The Rise Of Australasia

After expanding the military, Minister Raul could not outright guarantee the combat capabilities of the new troops.

Compared to the seasoned soldiers from World War I in the Australasia Army, the fighting abilities of the new recruits are undoubtedly a step lower. It’s a fact, faced by every country in its expansion of the military.

To solve this issue, apart from increasing the training allocated to new recruits, the only other option would be finding opportunities to let these rookies see the battlefield. Only after experiencing life-and-death situations could their combat abilities be enhanced.

But finding a war to participate in after World War I is not easy, especially for Australasia, it seemed as though the only war they could meddle with was Russia’s internal conflict.

However, without Britain and France taking the initiative, Arthur would not want to interfere in Russia’s civil war actively.

Both Russia Nation and Soviet Russia are fiercely fighting, their standing armies have already exceeded one million each. The current Australasia is not capable of meddling with such powers.

Even if they could interfere, it would inevitably result in heavy losses for Australasia, which isn’t acceptable for Arthur.

Considering Australasia’s current international standing and the backing of the World Alliance, there aren’t any daredevil nations willing to provoke Australasia, not even the American People.

"This is a common issue in military expansion. Given our current situation, we can only hope that extensive training will enhance the soldiers’ combat skills." Arthur nodded his agreement, expressing understanding for the question Minister Raul posed.

Only when Arthur saw no objections to Prime Minister Kent’s proposal for expansion, did he finally say, "In that case, proceed with the new round of expansion according to this plan as soon as possible. I hope that by next year’s National Day, our regular military forces will exceed 250,000."

The current force of 40,000 soldiers filling up two divisions of the Guards was temporarily sufficient. After all, the Guards’ duty was to guard the capital city and the royal palace, to protect the royal family and Arthur’s safety; there was no need for the force to be too sizeable.

The actual combat army of Australasia was still the National Defense Army, and the Guards didn’t need to overshadow it.

After the proposal to expand the military was approved, Prime Minister Kent again shifted the discussion towards the fourth point in the Four-Year Plan - technology.

"Your Majesty, everyone. Apart from laying emphasis and investing heavily in military technology, we should also value and invest more in civilian technology and other types of research.

Along with our possession of the Victoria Award, we should establish smaller awards to reward other researchers and common people who have contributed to scientific research among the populace."

Additionally, we should establish more research funds to encourage more civilian researchers to carry out their own studies. This would be helpful for our scientific research work," Prime Minister Kent proposed.

One of the significant reasons for the massive outflow of European talents was that many civilian scientists lacked sufficient research funds. Precisely because they had invested all their assets into research, leading to living hand to mouth, struggling, and even going bankrupt.

After a decade of educational groundwork, Australasia had also produced a small number of civilian scientists and research teams.

These people still deserve protection, as no one can guarantee whether these civilian talents might become great scientists in the future.

Using a small amount of funds to salvage their research careers is akin to buying a lottery ticket - protecting Australasia’s scientific research environment and attempting to tap the potential of civilian researchers.

After all, although the Victoria Award is a world-famous scientific research prize with significant international prestige, attracting considerable media attention every year, the issue is there are only a few categories of the Award every year. Up to now, in over a decade, there have barely been more than 70 recipients.

This number, compared to the vast number of unrewarded researchers worldwide, is negligible. Only by presenting more minor awards and small funds, assisting more researchers, can Australasia’s research environment be improved, turning Australasia into a powerful scientific research nation.

The significance of scientific research needs not be overstated. The rise of a nation lies in science and education, where education changes the scientific research environment, and scientific research transforms every industry of a country, fundamentally enhancing the country’s cultural foundation and the research and development level in various fields.

Thanks to various types of scientific research, the European region has become the world’s most dazzling pearl through two Industrial Revolutions. n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

If it weren’t for these two Industrial Revolutions, the lifestyle of Europeans wouldn’t have improved much compared to the Middle Ages. Not to mention that several European Nations have successively become global powers, establishing colonial empires worldwide.

Also, thanks to heavy investment in military technology, Australasia achieved a lead in airplanes and tanks, giving Australasia the military strength of a great power.

The strength of a nation is always inseparable from scientific research. Thus, the improvement of the research environment, as Prime Minister Kent has stated, is necessary.

That the Australasian Government could spend part of the budget to improve the research environment was based on the overwhelmingly positive financial situation of the Australasian Government, with sufficient funds to splurge.

But this couldn’t really be considered wasteful, after all, encouraging scientific research is of extraordinary importance to national development. It can even decide whether Australasia has a more potent future.

