Chapter 483 Railway Bidding and University Expansion

The news of the Russian Civil War immediately made the headlines in European and American countries. War is a big news at any time, especially the civil war of a powerful country, which will not only attract media reports everywhere, but also be taken seriously by major countries.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Russian Civil War is closely related to the interests of many countries. First of all, Russia and Australasia have a very close relationship. The millions of immigrants sent by Russia to Australasia every year determine that Arthur will not sit idly by and watch the Russian Civil War.

If the Workers' Union wins the civil war, even if the Workers' Union wants to continue to fulfill the immigration treaty, Arthur will never dare to accept it.

Just kidding, the brainwashed Russian people will definitely spread the revolution in Australasia, which is absolutely undesirable and must be eliminated and prevented by Arthur.

Secondly, a republican Russia is not in the interests of Australasia. During the reign of Nicholas II, Russia was able to ensure that it was a close ally of Australasia.

But if the Russian regime is controlled by the Workers' Union, the new Russia will only be an opponent of Australasia.

In addition, Britain, which has disputes with Russia in some areas, also closely watches the development of Russia.

France, which has an alliance with Russia, also attaches importance to the Russian civil war. Together with Russia's two allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary, there are already five powerful countries that are closely watching the development of the Russian situation.

In theory, most countries, including Britain and Australasia, still support Tsarist Russia under Nicholas II.

Unlike the previous capitalist government, the Soviet Russia formed by the Workers' Union is a brand-new political system, which will have a huge impact on traditional countries.

Historically, after the establishment of the Soviet Union, European countries formed a coalition to eliminate this new country.

But now the situation has changed, but the British Empire does have the idea of ​​forcibly extinguishing this regime.

Shortly after the Russian Civil War, representatives of the British Empire emphasized at the weekly meeting of the World League that the World League should have the responsibility to protect the world situation and world peace. The explicit and implicit meaning is that they hope that the World League will form a coalition to jointly send troops to Russia.

But the current situation is much better than in history. The strength of the Workers' Union is obviously weaker than that of Tsarist Russia controlled by Nicholas II, instead of the historical situation where neither the capitalist government nor Nicholas II had any resistance.

Although all countries are very concerned about the civil war in Russia, the countries in the world that have just been ravaged by influenza are obviously unable to gather millions of troops to attack the newly established Soviet Russia.

The representatives have to consider the interests of their respective countries, and naturally they cannot nod and agree to send troops just because of a word from the British representative.

The British representative was helpless because it was impossible for Britain to send troops to Russia alone.

The British representative could only change the request for troops to a request for aid, to help Tsarist Russia controlled by Nicholas II, so that the Russian people could get rid of the suffering of civil war.

The Tsarist Russia controlled by Nicholas II was called the real regime of Russia by the British representative, and the Soviet Russia recently established in Moscow was called the evil rebellious regime by the British representative.

Although all countries are reluctant to send troops to Russia, it is still okay to provide some aid to Russia.

Romania, which is close to Russia, and Serbia, which has always been clinging to Russia, have agreed to provide assistance to Tsarist Russia to help it fight against the evil Soviet Russian regime.

The panic of these countries is not without reason. If Nicholas II fails in the Russian Civil War, then these neighbors of Russia may face the troubles of the Russian Revolution.

Even defeated countries like Germany and Austria-Hungary can't escape it at all, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The contradiction between the imperial government and the Hungarian Kingdom government is already very obvious. Any accident may cause the ancient empire to fall apart.

The good news is that the current strength gap in the Russian Civil War is still quite different. Although a large area of ​​land in the southeast is occupied by the Workers' Union, the armed scale of the Workers' Union has not exceeded 500,000 people so far.

On the other hand, Tsarist Russia in the north successfully received the troops of the previous Russian government. With the weapons and equipment prepared by Nicholas II, the number of troops quickly exceeded 500,000, and even moved towards one million.

Even without the help of other countries, Tsarist Russia can spend some time with Soviet Russia.

After all, Britain's attitude was to clearly support Tsarist Russia, which also meant that the reparations paid by Germany and Austria-Hungary to Russia would basically be accepted by Tsarist Russia.

The financial ratio between the new Soviet Russian regime and the Tsarist regime controlled by Nicholas II was fundamentally unbalanced, which was also the biggest factor limiting the strength of the Workers' Union.

It takes huge funds to purchase materials and strengthen strength in any era. The newly established Soviet Russia was poor, and most countries did not have a high degree of favorability towards this new regime. Even under the leadership of Britain, they directly refused to trade with Soviet Russia.

In fact, Nicholas II's letter of help was soon conveyed to the World Alliance and European countries, and Australasia was no exception.

