On December 31, just a few days after the Christmas holidays, the Australasian government entered the midst of intense government affairs.

The last day of the year is often also the time for the annual report meeting of the Cabinet government.

However, because the new Cabinet Government has only been in office for a few months, and the summary is also for the previous Cabinet Government, the content of the annual report is still relatively small.

Of course, the most important thing in this meeting is actually the planning of the new cabinet government's term of office.

Because of the chaotic situation in Europe and around the world, no one can be sure that war will come tomorrow.

This also means that the task of the fourth cabinet government is extremely difficult, and even during their tenure, they are likely to experience a great war that the world has never seen before.

This also means that the role of the fourth cabinet government is very important, and a little carelessness and a wrong choice may lead to the country's ten years of development in flames.

Although the history of later generations can teach Arthur many lessons and lessons, who can guarantee that the world will develop as the history of later generations?

Will Italy change jobs? Will the United States join the war? Will there be a revolution in Russia?

Leaving aside these three issues, Australasia itself is also a factor that Arthur is not sure of.

Theoretically, whichever side Australasia joins can provide some help within its capacity, and even change the course of future wars to a certain extent.

But Arthur had more than that. Arthur's plan was for Australasia to gain a higher international status in the war, absorb the gains of the defeated countries, and at least become a chess player, not a pawn, after the First World War.

Although the annual report meeting has been greatly streamlined, the reports are basically relatively important news.

As of December 31, 1911, the population of Australasia officially reached more than 10.51 million, with a population of 8.27 million in Australia and 2.14 million in New Zealand.

The populations of the colonies of New Guinea, Australian Timor, and the Crown are 73,000, 19,000, and 8,000 respectively.

Australasia also officially owns a second city with a population of more than one million, Melbourne.

Melbourne's current population has reached more than 1.04 million, and it is the economic center of Australasia after Sydney, and Sydney is known as the two brightest pearls of Oceania.

After more than a decade of development, at least within the cities of Australasia, the level of development has initially caught up with the average city in Europe.

Cities with a population of one million such as Sydney and Melbourne are no less developed than those of Europe's first-class cities.

In fact, this is normal, after all, to put it bluntly, the current situation in Australasia is to mobilize the whole country to develop these two cities.

These two cities are difficult to find opponents in Australasia, which has also contributed to the current dominance of the two cities in Australasia.

Even at the suggestion of Secretary Grant, Arthur had already enacted and enacted immigration laws to encourage immigration in remote areas, colonies, small cities, etc., and to a certain extent cut welfare benefits for large cities.

But that doesn't stop more than 40 percent of the nearly one million immigrants who move each year to stay in big cities, at least to cities with hundreds of thousands of people like state capitals.

After all, there will be more jobs in big cities, and there will be more development opportunities waiting for these immigrants to find.

What else can a small city do? With the exception of the Leonora Industrial Base, most of the small cities are only engaged in agricultural development, and at most they are only a farmer.

Immigrants more or less have a dream of getting rich and rich, and they are not happy to let them be honest and become farmers.

A population of 10 million is a threshold, a necessary condition for the official road to becoming a strong country.

In the current world, a country with a population of less than 10 million is destined to become a powerful country.

But in reality, a population of 10 million is really just a condition. Arthur wanted to achieve his goals and ambitions, and Australasia's population of only 10 million was not enough.

The standing and reserve armies of European countries combined are as high as millions and close to 10 million.

Although full mobilization will damage the foundation of the country, it also means that these countries have the courage and cards to fight to the death with the strength of the whole country.

If you look at Australasia, 500,000 troops may be the current limit, and a little more would be very serious damage to the country's development.

But Australasia wants to ask that in order to become a great power with international status, in addition to a strong navy, an army of more than one million is also very necessary.

This also means that the population of Australasia must exceed 20 million in order to have the means and confidence to wrestle with other powers.

At the current rate of Australasia's introduce, the population exceeds 20 million, and it will take at least another ten years.

If you count the outbreak of war in Europe, countries will definitely restrict the exit of population. This also means that in the run-up to and during the war, there will be a decrease in immigration in Australasia, perhaps even substantially.

In other words, it may take 20 years for Australasia's population to reach 20 million.

Twenty years from now, World War II may be almost over, and Australasia will have a certain demographic confidence, which is a little too late.

It seems necessary to use some means to speed up the absorption of immigrants before and after the war.

There was also good news for the Australasian government, which was the year 1911 when total revenues reached a record high of $78.41 million.

The continuous growth of total fiscal revenue actually means that the results of Australasia's development have gradually been shown.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the growth of fiscal revenues depends on orders for arms trade and grain exports, but this is good news in any case.

Of course, the government's total fiscal expenditure is also growing. In 1911, the Australasian government's total fiscal expenditure was 67 million Australian dollars, and the fiscal surplus was more than 11.41 million Australian dollars.

Among them, military spending has been as high as 28.71 million Australian dollars, although the size of the navy has not increased, but the army has expanded by 100,000, plus a variety of weapons and equipment, resulting in Australasia's military spending accounting for more than 40% of the total government expenditure, which is also a major feature of this era.

In fact, the military spending of European countries is also generally high, after all, everyone knows that the enemy they are about to face is a combination of several great powers.

If military spending is not high at this time, the losses to the country and the government in the future will be much higher than the expensive military spending in the past few years.

In order to expand and develop their military, some small countries do not hesitate to borrow large amounts of money from home and abroad to expand their armed forces.

It's also a game, with the winner getting the territory, the population, and the war reparations. Not only can it fill the gap of previous loans, but it can even further the country's potential.