Arthur also highly values the scientific field and its scientists and gladly accepts Prime Minister Kent’s proposal.

Arthur even expressed that the Royal Financial Group would allocate a portion of its funds to share the government’s burden while helping more research teams and scientists.

At present, the Australasia Royal Science Academy spends tens of millions of Australian dollars every year to support a large number of scientists.

However, the achievements of these scientists do indeed justify the expenditure, given high-profile personas like Albert Einstein and Tesla, the Australasia Royal Science Academy enjoys stunning fame worldwide.

In addition to the draw of the Victoria Award, the Australasia Royal Science Academy houses nearly half of the 70 Victoria Award recipients, almost 30 top talents worldwide.

Receiving the Victoria Award represents a large amount of research funding, which discourages many patriotic scientists from migrating to Australasia.

Arthur understood this, but still focused on certain scientists. Those with prominent names in later generations were basically lured to the Royal Science Academy of Australasia.

Those with no reputation in later generations, or whose research fields would not pose a significant threat to Australasia, were not of great concern.

After all, Australasia cannot attract most scientists worldwide, nor will other countries allow Australasia to control these scientists, let alone assign someone to assassinate them.

If leaked by the media, at best it would damage the country’s reputation, at worst it would significantly reduce the attractiveness to foreign talent.

The current Victoria Award is the gold-standard in the scientific research community of Australasia, and Arthur will not allow it, and absolutely will not let the Victoria Award lose its appeal.

Both scientific research and education are crucial to a country; scientific breakthroughs determine if a country is strong, while education determines the strength of scientific research, and both cannot be separated.

Prime Minister Kent then mentioned education, to which Arthur answered that he strongly supports expanding the number of universities in Australasia.

The total number of universities currently in Australasia is approximately thirty of varying sizes, spread out over Australia and the New Zealand region.

However, New Guinea and Australian Timor, both regions with a rapidly growing population, currently have no universities, or rather, no formal universities yet.

This is understandable, after all, the previous strategy of Australasia was to develop the native land, and the colonies have been semi-ignored.

A significant reason for this is also the fact that the territories of Australasia still have a chance to expand.

For example, the current New Guinea colony has expanded more than twice as much as before World War I, and the lack of universities has become apparent after population explosion.

Universities are incredibly important for a country as they not only attract international students and cultivate them into Australasian talents but also directly draw these well-educated individuals to Australasia.

Besides, the reputation and the number of universities also determine the educational environment in Australasia. And the educational environment is tied to the attraction to immigrants.

Some immigrants even move there specifically for certain universities, after all, who wouldn’t like regions with excellent education and healthcare?

Ordinary people might not care about these, as for them a high school diploma is already commendable.

However, for the highly-skilled group itself, the number and educational standards of universities are essential.

If the immigrant only has a high school or lower education, they wouldn’t have high expectations for universities, considering that university students are precious resources.

But if the immigrants themselves have a university or higher degree, these individuals definitely hope their children and relatives can possess a university degree as well, hence the importance of the number of universities.

Even the quality of university education, international reputation and influence, as well as the situation after graduation, are all within consideration for these people.

Though in comparison, there would certainly be more of the former. But for national development, having more high-quality immigrant talents is definitely preferable to common immigrant civilians.

This might sound cruel, but it is the reality. For the current situation, a high-quality immigrant with a university degree can contribute far more to the new country than an ordinary immigrant.

However, Australasia is currently low on population and has very little restriction on immigration.

As long as one is European and has passed the political review, they can apply for Australasian citizenship.

During the application for citizenship, as long as they have passed the review period of over six months, they can basically obtain Australasian citizenship and become a proud Australasian.

For the improvement of the educational environment, Arthur is highly determined and has big plans.

For Australasia, which aspires to be a superpower, the number of universities is destined to exceed three digits, and even approach four digits in the future.

Of course, the exact number of universities also needs to align with the population. It’s most reasonable to build the number of universities the citizens need.

Given that this plan only lasts four years, the construction of universities won’t be exaggerated.

Besides the construction of universities in New Guinea and Australian Timor, the universities in Australia and the New Zealand region also need expansion and construction.

Before this cabinet government completes its term, around 1923, the number of universities needs to increase to over 50 to satisfy the demand for universities in the four-year plan.

Of course, these 50 universities are only the quantity of formal universities founded by the country. As for the number of technical schools and private universities, they are not within this range of 50, and the quantity will only be higher.

Especially technical schools cultivating various technical talents; with the need increasing in various positions in Australasia, the number of this kind of school is beyond count.

This is why Australasia never lacks corresponding technical talents when expanding various industries.