The conversation with William II went smoothly, not only finalizing Germany’s financial assistance to Australia, but also roughly agreeing on a series of plans for industrial assistance and future war support.
At least in the eyes of William 11, he has initially and successfully tied Australia to the war chariot of Germania, which will have one more ally in future wars.
Arthur and William II set the time to go to Germany around mid-December.
By then, if the negotiations go well, they could spend a pleasant Christmas in Germany before returning to Australia.
However, before heading to Germany, there is a slightly more important matter to settle, which is the aid treaty between England and Australia.
Although Britain will certainly not be as generous as Germany, for Arthur, whoever does not want this free assistance is a fool; naturally, it is best to have as much as possible.
Moreover, the assistance from Germany and the United Kingdom does not conflict. Both countries have very strong industrial capabilities, one focusing on army equipment and the other on naval warships, each with their own world-leading technologies that Australia can study and absorb.
After leaving William II, Arthur returned to Buckingham Palace and called a meeting of the core members of the diplomatic visiting group in his office room.
Fortunately, Buckingham Palace is large, with ample room allocated for each royal family member. It not only has its own exclusive reception hall and meeting room but is also quite large, accommodating more than a dozen people for meetings without any problem.
Actually, the focus of this meeting is to determine the direction of assistance needed from Britain. After all, with Germany’s support, many industries and technologies no longer need British support.
It is not to say that German technology is more advanced than British technology in certain aspects, but rather that using limited support in the same direction would be somewhat wasteful and extravagant.
Australia is currently in a golden development stage, and Arthur naturally will not tolerate the waste or miss of these precious resources and development opportunities due to such negligence.
The meeting lasted for several hours, and finally, it was determined that the technologies needing British support were mostly concentrated in the shipbuilding industry.
This was also an inevitable result. Compared to Germany’s industry, Britain’s obvious advantage lies in its shipbuilding and warship industries.
In terms of warship manufacturing, Britain is still the world leader and will not be surpassed by any other country in the short term.
The members of the diplomatic delegation unanimously believe that it is the most reasonable and effective to focus Britain’s limited resources on shipbuilding, especially in the field of warships.
Although Australia occupies the entire Australian continent, it is actually a large island nation with many overseas territories and lands.
This means that Australia must have a powerful fleet to protect its overseas territories and spheres of influence.
After all, for a non-continental country like Australia, the navy is more important than the army in many ways, and the safety of the coastline is the first line of defense in national territorial security.
Arthur’s original shipyard was one with advanced British shipbuilding technology.
Although it was just a small shipyard that could only build small-sized warships, the technology used was all relatively advanced shipbuilding technology from Britain.
If they can introduce and absorb some more advanced technologies on top of that and build medium and even large warships, then Australia’s navy has a chance to rise.
As for purchasing warships from the major European powers, first, the cost of ordered warships is generally expensive, usually around twice the cost.
Secondly, Arthur is well aware of the incident in Turkey. Under the increasingly intense naval arms race among European countries, ordering warships now inevitably poses such risks.
Having one’s own means of building warships is the best method, and even if it comes at a price, it is worth it to Arthur and all the members of the diplomatic group.
Having determined the direction for seeking support, the subsequent tasks of the diplomatic group become more relaxed. They need to establish good relationships with British politicians and buy a few small newspapers, urgently print newspapers, and raise the favorability of Arthur and the Australian people among the British people.
Although this task seems more urgent, in reality, it is the easiest to accomplish.
With a background in the British royal family, along with a slightly tragic situation and Queen Victoria’s will, as well as the heat of the Queen’s funeral still not subsiding, Arthur’s current popularity in Britain is not low and even quite admired.
With Arthur and the members of the diplomatic group busy, the coronation ceremony of Edward Vll soon arrives.
On the 6th of December, 1900, the official coronation ceremony of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom begins.
Different from the sad atmosphere of the Queen’s funeral a week ago, after a week of transition, the streets of London have become festive, with the previous white seem to have disappeared, as if the past events did not happen.
To show respect for the late Queen, King Edward VIl’s coronation ceremony was streamlined, with a total duration of only about two hours.
This is much simpler compared to Queen Victoria’s coronation ceremony, let alone Britain being the undisputed world’s strongest country.
However, King Edward VIl’s move has gained a lot of favor from the British people.
After all, Queen Victoria still holds a place in the hearts of the British people, so this time a grand coronation ceremony would not be a good thing.
The person in charge of the coronation ceremony is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior bishop in the Church of England.
In fact, more formal weddings, baptisms, and funerals for royal family members are usually presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
In the absence of the Archbishop, only another bishop appointed by the monarch will preside, but this is relatively rare.
All the procedures of the coronation ceremony were carried out according to a red ceremonial manual from Westminster Abbey, which had never been published in nearly a thousand years.
After completing the grand ceremony, the royal musicians played celebratory music, and then, King Edward VII rode in a gilt horse carriage, cheered on by most British people as he took the route to Buckingham Palace.
Although there were fewer British people on both sides of the road compared to the previous funeral, it was still fairly crowded.
King Edward VII waved to the crowd in satisfaction, walking towards Buckingham Palace amid the cheers.
As the world’s strongest country, the coronation of the British king still attracted many British people to watch.
If it were not for the influence of the recent Queen’s funeral, the number of onlookers would have been even greater..