In order to win this civil war and let the Romanov family's rule return to all Russian territories, Nicholas II spent a lot of money this time to order a large order of more than 1.5 million rifles, 500 million rounds of bullets, 2,000 machine guns and 1,500 artillery from Australasia.

At the same time, Nicholas II was also very interested in the tanks of Australasia, as well as the aircraft, which were all included in Nicholas II's military orders.

In order to distribute supplies to the people at home, Nicholas II had already spent a considerable part of the German reparations, and the financial situation of the Russian government was not very good.

For this reason, Nicholas II directly took out the gold that the Tsarist family had been storing for a long time, and used the real gold to trade with Australasia.

In addition to weapons and equipment, Nicholas II also ordered a large amount of food and medical supplies from European countries to distribute to the people at home.

After the previous setbacks, Nicholas II had understood the importance of winning the hearts of the people.

But it was not a complete transformation, but Nicholas II was still clear about gaining the support of the people on the surface.

Even if some supplies were distributed to the people for free, the cost would not be too much. But such behavior can greatly gain the favor of the people, which is still very important for consolidating one's own rule.

In the face of such a powerful enemy as Soviet Russia, Nicholas II did everything he could.

Arthur decisively agreed to Nicholas II's request to purchase weapons and equipment. After all, a Russia ruled by the Tsar is also in line with the interests of Australasia.

But Arthur's attention is not entirely focused on Russia. After all, the development of Australasia in the new year is also very important.

The first thing to be done is the railway construction work in the Persian Gulf Territory.

Australasia's construction companies obviously cannot meet all domestic construction needs. Therefore, bidding for foreign construction companies can smoothly allow the railway in the Persian Gulf Territory to enter construction.

As can be seen from the map, Australasia's Persian Gulf Territory is a narrow and long coastal area of ​​the Persian Gulf.

Although only one coastal railway from south to north needs to be built, the distance of this railway is not short, and even in the estimation of the transportation department, it has exceeded 1,000 kilometers.

The need to build this railway, in addition to meeting the transportation requirements of the Persian Gulf Territory from south to north, is to mobilize the troops of the Persian Gulf Territory faster.

After all, it is a piece of land far away from Australasia. It is difficult to guarantee that there will always be peace here. The guarantee of transportation capacity is very important.

The estimated investment for this railway of more than 1,000 kilometers is 25 million Australian dollars, and the construction period is about 3 to 5 years.

This is mainly because there are many deserts in this area and it is hot, otherwise the investment cost and period can be reduced.

In the end, this section of the railway was taken by the British railway company. After all, apart from Germany, Arthur trusts Britain the most in terms of industrial level.

Moreover, Britain is currently the most important ally of Australasia, so there is nothing wrong with giving the British a face.

I believe that the British will not have any problems with the quality of the project. After all, the quality of the project is clearly written in the contract, and the British government will not sit idly by and watch their credit collapse.

The second railway contracted to foreign countries is the New Guinea Island Circumferential Railway. The New Guinea Island Circumferential Railway has actually been completed by a small half, which is the area previously controlled by Australasia.

As for the area controlled by Germany and the Netherlands, it is the area where the Circumferential Railway is to be built this time, a super-long railway with a total length of nearly 4,000 kilometers.

Yes, the total length of the Circumferential Railway of New Guinea Island alone is as high as about 4,000 kilometers.

Although this seems incredible, it seems to be somewhat reasonable if we think of New Guinea as the second largest island in the world.

This island has very rich water resources and mineral resources. It is the most important area in Arthur's plan besides Australia and New Zealand.

This island is an important source of water resources in Australasia and the core area of ​​the North-South Water Transfer in Arthur's plan.

It is no exaggeration to say that this island can bring new hope to Australia, and even surpasses New Zealand in importance.

This will also be the first direct jurisdiction among all the colonies and territories in Australasia. After having enough immigrants and scale, this will be the new direct state of Australasia.

Of course, if it is a single state, the area is too large. The best result is to divide it into 2 to 3 states and join the ruling territory of Australasia.

Speaking of this, we have to mention the huge administrative divisions in Australia.

It is no exaggeration to say that the land area of ​​Australia alone exceeds that of most countries in the world.

But the whole of Australia is divided into seven administrative regions: Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Capital Territory.

Such administrative divisions are somewhat unreasonable. The largest Western Australia even occupies more than one-third of Australia, and the smaller Capital Territory and Tasmania are only a few tenths of Western Australia.

For such a huge piece of land, Arthur's ideal administrative division is to divide it into at least ten administrative regions.

Among them, the three administrative regions of New South Wales and Victoria in the southeast region and the Capital Territory should be divided into at least five administrative regions. After all, this is the most populous region in Australia, even accommodating more than half of the population of Australasia.

The New Guinea Circumferential Railway is more than 4,000 kilometers long. In addition to the previous railways in Australian New Guinea and German New Guinea, the scale of the railway to be built is at least 2,000 kilometers.

