As we moved into October of 1919, the flu, which had disappeared, seemed to be back in vogue again.

Of course, compared with the more lethal second epidemic, this epidemic is not so serious, and many people have symptoms that are just a severe cold, and most of the time it is not life-threatening.

With Arthur's order, various departments in Australasia responded urgently to deal with the resurgence of the flu virus.

Although judging from the data of Europe and the United States, the fatality rate of the third round of influenza is not high, but the Australasian government is also very prepared and has not been careless or slack.

In any case, the damage to the national economy and society caused by the pandemic in the United States is enormous, and the damage to people's lives and safety is also enormous.

Since the third round of influenza epidemic in Europe and the United States in early October, in just a few days, it has caused hundreds of thousands of infections and thousands of deaths.

This pandemic has been fully characterized as the US pandemic, and the last people who want to see the flu continue to circulate are the Americans.

If nothing else, the name of the American flu is enough to make Americans tremble in the midst of the flu.

Newspapers and media in almost all countries have been mentioning the name of the American flu pandemic in an attempt to blame the United States for the casualties caused by the flu.

There are even some good things in the European media, which are already promoting conspiracy theories about the spread of the flu in the United States again, so that the Americans, who are already afraid to be high-profile in the international community, have completely become turtles with shrunken heads, for fear that the world alliance will throw the pot on themselves again.

It's a pity that such a thing is not something that Americans can dodge if they want to.

If the second transmission is known for its high mortality rate, the third transmission is known for its high infection rate.

Originally in the areas that were not affected by the second wave of influenza transmission, such as some remote and closed islands, and mountainous areas with few people, there were basically more or less cases.

If it is a more developed area, it is fine, because of the improvement of medical facilities, the real mortality rate is generally maintained below 5%, and can even be reduced to about 2%.

But in areas where treatment is not well developed, such as some islands in the Pacific Ocean and some indigenous tribes, they have to suffer from the flu epidemic.

The Dutch East Indies have been severely affected again, with the number of infected people exceeding one million and the death toll exceeding 200,000 in less than half a month.

Those Dutch people who used to walk on the streets with their toes on their toes are cowering in the city at this time, and they dare not go out at all.

They feared that the flu would spread among the natives, which led the Dutch East Indies government to issue stricter restrictions prohibiting any natives from approaching the cities of the Dutch East Indies, and expelling all the natives from the existing cities.

Many indigenous tribes have even died one after another, which has also reduced the number of indigenous people in Southeast Asia.

In order to solve the problem of influenza transmission in the indigenous islands of Sulawesi, which was controlled by Australasia, Arthur decided to expel some of the natives to the Dutch East Indies to reduce the possibility of more serious crises such as plague caused by the mass death of the natives.

These natives do not have any concept of civilization and hygiene, and they are buried on the spot when they die in good cases, and they even ignore them in bad cases, either waiting for the wild beasts in the forest to eat the corpses, or they can only wait for the forces of nature to let the corpses naturally decay and decay.

Sulawesi is home to an approximately 5 million Aboriginal people, with more than 1.5 million Aboriginal conscripted into Australasian territory.

Among them, there are as many as 800,000 indigenous people working in the mines, and these people are also free labor in the mines.

Almost all of the remaining 3.5 million Aboriginal people are on Australasia's list of expulsions.

But as the country grew, the indigenous manpower became less and less important, and sooner or later they were all expelled from the Australasian lands.

However, the deportation of indigenous people is slow, and it will take at least a decade or so for all of the entire 5 million indigenous people to be deported, or even longer.

Naturally, the spread of the flu also affected the United States, as well as the Philippines, which is under US control.

In a short period of time, the flu infected hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and killed thousands of people.

But there is also a good thing for the Philippines, that is, it can deepen the hatred with the United States and further arouse the dissatisfaction of the Filipino people against the United States.

No way, who made the name of the flu the American flu? The U.S. flu pandemic has caused such heavy casualties in the Philippines, who will the Philippines look for if it doesn't look for the United States?

Although due to the impact of the flu, the operation in the Philippines was temporarily suspended. However, the recruitment of the three major local forces in the Philippines has not stopped, on the contrary, because of the dissatisfaction of the Filipino people with the United States, more people are willing to join the ranks of resistance against the United States.

At the end of October 1919, the British, who had been silent for a while, finally decided to act.

The British made three proposals at a new meeting of the World League, the first, as before, a proposal to reduce the reparations of the Germans.

The second is to limit the size of the world's navies in order to prepare for an unnecessary naval arms race, as it was before World War I.

As for the third proposal, the United States is required to explain the third wave of influenza transmission and pay some compensation.

Regardless of whether the lethality rate of influenza is high or not, the damage to the economies of countries around the world is quite severe.

Seeing the spread of the third flu worsening, the Americans still have nothing to say so far, and the British will not let them go.

For the British, they will not miss the opportunity to suppress their competitors in such an open and honest manner.

At present, the most important competitors of the British are France and the United States. Until France recovers completely, the level of threat is not as great as that of the United States.

The main reason why the British proposed to limit the number of naval armaments in various countries in the world was to limit the Americans.

The French did not have much thought to build a navy at this time, and the current competitor of the British Royal Navy was actually the American navy.

At present, the British Empire is still the world's first, the United States is second, and France is third.

After that, Australasia, Italy, Russia, and the island nations ranked fourth to seventh.

As for the eighth in the world, no one cares, and it has opened a relatively large gap with the top seven.

Australasia's comprehensive naval strength has been able to rank fourth in the world, in fact, it can also be seen how the status and strength of the world have changed dramatically after the end of World War I.

In terms of navy, Australasia was far from being a match for the British Empire. The only countries that have the strength and capital to compete with the British are France and the United States.

