On 11 August, Arthur attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the battleship New Zealand, which had to be postponed due to the slow pace of Russian warship construction, and encouraged the workers of the Royal Dockyards.

Starting with the first battleship Australasia in January, the Royal Dockyards have started construction of three battleships in succession, and the fastest battleship Australasia is even expected to be completed next year, around March or April 1909, for the final launch test session.

This is good news for Australasia, after all, March and April are about half a year away.

However, although looking forward to the launch test of the battleship, Arthur still repeatedly instructed the shipyard manager and all the workers to carefully grasp the quality of the warship construction.

The good news is that Australasian industry and shipbuilding were established with the help of the Germans, and the rigid and serious character of the Germans also deeply influenced these Australasian workers.

At least Australasia's industrial products stand the test, if not as meticulously as Germany's, but definitely strive for excellence.

At present, the sea trials of the two Russian warships are going very well, and the fastest battleship Petropavlovsk can even be officially delivered around October this year.

Judging from the current performance of the Petropavlovsk battleship in the maritime sector, the actual performance of the Monarch-class battleship is not far from the data on paper, and it is a real dreadnought that can be compared with the Dreadnought battleship in all aspects.

It is worth mentioning that the first German Nassau-class battleship has been successfully launched, but the performance reflected in the test process is not satisfactory.

Historically, fortunately, because there is no reason for comparison, the Germans still have some confidence in the Nassau-class battleships.

But with the technology of the Australasian Monarch-class battleships, the Germans compared the two warships in all aspects, and even produced a prototype ship to compare, and finally had to admit that the design of the Monarch-class battleships was better than that of the Nassau-class battleships, and the 305 mm guns were definitely more powerful than the 283 mm guns.

More critically, Austria-Hungary, Germany's closest ally, had exactly such artillery technology. After negotiations between the two governments, Germany soon introduced the technology of 305 mm naval guns from the Austro-Hungarian Škoda Arsenal, in return for which Germany would help Austria-Hungary possess dreadnoughts.

Such an exchange was not a loss for Germany, after all, the 305-mm guns could greatly increase the firepower of the current German battleships, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its dreadnoughts, would also be able to increase its influence in the Mediterranean, threatening the south coast of France and the Strait of Gibraltar.

The Germans also kept their promises, and after acquiring the technology of the Austro-Hungarian 305-mm gun, they shared a copy with Australasia.

The Germans acquired artillery technology in July, and shipped it to Australasia in mid-August, just in time for the Cabinet to be decided.

After receiving the artillery technology provided by the Germans, Arthur immediately gathered all the experts in the artillery of the military factories and gathered the strength of the whole country to master the 305 mm main gun technology as soon as possible.

At this time, there were many fewer German experts in Australasia, because the aid treaty with the Germans was only five years old, but because of the closer diplomatic relations between Germany and Australasia, some experts stayed for a few more years.

From the signing of the Treaty of Aid in 1900 to August 1908, Germany has sent a total of 1,215 experts of various types to Australasia, who have transferred a large amount of advanced industrial and scientific knowledge to Australasia.

So far, there are fewer than 200 German experts remaining in Australasia, and the exact number is only 141.

These 141 people are the result of eight years of hard work by the Australasian government, and finally these 141 people are permanently left in Australasia.

Of course, it must have been through relatively peaceful means, and the Australasian government has provided a lot of facilities and policies, which has retained one-ninth of the talents of the entire expert group.

A considerable number of them are specialists in military factories and shipyards, and the number of these experts alone is 93, and the rest are personnel in the chemical and basic industries, as well as other industries.

Most of these experts have successfully obtained Australasian citizenship, and the rest are already under consideration.

Arthur offered very generous terms for wooing, in addition to keeping their annual salary unchanged, he also promised to invite all their families to Australasia, and let them obtain citizenship as soon as possible and enjoy the treatment of Australasian citizens.

At the same time, all the conditions granted to immigrants will be obtained, which means that the families of these German experts will receive at least a few dozen acres of land when they come to Australasia, and their lives will be completely guaranteed.

Wilhelm II maintained a tacit attitude towards Arthur's behavior of attracting talents, after all, Germany and Australasia had good relations in the past, and Germany was full of talents, so he would not be dissatisfied with Australasia because of these more than 100 talents.

With Arthur's order, under the leadership of dozens of German experts, artillery experts from hundreds of military factories began to conduct a comprehensive study of the 305 mm main gun technology provided by Germany, striving to master the technology in the fastest possible time, and then equip it on the battleship Australasia.

At present, two Russian warships have been launched for testing, so we can only wait for Australasia to master the technology and spend time replacing the main guns of these two battleships.

However, the good news is that it will not take too long to replace the main gun, as short as half a month, as long as one or two months, and the replacement of the main gun can basically be completed.

Moreover, these dismantled 283mm guns could also be installed on the coast of Australasia and used as coastal defense batteries. It will both solve the problem of waste and strengthen the defense capability of the Australasian coast.