For the construction of this section of railway, Arthur hopes that it will be undertaken by private railway companies in Australasia.

As early as when Australia was still a colony, there were many private railway companies in Australia, but they were not large in scale.

After more than ten years of development, some medium-sized railway companies have indeed emerged, but without exception, they are not qualified to contract this section of railway alone.

In the end, the 2,000-kilometer-long railway was contracted in sections by more than a dozen railway companies, and the average railway mileage built by each railway company did not exceed 200 kilometers.

Although there are many railway companies building, the transportation department of Australasia has clear specifications for the New Guinea Circumferential Railway, and there is no need to worry about the different specifications of the railways built by these railway companies.

This can be regarded as supporting the private railway companies in Australasia, helping these small private railway companies to develop better, provided that the railways they build must meet the specifications and quality requirements.

Compared with other countries abroad, the development prospects of private enterprises in Australasia are relatively good.

For various reasons, Australasia was not affected by World War I or influenza, and its economic development was relatively stable.

During the influenza, at least tens of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States went bankrupt, and this number and scale are quite exaggerated.

Although many small and medium-sized enterprises in Australasia also went bankrupt, the measures introduced by the government were also very timely, reducing the number of bankrupt enterprises to within three digits.

In the final analysis, it was because of Arthur's preventive measures in advance that the epidemic did not affect the important cities in Australasia, and they were basically isolated outside the port.

Even in the more bloated big cities such as Sydney and Melbourne, more than half a year has passed since the discovery of influenza, and the total number of people infected with influenza in the two major cities has not exceeded 1,000.

In addition to the new railways that need to be built in these two major regions, the scale of railways built in other regions is not large, and the railway companies under the royal consortium can be responsible for it.

The royal consortium has developed into a very large behemoth. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is rich enough to rival a country.

However, there is also a good point, that is, the annual fiscal revenue of the royal consortium to the government even exceeds that of the populous Victoria and New South Wales.

The royal consortium is very strict in paying taxes, and even some taxes that could have been avoided will be paid in full by the royal consortium under Arthur's order.

In fact, this is equivalent to the left hand to the right hand. The large amount of taxes paid by the royal consortium to the government are basically used in the development of the country.

The strength of the royal consortium is a good thing for Arthur, and the strength of Australasia is even better for Arthur.

Moreover, a considerable number of enterprises of the royal consortium are jointly operated with the government, including the newly established Royal Petroleum Company, which is the result of joint investment by the royal consortium and the government.

This also brought more taxes and income to the government, and government officials naturally would not have any dissatisfaction with the huge royal consortium.

The attitude of the people towards the royal consortium is basically supportive. After all, the employee treatment and benefits of all the companies of the royal consortium are the best in Australia. Not only do they strictly implement the eight-hour work system and double wages on holidays, but they also distribute gifts and materials for free during festivals.

In addition, Arthur will take out a considerable part of the income of the Wang family consortium every year and transfer it to the name of the Royal Relief Committee to help all low-income people and orphans, widows and elderly people in Australasia.

Most of the nursing homes and orphanages in Australasia were funded by the Royal Relief Committee and they accept orphans and widows in Australasia for free.

Although life in these nursing homes and orphanages is destined not to be too good, it can be regarded as having food every day, food, clothing, housing, transportation, and no worries about food and clothing.

It is precisely because of the large amount of money Arthur spends on the people every year that the people will not have any dissatisfaction with the royal consortium that makes a fortune every day.

After all, a considerable part of the income of the royal consortium is directly returned to the people, which is much better than those greedy capitalists.

In fact, think about it, Australasia's pensions, free distribution of materials, orphanages, nursing homes, education subsidies and scholarships, medical subsidies and exemptions, relief for low-income people and other policies are completely inseparable from the efforts of the royal consortium.

With the huge amount of funds that the royal consortium returns to the people every year, the public's evaluation of the royal consortium will definitely not be low.

In addition to large-scale domestic construction, Arthur also plans to further upgrade domestic education and medical care.

First of all, the education system in Australasia. After more than ten years of development, Australasia's education is actually quite successful.

The per capita education level has been raised to junior high school or above, and the number of college students is no longer the pitiful number in the early days of the founding of the country.

What needs to be further strengthened in education is the number of universities and technical schools in Australasia.

With the increase in population, it is also necessary to increase the number of universities. Especially after the redivision of administrative regions in Australasia, each new administrative region must have a university, which is also the most basic guarantee.

In addition to increasing the number of universities, it is also necessary to improve the international status of universities.

At present, the best solution is to increase investment in universities, hire more professors and experts from Europe, and build more high-precision laboratories.

Large investment in education is inevitable, after all, education is the foundation of a strong country.

Today, there is only one update, 5,000 words, I am lazy, please support!