The Rise of Australia

Chapter 621 Negotiation

"The East Indian government has not taken any action. The Dutch government has already asked the British for help, but the British have not said anything yet." Foreign Minister Daize said with a smile.

Long before the Central American operation, Australasia had reached an agreement with Britain and obtained the disposal rights of the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines.

In other words, as long as Australasia does not make any statement, it is impossible for the British to risk offending Australasia to help the Dutch.

After all, the Netherlands is just a small country on the doorstep of the British, while Australasia is a staunch overseas ally of the British. The gap between the two is so great that the British do not need to hesitate at all.

"Tell the British that Australasia will help the Dutch stabilize order." Arthur nodded and ordered.

The outbreak of rebellion in the Dutch East Indies itself is the best opportunity. Such a large-scale rebellion cannot be solved by the Kingdom of the Netherlands alone. This is also destined that even if Australasia does not intervene, other countries will intervene to intervene. rebellion.

The country's diplomacy is so cruel. If you want to avoid being coveted by other countries, you must make your country stronger all the time.

This is true even for future generations. Strictly speaking, there is no moment of peace, it is nothing more than mutual compromise between powerful countries.

As for those small and medium-sized countries, whether they are peaceful or not is just a word to the powerful countries.

The current Dutch East Indies can be roughly divided into three forces, namely the colonial government representing the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the pure-blooded Dutch and some mixed-race people, and a small number of mixed-race and pure indigenous people.

Most Dutch immigrants still supported the rule of the royal government, but they were by no means firm supporters.

Most of the indigenous people are quite hostile to the Dutch government. This is also the most troublesome thing in dealing with the Dutch East Indies. These indigenous people must be suppressed by force.

The current Kingdom of the Netherlands may have such military strength with the whole country, but the question is, do the Dutch really have the courage to use all their military strength to suppress the indigenous people?

This not only represents the emptiness in the Netherlands, but also means that once the suppression of the rebellion fails, the government will become the biggest victim of this incident.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Minister Dai Ze said excitedly.

Arthur's ability to give such orders meant that Australasia would definitely interfere in the situation in the Dutch East Indies.

Under such circumstances, there is a high probability that a war will break out. As an important official of the government, after the victory of this war, part of the credit will definitely not be lost.

This is very important for Minister Daze, who has been re-elected as Foreign Secretary for the third term. It determines whether he can obtain a higher title after honorable retirement and the possibility of impacting higher positions.

"Making positive representations to the Dutch government, asking them to resolve the dispute in the Dutch East Indies as soon as possible to prevent this crisis from harming the people of Australasia." Arthur said with a smile: "They have to resolve it within a month, otherwise, Australia will Dalasia will use force to help them suppress the rebellion."

A month may seem like a long time, but the voyage from mainland Holland to the Dutch East Indies was just one month long.

This also meant that the Dutch East Indies had almost no support from the mainland and could only fight the rebellion alone within a month.

If the Dutch East Indies had such military strength, I am afraid that the Dutch government would have already started to have a headache.

This also represents such a seemingly reasonable request, but it is actually an ultimatum to the Dutch East Indies and the Dutch government.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Minister Dai Ze nodded solemnly.

1 The Australasian government formally lodged representations with the Dutch government, requesting the Dutch government to resolve the crisis in the Dutch East Indies within one month to avoid affecting the normal life of the Australasian people.

In order to ensure the safety of the people of Australasia, the Dutch government also needs to provide as much help as it can to the Australasians in the Dutch East Indies.

Once such a request was made, it naturally attracted a lot of attention from around the world.

The rebellion in the Dutch East Indies had attracted a lot of attention before, and coupled with the official negotiations from Australasia, it directly pushed the rebellion in the Dutch East Indies onto the most popular news list for people in various countries.

People in other countries are also curious about how the Dutch will react to such formal representations from Australasia.

1 noon, Palace of Amsterdam, Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Although the power of the Dutch monarch was greatly weakened decades ago, Queen Wilhelmina has not shown any struggle for power in the many years since she took the throne. Both the government and the people are relatively satisfied with this monarch.

With the support of public opinion, Queen Wilhelmina naturally has a certain say in the government. Although this does not have too much say, Queen Wilhelmina also has certain voting and decision-making rights when discussing major national affairs.

Rubbing her brows, Queen Wilhelmina looked at the government officials and asked with a hint of expectation: "Ministers, do you have any good opinions?"

Although negotiation is theoretically a relatively peaceful form of diplomacy, if the object of the negotiation is a powerful power, then naturally it cannot be regarded as a simple negotiation.

What's more, Australasia has already cut a large piece of flesh from the Dutch East Indies, and this negotiation is definitely not just a simple negotiation, it may even be a plot to plot the entire Dutch East Indies.

"Your Majesty the Queen, I'm afraid we have to seek help from other powers to ensure our rule in the Dutch East Indies." An older official in the cabinet stood up and spoke first.

"Other powers?" Queen Wilhelmina shook her head and sighed: "It's not like you don't know the relationship between Britain and Australasia. It's impossible for the British to help us. So who is left? France, the United States, or Italy?”

"Her Majesty the Queen, it would be great if we could buy more time from Australasia to counter the rebellion." The Dutch Prime Minister stood up and said: "Australasia's request is just for us to solve the crisis, which is completely achievable.

It will take at least 2 to 3 months to prepare the army for war and arrive in East India, plus the time required to counter the rebellion. If we can try our best to fight for 4 to 5 months to counter the rebellion, there is a high probability that we can solve this problem on our own. crisis. "

The long distance between the mainland and the colonies is also the biggest problem of national governance in some more urgent moments.

