The Rise of Australasia
Chapter 843: Representatives of Various Countries ArriveAlthough the shipbuilding plan has been finalized, the construction of aircraft carriers will not begin until the beginning of next year at the earliest.
After all, the allocation of funds, the arrival of personnel, and the actual commencement of construction will take some time, and aircraft carriers are not something that can be built just by saying so.
Compared to the construction of aircraft carriers, there is an even more important task awaiting Arthur’s supervision at present, which is the preparation for the 20th-anniversary parade ceremony of the Kingdom of Australasia.
Of course, the founding mentioned here starts from the establishment of the Kingdom of Australasia. The establishment of the Australian Principality, to be exact, has already surpassed 25 years.
From this point, a rather obvious distinction can be seen: the nation of Australasia and the royal family are closely connected.
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The establishment of the Kingdom of Australasia was due to Arthur; without a king, this country would not exist, which also indirectly guarantees the status of the royal family.
In other words, only the existence of the royal family can ensure the unified status of Australasia. Once the royal family is no more, the various colonies and regions such as New Zealand would naturally no longer belong to Australia.
In these 20 years, the country has gone through too much and has grown from a not-so-strong country into a power with sufficient say in the world.
Especially since the 10th anniversary celebration was missed, the 20th-anniversary celebration becomes extremely significant, not only is it a celebration of the royal family with the people, but it also strengthens the cohesion between the nation and its people.To highlight the importance of this parade ceremony, all three branches of Australasia’s military, including the navy, army, and air force, will be deployed, and foreign militaries are also invited to participate in the parade ceremony.
The Foreign Affairs Department has already invited several countries including the United Kingdom; the Philippines, El Salvador, and the newly established United Chiefdom of Kalimantan will also participate to enhance the prestige of this parade ceremony.
Without a doubt, the British are quite giving in this respect. Upon receiving the invitation from the Australasian Foreign Affairs Department, the British agreed on the same day to the proposal of jointly participating in the parade ceremony and expressed that they would send a military force for inspection.
At the same time, King George V, who was the reigning King of Britain at the time, will also participate in the Australasian parade ceremony to commemorate the special relationship between Australasia and Britain and to conduct an official diplomatic visit to Australasia.
Arthur, of course, welcomes this. Even if the British are not the allies of Australasia, they are still the most powerful country in the world at present, and Arthur would not snub the British for no reason.
Other countries that will also participate in the Australasian parade ceremony include Finland, Greece, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and more, which also invisibly increases the scale of the parade ceremony, an undoubtedly rare grand occasion.
With so many countries participating, to showcase the strength of Australasia’s military, the elite Guards will be deployed for this parade ceremony. Third-generation military aircraft will also make an appearance, and aircraft carriers and battleships will be deployed to demonstrate the true might of Australasia to the world.
Speaking of aircraft, the development of airplanes by countries around the world is still relatively rapid at present.
Although they started behind Australasia and the historical period, they have developed for nearly ten years now. The airplane level of various countries has already surpassed Australasia’s second-generation military aircraft, and even some more powerful countries have developed airplanes similar to Australasia’s third-generation military aircraft.
For Arthur to unveil the third-generation military aircraft at this time is naturally also to highlight Australasia’s military strength, signaling that Australasia will not lag behind in the field of aviation.
As countries are rushing to Australasia, the National Day celebration of Australasia is also being prepared anxiously.
The good news is that the new Royal Palace, which took nearly six years to build, is now complete, meaning the vast square of the Royal Palace can be used, and the scale of the National Day ceremony can increase from 100,000 people to more than 600,000.
During these six years of construction, the transportation infrastructure of Saint Arthur Castle has been fully completed, making it quite convenient for Australasians to travel to Saint Arthur Castle.
After this National Day celebration, the relocation of the capital to Saint Arthur Castle will also be put on the agenda. With the completion of both the government and the Royal Palace, and the power grid fully laid out, Saint Arthur Castle is ready to serve as the new capital, waiting for the relocation of Arthur and the government.
This National Day celebration is also aimed at promoting Saint Arthur Castle’s reputation to avoid the awkward reality that after the relocation, people only know Sydney and not Saint Arthur Castle.
This is inevitable, as Sydney has long been a massive city with a population of over 3 million, whereas Saint Arthur Castle currently only has a population of over 200,000. Simply from the scale of the city, it is just a small town and cannot compare to Sydney.
