KEO.PLUS

“Your Highness, the British Government agrees to provide us with support worth 55 million pounds in funds or other industrial equipment. This funding will be paid over ten years, with a share of 5.5 million pounds per year,” Minister Andrew Wilson explained with a smile: “Prime Minister Robert agreed that we could choose either funds or industrial equipment and the way resources are paid for. In theory, apart from British strategic technology and industrial equipment, any industrial equipment and resources can be exchanged equally with these support funds.”

“Can we also exchange for the naval technology we need?” Arthur asked with some interest.

British naval technology is one of the key factors leading the Royal British Navy’s global dominance, along with its massive investment in the navy and its “two-power” policy.

It has to be admitted that even the German Empire, which ranked second in overall strength, lagged considerably behind the British Empire in terms of naval power. Aside from submarines, Germania was basically behind Britain in every aspect of naval technology.

Although Germany began to catch up with British naval power after its rise, the disparity accumulated over a long time would take a long time to close gradually.

“A majority of naval technologies can be exchanged, Your Highness. However, Prime Minister Robert has specifically instructed that the blueprints of all British battleships and large warships in service are not included in the scope of support,” Defence Minister Kent said helplessly.

Even after lengthy negotiations between the two parties, the British Government still refused to include the blueprints of battleships and large warships in service in the scope of support.

Having the blueprint doesn’t necessarily mean that Australia can produce warships, but blueprints are the most essential element for warships.

With the blueprint, one can easily study a warship’s weaknesses, especially for potential enemies of the British Empire, such as the blueprint for a navy ship in service, which would undoubtedly be a treasure.

In fact, during the confrontation between the two major European military blocs, especially after Britain joined the Allies, the number of spies sent by European countries increased sharply, and one of their essential tasks was to steal warship blueprints and data.

“It doesn’t matter, Minister Kent.” Hearing that Britain was unwilling to share warship blueprints, Arthur was not angry at all. On the contrary, he even laughed.

Your Highness, if we want to build a navy, we can only purchase warship blueprints from Germany. However, compared to British warships, German warships are slightly inferior in performance,” Minister Kent frowned and said reluctantly.

British reluctance to share naval blueprints with Australia annoyed Minister Kent.

The British were willing to teach all aspects of naval technology, but they would not share the warship blueprints. Wasn’t it equivalent to a chef providing all the cookware to an apprentice without passing on the recipes? What’s the use of that?

“That’s fine, Minister Kent. Australia’s industrial strength is limited, and for the time being, our navy will mostly consist of small and medium-sized warships. Our shipyards can produce such warships. All that is needed is for the workers to get familiar with the shipbuilding equipment, and production can start,” Arthur smiled and comforted: “Our shipbuilding industry is currently weak, and even with the British blueprints, we will not be able to digest them in a short period. I think German warship designs are very suitable. Compared to Britain, Germany offers us more significant support, and our mastery of their technology can be much faster. Using British naval technology to build warships based on German warship blueprints may result in even better performance, don’t you think?”

Arthur’s words reassured Minister Kent, and his displeasure at Britain withholding warship blueprints quickly dissipated.

In reality, the main reason why Arthur didn’t care about those warship blueprints was the upcoming birth of the dreadnought.

As outrageous as it sounds, the gap between pre-dreadnought battleships and the dreadnought ships is so vast that they are practically obsolete after the birth of the latter.

Although this is not as exaggerated in reality, pre-dreadnought battleships can hardly resist dreadnought ships. Whether looking at the on-paper data or actual combat capabilities, dreadnought ships can undoubtedly crush their pre-dreadnought counterparts.

The gap between the dreadnoughts and the pre-dreadnought ships is not due to one aspect but due to an all-around dominance.

For a warship, its combat capabilities are determined by its sailing speed, armor thickness, firepower intensity, agility, and the quality of its soldiers, among other factors.

Excluding the external factors of soldier quality, dreadnought ships can dominate pre-dreadnoughts in aspects such as sailing speed, armor thickness, firepower, and agility.

To draw a fitting comparison, the difference in combat capabilities between a dreadnought and a pre-dreadnought is like that between a university student and a primary school student.

Following the birth of dreadnoughts, the blueprints for Britain’s current warships would become virtually useless.

Eventually, the naval arms race among nations will center around dreadnoughts, and the deciding factors for naval strength will no longer be these outdated warships but the number and combat capabilities of dreadnoughts.

These existing warships won’t have much time to bask in glory, and this is the real reason why Arthur doesn’t care about these ship blueprints.

“What about the issue of immigration? Immigration should be one of the most critical issues for Australia, and we need to attract immigrants urgently,” said Arthur.

Europe is currently in a chaotic phase, and the increased European population has led to a wave of immigration in major European countries.

According to rough estimates from later generations, about 60 million Europeans immigrated overseas between the beginning of the 19th century and the early 20th century, with 35 million of them immigrating to the United States.

As Europe’s most powerful nation, Britain had over 8 million people emigrate overseas during this roughly 100-year period.

Especially with the confrontation between the two major European military blocs and the increasingly severe arms race, since 1890, the number of European immigrants has gradually increased, with about 700,000 to 800,000 Europeans choosing to settle overseas permanently every year.

Although more than half of these immigrants opted to go to the United States, since it is one of the great powers on par with European nations and, while not excelling in military matters, its industrial and economic development has surpassed many powerful European countries.

However, Arthur wasn’t greedy. Absorbing a vast number of immigrants like the United States in a short period was impossible.

However, relying on Arthur’s popularity in Britain coupled with the support of British-German immigrants and extensive promotion in Australia, occupying one-tenth of European immigrants is entirely possible.

The British Government has pledged to help with the immigration issue. They promise never to oppose immigration to Australia in Britain and help promote various immigration policies in Australia as much as possible,” Foreign Minister Andrews said: “Although the British will not oppose our efforts to attract immigrants, I’m afraid there is little hope of them directly assisting us..”