Chapter 736 Disappointing Officials

Although this meeting was to achieve Arthur's goal, that is, to help Manuel restore the monarchy.

But the atmosphere in the meeting was very awkward. Portuguese officials and party members almost became spectators, and they could not join the conversations of representatives from other countries at all.

Except for Manuel II, who was also Portuguese, who occasionally chatted with them, representatives from other countries seemed to tacitly leave Portuguese officials aside.

But this was a fact that Portuguese officials and members of the Democratic Party could not change. Looking closely at the countries where these representatives were from, the weakest were second-rate European powers such as Belgium and Bulgaria.

Compared with Belgium and Bulgaria, Portugal can only be regarded as close in strength. They are not at the highest level of Portuguese politics, and their status is naturally one level weaker.

What's more terrible is that there are representatives of two great powers, Australasia and Britain, next to them.

Looking closely, the representatives of these countries are all nobles, and their titles are not low. Can ordinary officials like them interrupt the conversations between nobles? Of course not.

To be honest, there is still some pride among European nobles. Although the aristocracy has declined in general, the arrogance of the aristocracy has not changed much.

But this is also a means after all. Through this kind of power-like method, it can actually achieve its own goal, that is, to let Portugal know who is the controller of the world situation.

After all, Portugal is just an ordinary chess piece on the world chessboard. Compared with chess players like Australasia and Britain, Portugal does not face many choices.

Arthur does not care what the result of this meeting is. If the Gotha family can't take down a small Portugal with so many members, it can only be said that the current Portugal is not something Australasia can covet.

Compared to paying attention to the situation in Portugal, Arthur is currently more concerned about the situation of several colonies in Australasia.

With the incorporation of the royal territory into the Timorese direct state, the localization work of Australasia's colonies has actually been completed for the most part.

At present, the regions where direct states have been established are: New Guinea Direct State, Timor Direct State, Java Island Direct State, Sulawesi Direct State and Sumatra Direct State.

Yes, except for the independent United Sultanate of Kalimantan, almost all the other lands of the Dutch East Indies have been annexed and localized.

Among these directly affiliated states, Sulawesi, which has the smallest population, has a population of more than 150,000. The permanent population of Java, which has the largest population, has exceeded 780,000, which also proves Australasia's efforts to localize these areas.

More importantly, the population of these areas has all become Australasians. Even if the British and French colonial systems will face collapse in the future, Australasia does not have to worry about these areas being out of its control.

After all, the permanent population is all Australasians, so this is the land of Australasia since ancient times.

As for the expelled population, sorry, Australasia does not recognize it.

Arthur has inspected the localization of New Guinea. Therefore, the target of Arthur's inspection this time is naturally placed on Java and Sumatra.

These two islands originally had more indigenous populations than New Guinea, but they have basically moved to Kalimantan.

The current permanent population is almost entirely Australasian, which not only represents the local government's efforts to localize, but also represents the control of Australasian over these areas.

Arthur's inspection of Java and Sumatra this time, in addition to actually checking their localization, also counted the problems encountered by these areas in localization, and then tried to help them solve them.

To be honest, the localization of colonies is a very difficult project. Because it is necessary to build infrastructure that is almost the same as that of the mainland in a very desolate colony, and also include medical care, education and so on.

In addition to the government's large capital investment, the efforts of the local government and the people are also very important.

The purpose of Arthur's inspection of Java and Sumatra is also to see whether these two regions have truly achieved localization, or just pretend to complete the tasks assigned by Arthur.

However, the current governor of the direct state, that is, the original colonial governor, was appointed by Arthur, and Arthur is still relatively relieved in terms of the candidate.

And Arthur also believes that in the current environment, no one should dare to deceive himself so openly.

After all, it is not worth the loss to do so. Once discovered, there will be very serious consequences.

On August 1, 1929, in the winter of the southern hemisphere, Arthur chose to go north to Southeast Asia. One is to avoid the cold, and the other is to check the localization of the states in Southeast Asia.

Compared with Australia, the development of various regions in Southeast Asia is more backward, and the work of localization is also very difficult.

The purpose of Arthur's trip is not only to find problems, but also to solve them after finding them.

From Fort St. Arthur, go all the way east to Sydney, and then take a ship from Sydney, under the escort of a number of warships, head towards Southeast Asia.

Accompanying Arthur to inspect Southeast Asia are the Chancellor of the Exchequer Hunt, the Minister of Industry Joy, the Minister of Transport Jerome and the Minister of Education Kellogg.

The reason why I followed so many cabinet ministers was to let them come up with solutions to the problems quickly after they were discovered, rather than leaving them to the government and parliament to delay.

In addition to these ministers, other departments also had some deputy ministers to ensure that the information of each department could be accurately controlled and solutions could be given based on the information they had.

After all, the work of the government also requires someone to testify and execute, so it is naturally impossible to bring all ministers on this trip.

After replenishing supplies in Queensland and New Guinea, Arthur successfully set foot on the land of the former royal territory, which is now incorporated into the Timorese state, on August 11, 1929.

This was once one of the rubber planting areas in the Dutch East Indies, and it is currently a rare natural rubber producing area in Australasia.

After merging with the royal territory, the area of ​​the Timorese state is not too small, and the population has jumped to more than 550,000, which is considered the most successful localization area.

This is also inevitable. As the first stop of the localization of the colony, as long as the localization of Timor goes smoothly, it is certain to achieve results.

Of course, the massive population growth has also exposed some problems, especially when Timor was a colony before.

