Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Director of European Affairs (Please Subscribe!)

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Apart from the M1897 cannons, Hunter Steward also brought some good news to Arthur.

After a period of preparation, the Victoria Award had officially entered the solicitation and selection phase.

Since the prize money for any of the awards was as high as 50,000 pounds, this Victoria Award almost caused a sensation in half of the European scientific research community. Even those who were not in the research community were trying to invent something in a short period of time to make themselves eligible for such a lucrative award.

Since it was the first time for the awards, Hunter Steward invited many highly regarded professors and scientists who were recognized by the entire research community as judges. Each of them would receive at least 2,000 pounds in return.

Under the attraction of money, these people were more than willing to serve as the judges for the first Victoria Award and even inquired when the next one would be given.

These people could be considered as free advertising machines, and Hunter Steward was of course more than happy to tell them.

Thanks to the promotion by these professors and scientists, the popularity of Victoria Award had increased tremendously in Europe, attracting the attention of many people.

Many were moved by the fact that the Victoria Award would be awarded every year, and the prize would not be reduced.

What does this mean? As long as someone wins the Victoria Award in any year, they would receive at least 50,000 pounds in prize money.

Many professors and scientists with average abilities may not be able to access such huge funds in their entire lives.

If one were to define the attractiveness of these funds to these people, it would be like the attraction between Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu’s aunt in ancient Chinese history.

Under this irresistible temptation, although the first selection had high requirements for the works and research to be selected, thousands of works, research, and individuals participated.

By the time Hunter Steward left, the awards had entered the selection phase, with specific winners for each award to be selected before the new year. The awards and announcements would be held at the beginning of the new year in Australia.

To prevent and eradicate cheating in the selection, all of the judges’ works and research were not allowed to participate in the selection.

This undoubtedly made some judges slightly disappointed, but the compensation of 2,000 pounds was more attractive than the awards that were described as “one in ten thousand”.

Arthur was very satisfied with the progress of the Victoria Award.

Once successfully held, the Victoria Award would bring several top talents to Australia every year.

Although not all the winners would choose to come to Australia, as long as half, or even a small proportion of them were willing to come, it would be acceptable for Australia.

Although the purpose of the Victoria Award was to attract top talent for Australia, the selection of the awards was still very serious and fair.

In the end, anyone who could win any of the awards would be a talent who had made a significant contribution in that field.

Any such talent could play a significant role in a certain industry. If Australia could gather many such talents, why couldn’t it rise?

After Hunter Steward returned to his country, the main affairs in Europe were handed over to Eric Holm, Australia’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, and David Martins Simons, the European Affairs Supervisor.

David Martins Simons, of course, needs no introduction. He was one of the confidants trusted by Duke Old Arthur and was also part of Arthur’s team.

Eric Holm, the ambassador, was a talent from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and one of the Australian native officers that Arthur favored.

David Martins Simon’s position as European Affairs Supervisor is, in fact, similar to Hunter Steward’s position as a steward, both belonging to the royal family’s private officers.

They obeyed only Arthur’s orders and were loyal to Arthur.

As the name suggests, the European Affairs Supervisor was responsible for managing affairs in Europe.

Although Australia is an Oceanian country, it cannot do without dealing with European nations.

Especially the United Kingdom and Germany, one is the mother country with deep ties, and the other is a friendly cooperating country.

The Dutch acted quickly. In the second month after the signing of the indigenous purchase treaty, which was December 1901, the first batch of 20,000 natives from the Dutch East Indies had arrived.

Although Australia paid a purchase fee of 100,000 pounds for this, it was a win compared to the manpower brought by the 20,000 natives.

Of course, the Kingdom of the Netherlands did not suffer much loss either. These natives were not easy to manage in the colonies, and rebellions occurred from time to time in the Dutch East Indies.

Half of these 20,000 natives were assigned to the steel factories, rapidly increasing Australia’s meager steel production.

The other half were assigned to the construction of industrial railways. Currently, the construction of the railways was short of manpower. In the absence of rail and other supplies, the more natives that could work, the better.

According to various statistics, currently, Australia had more than 50,000 indigenous workers involved in various aspects of national construction, and the number was still increasing considerably every month.

Of these, less than 10,000 were indigenous Australians, and the other more than 4.0,000 natives were from New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies.

In this respect, Australia was an exception. Most colonies had a large number of indigenous peoples, especially large colonies like Australia.

However, Australia was different. Even during the colonial period, there were only a little over one million native Australians.

During their long colonial life, many indigenous people were tormented to death by diseases brought by the colonizers, and a few even moved to the desolate inland areas.

Furthermore, the increase of immigrants led to the expansion of urban cities, making the living space of Indigenous Australians smaller and smaller, with fewer and fewer people.

These indigenous people were not included in the government’s population census, and no Australian official considered them as normal citizens.

According to estimates, there are still more than 700,000 indigenous Australians, and the number is decreasing slightly.

However, this is a situation that most Australian officials are happy to see. Even at the beginning of Australia’s history, there has always been a so-called “White Australia” policy, which refers to an Australia of white people only.

Although Arthur is not an extremist racist, he has maintained a tacit approval of his officials’ policies on Indigenous Australians.

This has led to a phenomenon where some native Australians, due to various circumstances, have also joined the ranks of the indigenous workforce.

However, this is good news for Australia’s construction, because with the input of a large number of indigenous people, the construction speed of Australia has become much faster than before, with some areas changing day by day.