Negotiations between Arthur and Wilhelm II went smoothly, and it took less than three hours to finalize the framework of the aid treaty, and to negotiate the purchase of more important technologies, including the military industry.

Whatever William II's intentions, this treaty was only good for Australia, not bad.

With the help of Germany, coupled with aid from the United Kingdom, Australia's economy and industry will usher in an explosive phase.

Although the aid treaty was signed, a number of military agreements were also clarified.

But the good news is that Wilhelm II did not explicitly ask Australia to participate in a future war.

All Australia needed was to provide German resources within six months of the outbreak of the war, and to look for opportunities to harass France's colonies.

This was perfectly acceptable to Arthur. It would not hurt for Australia to make the war in Europe more violent without being directly mired in this war.

After all, with war comes a lot of opportunities for wealth. Australia's military industry comes from the support of Britain and Germany, and is naturally more acceptable to Britain and Germany.

After all, in the case of choice, the same standard equipment is more proficient than different equipment, and the combat effectiveness of the outbreak is naturally higher.

December 19, 1900, the day after Arthur and William II had negotiated.

After the sovereigns of the two countries finalized the framework of the treaty, the officials also began to get busy finalizing the details of the treaty.

Because the general framework has been determined, the progress of the negotiations is still very fast. The thorny issues had already been resolved by Arthur and Wilhelm II, and officials from both countries only had to discuss the type and specific share of the aid.

But after all, it is a huge aid package with up to 75 million pounds of funding, as well as all kinds of advanced technology and excellent workers. Even though the negotiations progressed quickly, it still took about five days to complete the negotiations.

Lucky for Australia. Because Wilhelm II decided to conclude the treaty negotiations before Christmas Day, on December 23, the day before Christmas Eve, some of the issues that had been in contention were quickly resolved by the officials of the two countries, and the solution was a compromise on the part of the Germans.

There is no way out, and for the two countries that really want to conclude a treaty, they can only let Germany, the aid party, suffer a little.

Berlin, Germany, December 24, 1900.

Before Christmas Eve, Germany and Australia finally negotiated all the details of the treaty, and the official treaty was printed out, signed by the sovereigns of both sides, and officially entered into force.

The official name of the treaty is the German-Australian Aid and Cooperation Plan in Berlin, abbreviated as the German-Australian Berlin Agreement.

Because part of the agreement deals with military operations and diplomatic support in times of war, for the sake of both sides, the agreement will only reveal part of the content to the outside world, and other cooperation plans will not be disclosed to the outside world except for some aid plans.

Under the spotlight of a dry media, Wilhelm II and Arthur smiled and held up their respective treaty backups, smiling and taking a group photo.

Once the matter was settled, the remaining days were left for Arthur and the diplomatic team to rest and play.

After a brief Christmas break, Arthur was ready to return to Australia for the government's annual report meeting and New Year's planning meeting.

It's been almost two months since I left Australia, and most of that time has been spent on sea journeys.

Not to mention, Arthur really misses the Australian manor and the free life.

In order to apologize for the poor hospitality, Wilhelm II specially held a large banquet on Christmas Eve, to which Arthur and all the members of the diplomatic delegation were invited.

Of course, for Christmas Eve, the feast is very traditional. However, being able to get to know many German nobles and high-level people through the opportunity of the banquet is still very beneficial to the development of Australia in a short period of time.

Because of William II's big recommendation, Arthur still attracted a lot of attention at the banquet on Christmas Eve.

Especially as a duke with real power and the grandson of the late Queen Victoria, Arthur's popularity is not low.

Many of them also had nobles who wanted to marry Arthur, but they were all rejected by Arthur one by one.

The free life is very good now, and Arthur doesn't want to get married so soon for the time being. Of course, it may also be because they don't want to get too close to Germany.

After all, after World War I, the German aristocracy would be overthrown, whether it was the Hohenzollern family or the dukes and counts of the various states, they would eventually lose their titles and become ordinary rich people.

But Arthur did not refuse to have a good relationship with them. Traditional German military families, including companies like Krupp and Mauser, were the targets of Arthur's courtship.

When Germany fails, it may not be impossible to win over these military industrial enterprises that are to be liquidated and attract some talent to join Australia.

After the huge Christmas Eve feast, it was immediately followed by the Christmas holidays.

As a traditional Christian holiday, the German Empire naturally had a holiday on this day, and Wilhelm II was no exception.

However, in order to entertain Arthur, Wilhelm II specially invited Arthur to visit a Braunschweig-class battleship to feel the strength of the German Navy.

It has to be said that the small warships that Australia has are nothing compared to this huge battleship.

The current battleship is the strongest warship in the end, and as the mainstream main warship of all countries in the world, the battleship represents a proof of the strength of a country's navy in terms of size and combat effectiveness.

You know, even in 1900, there were not many countries in the world that had battleships, less than twenty.

Among them, there are even fewer countries with the production capacity of battleships, and except for a few major powers, few countries can master the technology of building battleships, even battleships that are already behind the times.

There are even many regional countries that are dreaming of battleships. The two battleships that the Ottoman Empire once dreamed of, and even launched a large amount of fundraising throughout the country for this purpose, attracted the enthusiasm and donations of basically the whole country, which is enough to see how important the battleships were to these countries in this era.

The British delay in the delivery of these two battleships was also one of the important reasons why Ottoman Turkey chose to join the German side in World War I.

After all, these were two battleships that caused a national sensation, and the behavior of being delinquent in delivery by the British in front of everyone, or even directly denied it, made the top brass and the people of Ottoman Turkey very angry.

In this era, the improvement of the combat effectiveness of a battleship for the navy is huge and qualitatively changing.

The current Australian Navy is not in the stream at all, but if it has a battleship of the active class of the great powers, then Australia's navy will directly become the world's top 30.