Chapter 334: Food Storage and Immigration

The British were able to complete the design of the 15-inch caliber main gun in more than two years from 1912 to 1915, and equipped it on the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships.

Arthur believed that Australasia, which combined the artillery technology of Britain and Germany, might not be unable to do such a thing.

Even if it could not be done in more than two years, it should not be difficult for Australasia's technical experts to conquer the technology of the 15-inch caliber main gun within the First World War cycle.

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

Such an advantage must naturally be maintained, and efforts must be made as much as possible to continue to improve its advantages in this regard.

With a cabinet meeting in November, Australasia has also determined a new task of the government, which is to prepare in advance for possible European wars in the future.

Not only a large amount of strategic materials, but also food, medical care, supplies, military weapons and equipment, as well as various rare mineral resources, are all within the scope of preparation of the Australasia government.

As time came to the end of 1912, Arthur knew clearly that there was not much time left for Australasia to prepare.

Perhaps the golden time for Australasia to attract immigrants was only the last half year.

If the war continued to break out in 1914 as in history, then I am afraid that the introduction of immigrants to Australasia would not be so smooth starting from 1913.

After all, if these immigrants continue to stay in the country, they can serve as excellent sources of soldiers during the war, and can also be invested in civilian economic production.

After all, with the outbreak of war, after a large number of military soldiers were recruited, civilian production will always be delayed. At this time, a large population is needed to make up for the stagnation of production caused by the withdrawal of young and strong people.

"Prime Minister Kent, from now on, expand our grain production as much as possible. In addition, except for some grain exports that have to be carried out, reduce the scale of grain exports as much as possible and increase grain reserves." At the cabinet meeting, Arthur looked at Prime Minister Kent with a serious face and ordered.

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

"If necessary, the Propaganda Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can cooperate with the action and release news of future grain shortages and price increases among the people, so that the people can spontaneously store grain. If the European war breaks out, the grain in our hands can not only bring us a lot of profits, but also bring us more benefits. For the people, it is also good for them to store grain." Arthur said with a smile.

The government stores grain in order to sell it abroad during the European war to obtain a lot of profits and benefits.

Encouraging the people to store grain is to avoid the phenomenon that the people have to buy high-priced grain due to lack of food during the future rise in grain prices.

After all, when the grain prices rise in the future, Arthur intends to cheat the Europeans instead of letting his own people step into the pit.

Anyway, the grain and meat prices in Australasia are not expensive now, and it is not too much of a burden for the people to store some grain appropriately.

After hearing Arthur's instructions, Foreign Minister Daze nodded and said he understood.

The newspapers in Australasia are all under the control of the Propaganda Department, and the Propaganda Department is directly under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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

Thanks to the fact that the public opinion in Australasia is basically under the control of the royal family, the credibility of the royal family's two newspapers, the Australasian Daily and the Victoria Daily, is quite high.

In addition to these two large newspapers that cover most states, some local small newspapers in each state and state-owned newspapers established by the government have good credibility in Australasia.

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

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

This also leads to the fact that as long as the news is published by the large newspapers in Australasia, the people of Australasia will choose to believe it at the first time.

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

If someone says that the news published by these two newspapers is false, I am afraid that the people around them will only sneer with disdain, and then say: "Get lost!"

More importantly, newspapers of all sizes are legally responsible for the news they publish.

If anyone dares to print false news, especially about the government and the royal family, in addition to the newspaper being closed down, all the relevant personnel will face imprisonment.

In such a situation, as long as the newspaper is sane, it will basically not read and print fake news.

This also greatly strengthened Arthur's control over public opinion. As long as the two newspapers under the royal family publish it, no newspaper or media has the right to refute it.

The day after the cabinet meeting, many media, including Victoria and Australasian Daily, began to publish news that the world's food production may decrease due to disasters such as droughts and floods in various places.

The Australasian Daily also foresaw that the world's food may suffer a large fluctuation in a few years, and encouraged the people of Australasia to stock up food in advance to cope with the possible food crisis in the future.

At the same time, seemingly in response to the news from these newspapers and publications, the Australasian government announced on the second day that, in addition to partial cooperation with Britain and Germany, it would greatly reduce food exports to foreign countries and increase the scale of domestic grain reserves.

The country is about to start hoarding food, can this news be false?

With such expectations, Australasians responded to the call of major newspapers and media and began to enter the stage of hoarding food.

Of course, the reason for calling on the people to start hoarding food is to prevent the people from being troubled by future food price increases.

Therefore, the government will also impose certain restrictions on the scale of people's hoarding of food.

In theory, each household is only allowed to buy 500 kilograms of food to avoid the crisis of insufficient food reserves due to large-scale hoarding of food by the people.

Under the government's appeasement, it is ensured that the government will increase the storage of food and will not let the Australasians lack food to eat, which makes the people accept the purchase limit of 500 kilograms of food.

In addition to increasing the strategic reserve of food, attracting population is also a key topic discussed at this cabinet meeting.

Everyone knows that it is impossible for the great powers in wartime to allow a large number of people to emigrate abroad.

This will not only reduce the country's control over certain regions, but also weaken the country's potential before the war breaks out.

In addition, there will always be people who are afraid of death in each country, and the scale of these people is not small. If there is no restriction on these people in the war, I am afraid that once the war breaks out, tens or even millions of people will be dispersed in a short period of time.

These people have different occupations, and they may even be talents in important positions. Once these people are allowed to leave, it is equivalent to disrespecting the war that has broken out.

Therefore, now that the war has not yet broken out, it may also be the last chance for Australian immigrants before the war ends.

In order to attract more immigrants before the war, Arthur issued an order to let the civil affairs department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with the support of the cabinet government, attract immigrants on a large scale in major European countries.

This time, the immigration attraction conditions of Australian immigration have become more generous, which is nearly 30% higher than the previous immigration conditions.

In addition, as long as there is an idea to immigrate to Australian, the Australian government can reimburse the ship ticket and provide housing and food for new immigrants before they arrive in Australian and obtain nationality formally.

Once such an immigration policy is promulgated, it will inevitably attract more immigrants to Australasia.

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

Especially now that the European war seems to be getting closer and closer, many peace-loving people who do not want to see war have already planned to immigrate to peaceful countries.

Countries like the United States and Australasia, which are far away from the disputes in Europe and have a unique geographical location, even a large scale of industry and economy, and also have the status of a great power, are naturally the first choice for those who want to immigrate.

At present, the priority of Europe's foreign immigration can be divided into: the United States and Australasia first tier, European colonies second tier, South American countries third tier, and Asian countries fourth tier.

Although the number of immigrants in Australasia has set a new record this year, who would complain about the population?

Even Arthur's goal is to attract at least more than 200,000 immigrants in the last two months of 1912.

The change in immigration policy has raised the attractiveness of Australasia to a higher level.

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

As long as they are European countries and white people, immigration restrictions will be relaxed, and all European white people will be encouraged to immigrate to Australasia.

In order to complete the task assigned by Arthur, the Australasia government has also spent a lot of effort.

If immigrants are allowed to buy their own tickets, it will also be a big expense. Therefore, the government specially rented more than ten large cruise ships from Europe to be responsible for the safe transportation of immigrants to Australasia.

At the same time, Australasia is not only responsible for the immigrants' tickets, but also provides free food to immigrants during the journey, which also attracts more immigrants.

In addition, the government also decided to use warships for escort, first to ensure the safety of cruise ships and immigrants, and second to show Australasia's naval strength, telling all European immigrants that Australasia has the ability to protect all citizens.

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