As for failure, for these guys who dare to gamble, maybe they really haven't thought about the consequences of failure.

Of course, countries that dare to gamble actually have some confidence. In the ongoing Italian-Turkish War, Italy swore to start the war by relying on the power of the great powers and their powerful navy, and when it was certain that the other powers would not intervene.

The Balkan states, which were currently preparing, were not only expanding their armies for the sake of war, but also gaining support from the Russian Empire, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire's attention was all attracted by the current Italo-Turkish war, which was why they dared to prepare for war against Turkey.

The current naval and arms race in Europe can also be seen as the fact that the two major European military blocs do not have the full confidence to defeat each other, so they can only hope to frantically expand their own armaments in order to gain more superiority over the enemy.

The Australasian government's current available funds have exceeded 250 million Australian dollars, which is also a little confidence for the Australasian government to expand its armaments on a large scale and strengthen the country's defense capabilities when war is about to come or when war comes.

If we include a large number of loans from the private sector and at home and abroad, I am afraid that Australasia can consume at least 500 million yuan, and it seems that it is not impossible to form a world's top three navies.

After a brief presentation, the next step is the plan for the next four years of the new Cabinet government.

Judging by the current situation in Europe, war could break out at any time. This also means that in the next four years, the development of the military industry is very important.

First of all, the budget for the coming year, in the area of national defense alone, the Cabinet Government approved the Ministry of National Defense's budget of up to 30 million yuan in 1912, but it also put forward several requirements for the Ministry of National Defense, that it is necessary to speed up the training of the newly formed army, and at the same time strictly grasp the daily training of all the armed forces, so that all armed forces can be an elite army that can be used.

On the naval side, Arthur hopes that the Navy can organize more high-seas exercises to improve the familiarity of naval soldiers with the operation of warships, and also to strengthen the combat effectiveness of the Navy.

There is a good saying, when the cannon goes off, there are ten thousand taels of gold. This cannon also includes naval guns on warships.

Even the cost of naval artillery is much higher than that of ordinary artillery. Organizing a random naval exercise can cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars.

If the entire fleet were to be dispatched for a large-scale exercise, the cost could be several times greater.

However, a variety of drills must also be done. After all, in the absence of all kinds of warfare, in addition to daily training, this kind of exercise is the only means for the navy to increase its combat effectiveness.

The $30 million defence budget is designed for extensive exercises and training for the Army and Navy.

Even Arthur directly stated that the royal family is willing to subsidize 2 million Australian dollars a year if military spending exceeds the government's budget. However, the condition is that the subsidized military expenditure must be spent in earnest, and there is no fear of spending funds, but the money spent must have a role.

The current royal consortium is not short of money, with a net income of about 50 million Australian dollars a year, which is not much worse than the government.

The royal consortium brings more than 8 million Australian dollars to the government every year, and it is also a major force of government tax revenue.

At present, the total assets of the royal consortium are as high as 400 million pounds, or 800 million Australian dollars.

In addition to the £100 million lent to the government, the total value of the various factories and businesses invested and built by the royal consortium is also more than £100 million.

In addition to this, the royal consortium has a whopping 150 million pounds, or $300 million in cash flow, and tens of millions of dollars in shares.

In previous years, the main income of the royal consortium was still dependent on Benz cars, but now, the income of Benz cars is less than half of the total income of the royal consortium.

It is no exaggeration to say that the income of the royal consortium is enough to feed all the armies of Australasia, and even has a surplus of more than $20 million a year.

This also led to the exceptionally arrogant equipment of the 1st and 2nd Guards Divisions of the Crown Army, and it was also the only unit in Australasia that was already equipped with military trucks.

Of course, the real reason why the two Guards Divisions were equipped with military trucks was because they were mostly stationed near Sydney and were responsible for the security of the capital and the royal palace.

The transportation environment near Sydney is very convenient, and it is naturally more convenient to travel by truck.

But unlike other troops, most of them are stationed in mountainous or remote areas, and it is not so convenient to transport them by truck.

Of course, the lack of government budget is another major reason. It is believed that after the expansion of military spending in the new year, other standing forces should also be able to see some military trucks.

The wealth of the royal consortium is also the foundation for Arthur to develop advanced military weapons, including tanks, aircraft carriers, and aircraft.

You must know that up to now, the research and development of all these advanced military equipment has consumed all the funds of the royal consortium.

While the research on these three weapons is small, it costs millions of dollars a year.

If it weren't for the royal consortium's deep pockets, I'm afraid the government wouldn't dare to bear such a consumption at will.

If you don't have money, let alone start researching, even recruiting talents is in the way.

Speaking of which, we have to thank Arthur's grandmother, Queen Victoria.

You must know that the old Duke Arthur's inheritance to Arthur is only more than 80 million pounds, and the rest is brought to Arthur by Queen Victoria.

Even New Zealand and New Guinea were gifts from Queen Victoria to Arthur.

If it weren't for Queen Victoria's will, I'm afraid it would not be easy for Australia to get these two regions.

After all, with the relationship between Arthur and Edward at that time, even if these two regions were basically not important to the British Empire, Edward VII would have secretly hindered them.

This may be the advantage of origin! Born into the royal family of the British Empire, and the only son of Queen Victoria's favorite son, it seems like a no-brainer.

For a person with a family background, making reasonable use of his background will also allow him to get more benefits and take fewer detours.

4000 words for the first update, ask for support, ask for a monthly pass!

I wish you all a happy May Day, today is 10,000, it has been more 4000/10000, ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)