Chapter 48: Returning to Australia

October 24, 1900, the first day after Queen Victoria's death.

As early as yesterday afternoon when the Queen stopped breathing, someone was specifically responsible for collecting her body and transporting it back to England for burial.

Although Queen Victoria's preferred resting place was on the Isle of Wight, as the monarch of the British Empire and the queen who was admired and revered by all British people, her body had to be buried in the royal cemetery in England.

The transportation of the body was very difficult. It would take at least half a month to sail from the Isle of Wight to England, and if the time for replenishing supplies along the way was added, it could take even longer.

To transport Queen Victoria's body to England as soon as possible, Prince Edward ordered the HMS Renown, one of the fastest battleships in the Royal Navy, to be responsible for the transportation.

As the other royal families and high-ranking officials of other countries were busy leaving the Isle of Wight, they had no reason to stay any longer.

They bid farewell to each other and boarded their respective warships to return to their own countries.

The only person among them who had some acquaintance with Arthur was Kaiser Wilhelm II. When Wilhelm II was about to leave, he specifically called Arthur aside and the two talked for a while.

Wilhelm II was very surprised at Queen Victoria's concern and care for Arthur. Originally, last night when Queen Victoria was dying, Wilhelm II had planned to stay by his grandmother's side to improve his image among the British people.

But unexpectedly, it was because of Arthur that he, an emperor, did not approach Queen Victoria last night.

However, Wilhelm II did not express any dissatisfaction with this, only reiterating the treaty of cooperation between Germany and Australia.

After all, anyone with a discerning eye could see that after Queen Victoria handed over British New Guinea and New Zealand to Arthur for management, Australia would become the strongest country in the southern hemisphere, with no rivals in the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

The only country that could compete with Australia was the British Empire. But under Queen Victoria's request, not only did the future King Edward promise not to invade, but he also promised to protect Australia as an independent country for ten years.

In ten years, with the dual support of the British Empire and Germany, Australia could definitely fully absorb the influence of British New Guinea and New Zealand, in addition to its own territory. Even the British Empire would have no way to deal with this behemoth they helped create. Both emotionally and in terms of interests, only someone with a serious lack of judgment, like Edward, would dare to attack Australia. Australia is a natural ally of both cultures and politics, and even Canada and Australia now follow in the footsteps of the Anglo-American alliance. As the protagonist becomes the Duke of Australia, this will only make their relationship even closer.

However, William II still sees this as a favorable outcome, as Germany has very little interest in this region except for a piece of German New Guinea. In his mind, if he can use German New Guinea to exchange for a powerful Australia after integration, which would support Germany in the First World War, then that would be completely acceptable.

In reality, the population of both British and German New Guinea is not very large, and even the entire New Guinea region has only just reached a little over 14 million people.

In William II's mind, if he could use German New Guinea to exchange for a powerful Australia after integration, which would support Germany in the First World War, then that would be completely acceptable.

If Australia could only harass French colonies in the rear area before integration, then a post-integration Australia would have the ability to threaten French colonies in future wars, and even swallowing some remote areas would not be a problem.

Take France's New Caledonia, for example, which is very close to Australia. If a conflict breaks out between Australia and France, can France defend this region?

It should be noted that the logistical cost brought by distance is many times greater. The logistical cost of just defending this region may far exceed its value.

Therefore, William II's intention to woo Arthur is even more obvious. He even promised to arrange support for Australia's industry after he returns, to accelerate the pace of cooperation between Germany and Australia.

The reason why William II is so eager is because, before Queen Victoria's death, she specifically instructed the British Empire to provide at least 5 million pounds of support to Australia each year within ten years, and not to cut off immigration sources.

This would make Australia, which had already broken away from Britain, even closer to Britain, which does not serve William II's interests.

To woo Arthur, William II decided to launch a plan to immigrate Germans to Australia. As long as the majority of Australia's population is German, then Australia's policies will gradually lean towards Germany.

Arthur didn't know William II's thoughts, but even if he did, he would only smile lightly.

To change Australia's population structure, Germany would have to immigrate at least 4 million people to Australia.

Such a large number would be difficult to achieve in ten years, and even in twenty years, Germany may not be able to do so.

Moreover, during these twenty years, Australia could attract millions, even tens of millions, of immigrants from all over Europe and the world, making it even more impossible to change the overall immigration structure.

The only way to make most Australians of German descent is to only bring in immigrants from Germany in a short period of time.

But Arthur was not foolish. Although Germans generally have a higher literacy rate and receive more cultural education, as a country of immigrants like Australia, it is necessary to maintain the advantage and proportion of the dominant ethnic group.

Although Arthur is willing to accept immigrants from other countries, the proportion of Australians of British descent must remain above 50% of the total population.

Immigrant countries need diversity, but only one dominant ethnicity is needed for discourse power. To prevent problems with future immigration, it is necessary to increase the proportion of the dominant ethnic group.

After bidding farewell to William II, Arthur also set sail for Australia on a military ship.

However, unlike when he arrived, Arthur was without Crown Prince Edward but with an additional 2,000 members of the Royal Guard and over 100 attendants.

The Royal Guard, being the elite force of the British Army, did not need to be explained further. With the addition of the Royal Guard, the size of Arthur's guard would reach 4,000, making his position even more stable.

Queen Victoria's gift of these attendants was not without intention. After all, Arthur was an outsider in Australia. Although he had successfully taken power and gained the support of most Australians, some things still had to be guarded against.

Moreover, with Arthur having lost all his influence in England, it was theoretically difficult for him to recruit loyal attendants.

After all, no one could guarantee the loyalty of those newly recruited attendants. Hearts and minds are inscrutable.

But Queen Victoria's attendants were different. Most of them had served the British royal family since childhood and were extremely loyal to Queen Victoria.

After Queen Victoria gave these attendants to Arthur, their loyalty shifted to Arthur.

These people were much more loyal than the attendants Arthur had recruited in Australia, and they had more experience in serving people and being subordinates.