The current governor of Timor is Hubert Reve. Since becoming a direct state, Timor has experienced three governors, and the core state government has changed frequently.

Although the governor's term of office has been extended to five years, and he can serve three consecutive terms, there is no specific limit on the number of terms.

But the problem is that no governor of any state has been able to serve three consecutive terms, and the number of governors who have served two consecutive terms is not as many as imagined.

Although this seems incredible, if you think about the background of Australasia carefully, it is actually clear.

Australasia is different from other European countries. As a region that has become an independent country from a colony, Australasia does not have many local forces.

Most states have experienced a population explosion after independence, which also means that local local forces will also face the impact of immigrant population.

The most intuitive result is the frequent replacement of governors of various states. Although there is no case of being dismissed in the middle of the term of office, the difficulty of getting re-election has been greatly increased.

But this is also what Arthur hopes. If there is a certain force or political party that has long controlled an administrative district, this is a big hidden danger for Arthur.

In Dili, Arthur met with Timorese Governor Hubert Reve and listened to his report on Timorese localization development.

In the previous stage of Timorese localization, Arthur had asked the Governor of Timorese to report to Arthur every two months on the progress of localization.

But after the completion of localization, Arthur's attention to Timor was not so high, and the report every two months was extended to once a year.

Especially at the critical moment when other parts of Southeast Asia entered the localization stage, Arthur paid little attention to Timor, or even almost nothing.

When he came to Timor again, Arthur felt the difference between the colonial period and the real localization.

If he hadn't known in advance that this was Timor, Arthur really felt that he had come to a city in southeastern Australia.

"Your Majesty, Timor currently has a university, two large hospitals, a technical training center, a language training school and some private training institutions. Currently, it can train more than 700 college students and more than 3,500 skilled workers each year.

According to the support of the Royal Government to the State Government, we expect to build a new university, two large hospitals, expand existing training institutions, etc. within four years.

In four years, the number of college students trained in Timor will exceed 1,500 per year, and the number of skilled workers trained per year will exceed 8,000." Timor Governor Hubert Reve reported to Arthur with a smile on his face.

Although many facilities including university training institutions and hospitals are the result of the efforts of previous governors and governors, this does not prevent Hubert Reve from blurring the concept and attributing it to the current Timorese government.

As the controller of the current Timorese government, Hubert Reve can naturally benefit from it, and it seems that he has made great contributions.

Arthur nodded expressionlessly, and saw Hubert Reve's performance of grabbing credit without missing a single detail.

After the colonies were localized, Arthur lost the right to appoint the governors of these colonies.

After all, according to the constitution of Australasia, the governors of the colonies were appointed by the king, but the governors of the direct states were elected by the state legislature.

Although Arthur also had the power to overturn the election results and order the state legislators to re-elect, Arthur would not do so under normal circumstances.

After all, with the development of the country, many things are not all what Arthur wants.

If the election results of each state are overturned one by one, there will be no other effect except to waste Arthur's prestige.

And it is not surprising that the current governor of Timor, a guy who is good at rhetoric and opportunism, can serve as governor Arthur.

Fortunately, although this guy is mediocre, at least he has not been too corrupt.

Timor's development did not stop because of Hubert Rever, which is why he can continue to stay in the position of governor.

This is also Arthur's consistent view on all officials. Corruption is OK, but big corruption is not OK. Incompetent is OK, but incompetent and meddling is not OK.

Arthur is still clear about the truth that no one is perfect, and naturally it is impossible to require all officials to use the most official standards.

As long as they have some ability and as long as the corruption is not too outrageous, Arthur can tolerate these officials staying in their positions.

But if they touch Arthur's bottom line, then Arthur will definitely not show mercy, and what awaits them is only the cruel trial of the Royal Security Intelligence Agency.

"The Royal Government promulgated an eight-year plan, so why did the Timorese government formulate a four-year plan?" Arthur asked abruptly.

"This..." Hubert Reve fell into an awkward silence.

It's not that he doesn't want to formulate an eight-year plan. The problem is that four years later is the time for the Timorese state to elect a new governor.

Hubert Reve is still clear about his own abilities. The four-year plan cannot be said to be excellent, it can only be said to be a well-behaved development.

Even if the four-year plan is a complete success, it is nothing more than a stable development without too many faults.

It is very difficult to get re-elected under such circumstances, and Hubert Reve and the Timorese government he leads are naturally unable to formulate a development plan for the next state government.

"Because Timor's available funds are really limited, the state government's finances cannot afford too much expenditure, so it can only helplessly formulate a short four-year development plan." Hubert Reve wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and explained very nervously.

Arthur nodded again expressionlessly, actually very disappointed with the governor who had only met at the swearing-in ceremony.

"Timor has one of the best natural rubber production bases in Australasia, how could it have financial difficulties?

The state government does not have too much population burden, and now is the best time for Timor to develop." Arthur spoke calmly, but there was a hint of unquestionable tone in his words.

"Put forward a complete eight-year plan as soon as possible. As a pilot and the most successful region for localization of the colony, I hope Timor can rise rapidly and become a prosperous area that is not inferior to Australia and New Zealand." Arthur ordered: "

After merging with the royal territory, Timor's ideal population should be increased to more than 10 million.

In addition to formulating development plans, Timor's population strategy cannot be stopped. At present, we can welcome a large number of immigrants every year, but whether we can let immigrants come to Timor will test the ability of the state government."

Today, I will continue to update. Thank you for your understanding.