If not for the development of the Mure River Basin plains being too important to Australasia, the capital of Australasia would more likely be on the coast rather than inland.
After all, Australasia is not merely a continental country; it also possesses various territories and colonies, including New Zealand, New Guinea, and other overseas lands. Considering the interests of these overseas lands is also very important.
After the capital moves from Sydney to Saint Arthur Castle, the distance for these overseas territories to the capital will increase, which will lead to a weakening of the control over these overseas territories from the native land.
Fortunately, the Kingdom of Australasia was not too far from these overseas territories; otherwise, Arthur would never have dared to move the capital from the coast to the inland.
In the last month of 1925, all Australasian military units participating in the parade ceremony underwent a reasonably strict training phase to ensure they would not make mistakes during the parade.
To maintain order during the National Day celebrations, the government specially mobilized thousands of police from other states specifically to maintain order in Saint Arthur Castle.
Although this was an urban city with a population of only 200,000, the population was destined to exceed one million by the start of the National Day celebrations.
Even if it was just a temporary surge in population, these people also posed a potential threat to the public security of Saint Arthur Castle.
Even if conflicts did not erupt, the crowding and congestion caused by overly dense crowds could still mar the beauty of the National Day celebrations.
To eliminate this situation, once the National Day celebrations began, several highly skilled medical teams would be stationed near the new Royal Palace, ready to rescue the injured at any time.
Even though the current ambulances were rather rudimentary, Arthur still equipped hundreds of ambulances to ensure the injured could be transported to the hospital more quickly.
While the government was preparing for the handover, foreign guests invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and parade troops from some friendly nations were quickly arriving in Sydney, ready to move to Saint Arthur Castle.
Although Arthur was very busy, he still met representatives of some nations, such as Britain, Finland, the Philippines, El Salvador, etc.
Because King George V planned to visit Australasia diplomatically, the head of the delegation this time was King George V himself, giving great respect to Australasia.
Of course, Arthur did not reject King George V, he personally went to the harbor to meet them and also prepared a grand welcome banquet for King George V and his entourage, and cordially invited them to stay in the Royal Palace.
The Grand Duke of Finland, Dmitry, also had such prestige, being the brother of Queen Mary and, in essence, one of Arthur’s own people.
As for the remaining representatives from El Salvador and the Philippines, Arthur naturally could not meet them in person, he only instructed the Foreign Affairs Department to receive them and then lead them to meet with Arthur.
These two countries had an accurate understanding of their own positions. The Presidents of El Salvador and the Philippines were very tactful, and Manuel even lavished praise on Arthur, all to secure more power and status for himself in the Philippines.
This is one of the benefits of pursuing a policy of balance. As long as Manuel could not fully control the Philippines, he would have to rely on Arthur’s support to maintain his power and status.
As long as Manuel needed Arthur, he could be easily controlled by him. Being able to control the President of the Philippines meant that Arthur effectively had control over the Philippines.
The same was true for El Salvador. Although Arthur did not employ balance politics in El Salvador, the country’s population and land area guaranteed it could not threaten Australasia, let alone stand against Australasian rule on its own.
The problem was that British influence practically governed El Salvador’s neighboring countries. Under the close alliance between Britain and Australasia, El Salvador had no chance of resisting Australasian rule.
Fortunately, Australasian rule did not have too many excessive demands, with even the number of troops stationed there being small, its influence more on a diplomatic and economic level.
This was what Arthur was always pursuing—in comparison to controlling a country by force, he preferred to use diplomacy or economic factors.
Not only does this make it difficult for enemies to resist, but it also minimizes the negative international reputation impact under subtle influence.
Britain, being the most powerful country in the world and an ally of Australasia, received full respect from Arthur when hosting King George V of Britain.
Upon arriving at Saint Arthur Castle, he showed King George V around the castle and the new Royal Palace and also introduced Australasia’s grand plan for developing the Mure River Basin, smilingly stating that Australasia was nearly exhausted from its territorial expansion because the development of the Mure River Basin had already been very demanding.
The point of Arthur’s remark was, of course, to reassure King George V. It was because the British had drawn a considerable amount of fire in Europe on behalf of Australasia that Arthur could plan the development of Australasia with peace of mind.
Similarly, only by reassuring the British could Australasia develop in peace.
Britain was still very important to Australasia at the moment. Under the premise that there was no conflict of interest, Arthur not only wanted to maintain the alliance with Britain but also wanted the British to focus as much as possible on Europe and other regions, overlooking the current strength of Australasia.
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