the European continent, France is the most powerful country.

Although other countries have no idea of ​​competing directly with Britain, no one wants to have an extra layer of shackles on their naval development for no reason.

In addition to the mediocre response from various countries, there is another important reason, that is, the United States is not in the World Alliance.

As long as the United States does not sign the treaty, it can completely stay out of the treaty and expand the size of the navy crazily.

Therefore, the British gave up the plan to sign a naval limitation treaty, at least in the short term.

Unless all the powerful countries and countries with the ability to build battleships can sign a naval limitation treaty together, otherwise, it will be unfair to the countries that sign the treaty.

Arthur kept a wait-and-see attitude towards the British proposal. After all, Australasia does not need to expand its navy in a large number in a short period of time, and is happy to see other countries build a large number of super dreadnoughts, so they will be one step slower in the construction of aircraft carriers.

Of course, Arthur is still very envious of the speed at which industrial powers such as Britain, France and the United States build warships.

But even if it has enough funds, Australasia is completely inferior to industrial powers such as Britain, France, the United States and Germany in the warship competition.

Improving the strength of Australasia's naval construction, building new shipyards and expanding existing shipyards are also what should be done next.

At present, Australasia's warship shipyards are mainly Sydney Shipyard, Melbourne Shipyard and Auckland Shipyard.

These three shipyards are responsible for almost all the construction of warships in Australasia, among which the Royal Sydney Dockyard is the largest and can build more types of warships.

Although the Melbourne Shipyard and the Auckland Shipyard can build warships of tens of thousands of tons, it is still difficult to build those nearly 20,000-ton super dreadnoughts.

In order to improve the speed and level of warship construction in Australasia, it is necessary to expand these three shipyards.

At a cabinet meeting, Arthur formally proposed the requirement to expand the shipyard. After research and decision by the cabinet government, it was decided to invest 10 million Australian dollars to help the three shipyards expand.

Among them, the three docks of the Royal Sydney Dockyard will be expanded. The existing three docks can build warships with a maximum of more than 25,000 tons, but the next warships will continue to expand, and 25,000 tons are obviously not enough. In order to catch up with naval powers such as Britain, France and the United States, the maximum construction tonnage of the three docks of the Sydney Royal Dockyard must be expanded to more than 35,000 tons, and even better, to 40,000 tons, to strengthen Australasia's ability to build super-large warships.

At the same time, the Melbourne Shipyard and the Auckland Shipyard should be expanded to ensure that these two shipyards also have the ability to build large warships of more than 25,000 tons.

When the expansion of these three shipyards is completed, Australasia will be able to start construction of at least five super battleships or five aircraft carriers at the same time, and the construction speed will be able to catch up with industrial powers such as Britain, France and the United States.

The expansion of the three shipyards will take about two to three years to complete, and will basically not affect the construction of existing warships.

This expansion time is enough for Arthur, and it will not affect the future naval expansion plan of Australasia.

In addition to the expansion of the shipyard, the construction of railways and roads in Australasia and its colonies is also a top priority of the transportation department's plan for the new year.

Apart from other things, all newly occupied territories need to be deployed with railways and roads, so as to effectively improve Australasia's control over these areas.

The key areas for railway construction include the Persian Gulf Territory, New Guinea Island, Sulawesi Island, etc., and Australia and New Zealand also need to further improve the railway deployment.

In addition, road construction is also very important. Railway construction is destined not to be popularized in every village and town, especially in the colonies.

In this way, the construction of roads is particularly important, which is the case with the high penetration rate of various agricultural machinery and automobiles in Australasia.

The ring-island railway and ring-island highway in New Guinea, as well as the road and railway built in the Persian Gulf Territory for oil development and transportation, will be the most important work of the transportation department in the next year.

With the research of various countries on aircraft, the popularization of passenger aircraft is about to be realized.

Australasia actually already has passenger aircraft, but there is no definite result whether it will be put into commercial use.

The maximum number of passengers on an aircraft is only about 12 people, and it can only carry 10 passengers without two pilots.

Although the speed of an aircraft is faster than that of an airship, the cost of an aircraft is also higher than that of an airship.

At present, passenger aircraft in Australasia are mostly used privately. Arthur took it twice during his inspection, and other times only important government officials occasionally took it.

But it must be said that the stability of an aircraft is indeed higher than that of an airship. According to the relevant tests of airships and aircraft by the Royal Australasian Airlines, the probability of an accident in an airship is about 3 in 10,000, and the probability of an accident in an aircraft is about 1 in 30,000, which is a difference of up to 9 times.

Although the probabilities of 3 in 10,000 and 1 in 30,000 seem very low, compared with the data that the probability of aviation accidents in later generations is less than 1 in 1 million, the aircraft and airships of this era are still relatively dangerous.

This is why Arthur tries to avoid traveling by plane or airship. If there is an emergency, he will arrange a flight in China instead of taking an airship.

After all, the probability of one in thirty thousand is still very low, so low that there has been no accident in the official flight of passenger aircraft in Australasia.

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