The proposal to cut German loans has once again been shelved, and the resurgence of the flu epidemic is bound to cause the economies of countries to suffer again, and in such a situation that it is almost impossible to reduce the proportion of German reparations.

And the third proposal of the British, demanding an explanation from the Americans and further reparations, was endorsed and supported by the majority of the members of the World League.

A year ago, the World League had already done something like this.

At that time, the Americans were quick to retreat and also incurred a whopping $20 billion in reparations, making the members of the World League a small profit and saving a lot of damage caused during the flu.

It is clear that the major members of the World League still want to repeat the same trick and let the Americans suffer the losses of the flu for themselves.

The proposal to limit the number of naval armaments of various countries was rather polarized at the meeting of the World Alliance.

Most small and medium-sized countries remain indifferent to this, after all, even if there is no limit on the number and tonnage of warships, they will not build those super-large warships, let alone compete with super powers like Britain, because it will not only cost people and money, but also huge financial pressure that they simply cannot bear.

You know, the cost of a warship doesn't end when it's built. Aside from the cost of a warship, the fuel cost required for the operation of the warship, the salaries of naval soldiers, and the cost of maintenance and maintenance of some equipment, including the use and consumption of various weapons, as well as the daily expenses of the entire navy, it adds up to a very large amount.

A super-battleship has hundreds to thousands of soldiers, and the cost of all kinds of miscellaneous things can add up to tens of thousands of pounds per year.

But if there is something wrong with the operation of a warship, the maintenance cost is enough for a small and medium-sized country to have a headache, not to mention maintaining a large number of fleets, which is something that some major powers cannot do.

The only country that is not quite in favor of limiting naval armaments, or is somewhat wary of it, is France.

Although the French suffered a lot of losses in industry and economy, France was not short of money at present, after all, the reparations of Germany and the United States had turned France's finances into a profit, and it was easy to build a large army.

If a treaty on the limitation of naval armaments is reached, the disadvantages will certainly outweigh the benefits for a country like France.

However, at present, after the British Empire received some German warships, the gap has widened compared with the second and third United States and France.

The British fleet deployed on home soil alone was enough to give the French a headache, not to mention the Indian Ocean Fleet deployed in India and the Far East Fleet in East Asia.

The Royal Navy, which is combined by the three major fleets, is not a problem against the combined navies of the United States and France, and this oppression of the navy is enormous.

The French were more curious about the fact that in order to conclude such a treaty limiting naval armaments, it would be necessary to impose restrictions on all countries that had concluded the treaty.

This was not a good thing for the British Empire, after all, the construction of warships by the British would have to be calculated according to the treaty, and it was almost impossible to maintain a huge advantage over the United States and France.

If the British had made any small moves on the treaty, it would have been impossible. After all, the United States and France are not vegetarians, and it's just a big deal that everyone tore up the treaty and didn't recognize the agreement.

In this way, the British's proposal may shoot themselves in the foot, but what are their intentions?

The British also understood which countries this naval arms limitation treaty was aimed at, so they deliberately skipped countries that did not have the ability to build battleships independently, and only demanded that they sign treaties with countries that had the ability to build battleships independently.

In the whole world, the countries that can independently build the most advanced dreadnoughts are almost a few powers.

Truth be told, as long as the treaty proposed by the British is fair, basically no country will reject it.

At least Arthur would not refuse, after all, Australasia did not have the idea of attacking the British naval supremacy in a short period of time, and naturally he would not be stupid enough to take the initiative to set off a naval arms race.

However, it is not easy to come up with a completely fair restriction agreement. The limitation on the tonnage of the navies of the major powers must be kept within the acceptable range of the major powers, otherwise no one will willingly sign this treaty, and even if it does, it will not be willingly implemented.

But the problem is that the situation in each country is vastly different, and the restrictions should be different for each country.

For example, the current United States is theoretically the first in the world in terms of industry and economy, but its current naval strength is only the second, and there is still a huge gap with the British Empire.

If there were a limit on the size of the U.S. navy, what data to refer to, and what restrictions to make, was something that the British had to consider.

Britain is inferior to the United States in terms of industry and economy, which does not mean that the restrictions on the British should be higher, and the Americans should build a larger navy.

But the problem is that the purpose of the British to propose this naval restriction agreement must be to limit the navies of other countries, which would be contrary to the purpose of the British.

Arthur also received the message, but was not in a hurry.

How to sign this agreement is a headache for the British, and it is the British who make the proposal, and it is the British who want to sign the agreement, and other countries do not think of signing this agreement, at least they will not take the initiative to fall for the British.

After many meetings of the World Alliance, as well as private meetings of the major powers, a preliminary agreement was finally reached, which was the basis for delineating the size and proportion of the navies of each country in the agreement on limiting the navy.

To determine whether a country is strong or not, industry and economy are an indispensable link. Therefore, an important part of determining the size and proportion of the navies of each country in this agreement on the limitation of the navy is the actual situation of the industry and economy of each country.

It takes a long time to investigate the actual industrial and economic conditions of each country. Coupled with the current impact of influenza, I am afraid that it will not be possible in a year or two.

This also means that the signing of this agreement to limit the navy will be at least two years away.

In addition to the industrial and economic scale of each country, the size of the existing navy is also a major reference factor, after all, the British industry and economy are not the first in the world, but the size of the navy is actually the first in the world.

Historically, Americans' international status and influence have changed dramatically.

According to Arthur's estimates, the Americans' naval share should not be as large as in history, and there will be a certain gap with the British, ranking second or third in the world.

Finally> the proportion of navies should follow the situation of the United Kingdom the United States≥ France> Australasia> Russia≥ Italy ≥ island countries, but the actual share and proportion will depend on the actual data of each country at that time.

Be lazy today, just this one, tomorrow two more

(End of chapter)