The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 392: Chapter 333: Food Storage and Immigrants

The British managed to complete the design of 15-inch caliber main guns between 1912 and 1915, and to equip them on the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.

Arthur believed that Australasia, which had integrated British and German artillery technology, could also achieve such a feat.

Even if it could not be done in just over two years, it should not be difficult for the technical experts in Australasia to master 15-inch caliber main guns within the World War I cycle.

Australasia is currently at the forefront of the world in terms of dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts, even one of the strongest countries.

Such an advantage must be maintained, and efforts should be made to continue to enhance this advantage.

With a cabinet meeting in November, the Australasian government has now determined a new task: to prepare in advance for a possible European war.

Not only must they stockpile large quantities of strategic supplies, food, medical care, materials, military weapons and equipment, and various rare mineral resources, but they all fall within the scope of the Australasian government's preparations.

As time comes to the end of 1912, Arthur is well aware that there is not much time left for Australasia to prepare.

Perhaps the last half of the golden time for Australasia to attract immigrants is all that remains.

If the war continues to break out in 1914 as it did in history, then immigration to Australasia may not be as smooth from the beginning of 1913.

After all, if these immigrants stayed in their homeland, they could serve as excellent sources of soldiers during the war, or be put into civilian economic production.

With the outbreak of war and the conscription of a large number of military soldiers, civilian production will inevitably be delayed. At that time, a large population is needed to make up for the stagnation of production caused by the withdrawal of the young and strong.

"Prime Minister Kent, from now on, expand our food production scale as much as possible. And, apart from some necessary food exports, reduce the scale of food exports as much as possible and increase the reserves of food." In the Cabinet meeting, Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent with a serious face and instructed.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Prime Minister Kent also nodded solemnly.

"If necessary, the propaganda department of the Foreign Affairs Department can cooperate in action, spreading news of future food shortages and price increases among the public, so that the people will spontaneously store food. If the European war breaks out, the food in our hands can not only bring us a lot of profits but also bring us more benefits.

It's also good for the people to store food." Arthur said with a smile.

The government's storage of food is to sell it abroad during the European War to obtain large profits and benefits.

Encouraging the public to store food is to avoid the phenomenon that they have to buy expensive food due to a shortage of food when food prices rise in the future.

After all, when food prices rise in the future, Arthur plans to take advantage of Europeans, not to make his own citizens fall into the trap.

Anyway, the current prices of grain and meat in Australasia are not expensive, so it is not a big burden for the people to store some food appropriately.

Hearing Arthur's instructions, Foreign Secretary Daize nodded to show understanding.

The Australasian newspapers are under the control of the propaganda department, and the propaganda department is directly under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Secretary Daize naturally understands the importance of this matter and attaches great importance to Arthur's instructions.

Thanks to the control of the royal family over public opinion in Australasia, the two newspapers of the royal family, the Australasia Daily and the Victoria Newspaper, have high credibility.

In addition to these two large-scale newspapers covering most states, some native local small newspapers and state-owned newspapers established by the government also have good credibility in Australasia.

After all, public opinion in Australasia is basically under the control of the royal family and is supervised by the propaganda department.

Under such circumstances, other small and medium-sized newspapers cannot possibly print fabricated news, otherwise, they may face accountability from the propaganda department.

This has also led to the fact that as long as the large-scale newspapers in Australasia print news, the people of Australasia will choose to believe it the first time.

Especially the two newspapers of the royal family, the news in these two newspapers basically represents the truth in Australasia.

If someone says that the news published in these two newspapers is false, those around them will probably sneer and then say, "Get lost!"

More importantly, newspapers of all sizes bear legal responsibility for the news they print.

If someone dares to print false news, especially false news about the government and the royal family, not only will the newspaper be closed down, but all relevant personnel will face imprisonment.

Under such circumstances, as long as the brain of a newspaper is normal, it will basically not look at the printing of forged messages.

This has greatly strengthened Arthur's control over public opinion; as long as the royal family's two newspapers speak, any other newspaper or media has no right to refute.