In addition, the submarine technology provided by Germany is basically controlled by Australasia. Because Germany's current submarine technology is stuck in the U-3 class submarines, and it is still the first two U-3 class submarines, the technology is not too advanced, at least in the European context.

Germany's U-3-class submarine construction program consists of 20 submarines in seven groups. Germany's goal is to improve the performance of each group of U-3 class submarines to a certain extent, which is also the reason for the rapid increase in the technical level of German submarines in the later period.

At present, the German U-3 class submarines are still under construction, namely the first two U-3 and U-4 submarines, which are also the first U-3 class submarines.

Submarines of this type of U-3 class have a surface displacement of 421 tons and an underwater displacement of 510 tons. The length of the submarine is about 53.1 meters, and the surface speed can reach about 12 knots and the underwater speed can reach 9.4 knots.

Such submarines are still lagging behind France and Italy, which are currently more mature in submarine development, and perhaps Wilhelm II also knows this, so he also generously shared the design drawings of U-5 to 7 submarines that are still on the design table with Australasia.

This is the second group of U-3 class submarines, and the German Navy has higher requirements for submarines in this group.

According to the design drawings, the displacement of the second group of submarines was much larger than that of the first group, and each submarine had to be equipped with at least three engines, so that the surface speed of the submarine could reach at least fourteen knots.

In addition, the German Navy also requires that the cruising range of this group of submarines is at least 2,000 nautical miles, and the number of crew members is about 20, which can ensure that the submarines can continue to dive for 72 hours to perform tasks.

In terms of firepower, two torpedo tubes are arranged at the bow and tail of the submarine, and the total number of torpedoes carried by the submarine is about 6 to 8.

According to the design drawings, the second group of submarines can almost meet the requirements of the German Navy, and it is expected that the surface speed will be about 14 knots, the underwater speed can be maintained at more than 9 knots, and the maximum speed can be maintained at 10 to 11 knots.

To be honest, the performance data of the first and second groups of submarines are not comparable at all. The second group of submarines is the submarine that can really enter real combat, and it is also a design that can satisfy Arthur.

Although the second group of submarines currently only exists on the design table, Arthur believes in the technology of the German Navy, after all, according to historical developments, the technology of German submarines has indeed experienced rapid progress during this time.

Of course, it is not enough for the Germans to do it alone, and Australasia's own research is also very important.

Anyway, the cost of the submarine was not too expensive, and Arthur immediately ordered the shipyard to try to understand the first set of submarine blueprints for the U-3 class submarine, and build a submarine to familiarize himself with the process.

After that, there was a comprehensive study of the second set of submarine plans, and as long as both themselves and Germany were sure that the plans were okay, then it was time to build submarines vigorously.

After dealing with the Navy episode, the time also came to late August, which was the time for the cabinet meeting decided by Arthur.

Although it was theoretically just a normal cabinet meeting, it was the first meeting after the cabinet restructure, and it also welcomed several new cabinet ministers, so it was still relatively important.

At this Cabinet meeting, the Archbishop of Australasia, Stede, the Lord Chancellor of the Kingdom, Gerry, and the Minister of Defence, Raul, will make their first appearances, and Sir Evan will return to the Cabinet Government in a new capacity.

Coupled with the son of the Kent butler, the former Minister of Defence, who has officially become the Minister of State in the Cabinet Government, the position of the Cabinet Government should also usher in a lot of changes.

For Arthur, though, the impact was not great. After all, Arthur controls the most important finances and defense, and Secretary of State Kent is also a loyal talent that Arthur trusts, so he has no need to worry about the formation of a faction in the cabinet that opposes him.

As things stand, the relationship between House Speaker Evan and Chief Minister Walter will certainly not return to the previous administration.

One is the former prime minister, the current speaker of the House of Representatives, and the other is the former Minister of People's Livelihood, the current prime minister. If nothing else, both of them should be attacking the chief ministers of the next cabinet government, which dooms the relationship between the two to be not much better.

It could even be argued that after three consecutive terms as cabinet ministers, the prime ministers of several of Australia's colonies will become the most threatening contenders to each other if they want to remain in the cabinet government.

In addition to these more senior cabinet ministers, the current cabinet government also has loyalists appointed by Arthur himself, as well as cabinet rookies who have been elected with the support of political parties.

However, the only two parties that have won cabinet seats, the United Party and the Country Party, are biased towards Arthur, which greatly reduces the possibility of an opposition faction in the cabinet.

On August 21, 1908, the Cabinet meeting, which had been prepared for half a month, was officially convened.

This cabinet meeting was taken seriously by Arthur, and the venue of the meeting was chosen in the largest and most formal conference hall of Sydney Palace.

Since seven o'clock in the morning, there have been cabinet ministers waiting outside the door, and before the official start of the cabinet meeting at eight o'clock, all the cabinet ministers are in place, quietly waiting for Arthur's arrival.

3,400 words for the first update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support! Today is ten thousand!

(End of chapter)