The day after the Cabinet meeting, several media outlets, including the Victoria Newspaper and the Australasia Daily, began to print news about the possible decline in global food production due to disasters such as droughts and floods in various places.

The Australasia Daily also made a visionary prediction that global food may experience significant fluctuations within a few years, encouraging Australasians to stock up in advance to cope with the potential food crisis.

Seemingly in response to these news reports, the Australasian Government announced the following day that it would significantly reduce food exports to foreign countries, except for some cooperation with the United Kingdom and Germany, and increase the scale of domestic grain reserves.

Since the government is hoarding grain, could this news be fake?

In anticipation of this, the people of Australasia began to enter into the hoarding phase in response to the call of major newspapers and media outlets.

Of course, the call for the public to begin hoarding grain is to protect them from future food price hikes.

As a result, the government will impose certain limits on the scale of grain hoarding by the public.

Theoretically, each household is only allowed to purchase 500 catties of grain to avoid the crisis of insufficient grain reserves due to large-scale hoarding by the public.

The government reassured the public that it would increase its grain reserves and not let the people of Australasia suffer from a lack of food, which then persuaded the public to accept the 500-catty limit on grain purchases.

In addition to increasing strategic food reserves, attracting population was another key topic discussed at this Cabinet meeting.

Everyone knows that during a war, the major powers will not allow a large number of people to emigrate abroad.

Not only will this weaken the nation's control over certain areas, but it will also undermine the nation's potential before the outbreak of war.

Furthermore, many people are afraid of death, and their numbers are by no means small. If there were no restrictions on these people during a war, there would likely be an outward dispersion of millions of people in a short time after the outbreak of the war.

These people, with diverse occupations and even important positions, would be lost if their departure is no longer restrained and would show disrespect for the impending war.

Therefore, now that war has not yet broken out or perhaps before it ends, this may be the last chance for immigration to Australasia.

In order to attract more immigrants before the war, Arthur issued an order for the Department of Civil Affairs to cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, with the support of the Cabinet Government, extensively attract immigrants from major European countries.

This time, Australasia's immigration incentives have become more generous, with conditions improving almost 30% compared to previous immigration offers.

In addition, the Australasian Government will reimburse boat tickets for anyone willing to immigrate to Australasia and provide housing and food to new immigrants before they officially obtain citizenship.

Such an immigration policy will inevitably attract more immigrants to Australasia.

In this era, there are still a large number of European people who want to emigrate abroad.

Especially with the European war seemingly drawing closer, many peace-loving people who do not want to see a war already have plans to emigrate to a peaceful country.

Countries like the United States and Australasia, which are far from the conflicts in Europe, have unique geographical advantages and even have significant industrial and economic scales and the status of major powers, are naturally the top choices for those who want to emigrate.

At present, the priority of European countries for emigration is: The United States and Australasia for the first tier, European colonies for the second tier, South American countries for the third tier, and Asian countries for the fourth tier.

Although immigration to Australasia has already set a new record this year, who would think there are too many people?

Arthur even set a target of attracting at least 200,000 immigrants in the final two months of 1912.

The change in immigration policy has taken Australasia's immigration appeal to a new level.

But at the same time, the cost of immigration is also constantly increasing. In order to attract more immigrants, Arthur has also lifted restrictions on the source of immigrants.

As long as they are European countries and white people, they will relax immigration restrictions and encourage all European white people to emigrate to Australasia.

In order to complete Arthur's mission, the Australasian Government has made great efforts.

If immigrants are allowed to buy their boat tickets, this would be a huge expense. Therefore, the government has specifically leased more than ten large cruise ships from Europe to be responsible for safely transporting immigrants to Australasia. This-is-a-NovelFire-special

At the same time, not only will Australasia cover the cost of immigrant boat tickets, but it will also provide free food to immigrants during their journeys, attracting even more immigrants.

Additionally, the government has decided to use warships to escort the cruise ships to ensure the safety of the ships and immigrants and to demonstrate Australasia's naval power, telling all European immigrants that Australasia has the ability to protect all its citizens.