As long as the Dutch East Indies are not so far away from the Dutch mainland, the Dutch Prime Minister is confident that the time to counter the rebellion can be reduced to less than three months.

But the problem is that when the journey takes more than a month, he really has no confidence in compressing the counter-insurgency time to any shorter time, because this is simply impossible.

Understanding that this may be the only chance, Queen Wilhelmina nodded and told the Dutch Foreign Minister: "Minister Breen, this task is left to you. Try to negotiate with the Australasians. We can Ensure the personal safety of Australasians and gain about five months of counter-insurgency time.”

Compared with the large-scale indigenous rebellion, what is currently more difficult is actually the diplomatic negotiations in Australasia.

Even purely from the perspective of the strength of the two countries, the Dutch government has no faith and confidence in resisting at all.

This is not to say that they are cowardly, but that a medium-sized country really does not have many opportunities to resist compared to powerful countries.

Perhaps when Australasia attacks their homeland, they can get the support of some European countries' balancing policies to ensure the integrity and independence of their homeland.

But if it was just a colony, which great power would risk offending another great power to protect the Dutch colony?

Maybe, but the purposes of the great powers are definitely not that simple. Even in other words, the support of another great power is nothing more than resisting the tiger and advancing into the wolf.

"Yes, Her Majesty the Queen." The Foreign Minister gritted his teeth and did not dare to have the slightest objection.

This is a request that needs to be agreed even if it cannot be completed. Who makes him the Minister of Foreign Affairs unless he is willing to give up his position.

Seeing that Queen Wilhelmina agreed with her point of view, the Dutch Prime Minister nodded, and then continued: "Your Majesty, what we still need to do now is to control the scale of the rebellion in the Dutch East Indies as much as possible.

Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan are so large that it is impossible for us to completely suppress the rebellion in these areas within a few months.

Only by controlling the rebellion on an island as much as possible, such as Java Island, which currently has the most rebellions, can we control the rebellion faster. "

Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan are the only three remaining islands in the Dutch East Indies, but they are also three extremely large islands.

It is no exaggeration to say that the area of ​​any of these three islands is comparable to that of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Even the area of ​​Kalimantan is the area of ​​several Dutch Kingdoms combined.

Although a larger land area creates a greater variety of economic products, at this critical moment when counterinsurgency is needed, larger land means more troops or longer time.

The number of troops that could be transported to the Dutch East Indies in a short period of time was limited, which also meant that in order to save as much time as possible, the rebellion had to be compressed into one area.

"Tell Louis that I need him to reduce the scale of the rebellion to Java Island and not spread to the other two islands." Queen Wilhelmina nodded, looked at her captain of the bodyguard, Andric, and ordered.

Like most monarchies, the Dutch colonial governors were personally appointed by the monarch.

Although most governors were actually responsible to the government, Queen Wilhelmina also had certain jurisdiction over Governor Louis.

The captain of the guard, Andric, nodded, respectfully stepped out, and conveyed Queen Wilhelmina's instructions.

"Do you have any other requests? Mr. Prime Minister." Queen Wilhelmina continued to ask.

As a famous queen in the history of the Netherlands, Queen Wilhelmina knows one thing very well, and that is to maintain a high degree of unity between the government and the royal family.

In fact, Queen Wilhelmina did a good job in the Netherlands. Although the Netherlands did not achieve a revival in the 20th century, the monarchy did not experience any crisis even in later generations.

"If we want to use the power of the whole country to suppress the rebellion, Her Majesty, I am afraid that you will need to personally come forward to encourage people to join the army." The Prime Minister nodded and continued.

Although the Netherlands had expanded the size of its army before the war broke out, after the war, the Dutch quickly disarmed and reduced the size of their army.

This has resulted in the Netherlands now having to carry out a new round of military expansion and recall those soldiers who have been laid off if they want to use enough troops.

Of course, more weapons and equipment need to be purchased, etc. This is a huge burden for the government's expenses, and it is an even bigger burden for the Netherlands, which is currently suffering from a large-scale unemployment wave.

But it is actually good news. After all, if the army is expanded, it will not only drive the production of armaments and some industries, but also reduce some of the unemployed population.

Such a request is normal. After all, Queen Wilhelmina's personal appeal may be stronger than that of the government.

"I will do that, Mr. Prime Minister. But I hope the government can also win this counter-insurgency war and not let Australasia participate in the crisis in East India." Queen Wilhelmina nodded, but at the same time she also raised own requirements.

The Dutch East Indies were not only the last fig leaf of the colonial era for the Netherlands, but also provided the Dutch government with a large amount of financial revenue.

You know, a large part of the area where the Dutch East Indies is located is the production area of ​​natural rubber.

It goes without saying how important rubber is to the current development of the world economy. The uses of rubber, including tires, pipes, insulation materials and soundproofing materials, are destined to be eliminated at any time unless there are more advanced technologies.

But the problem is that the current technology for synthetic rubber is not enough, let alone a new technology to replace rubber.

Especially in the transportation industry, tires made of rubber are like life to cars and are also an important factor and guarantee for the development of the automobile industry.

Just the income from growing and selling rubber has made the Dutch government a lot of money. If the Dutch East Indies were lost, the annual loss of fiscal revenue would be completely irreparable for the current Dutch government, and might even cause a financial crisis in the Netherlands itself.

Who asked the Dutch to transport most of the financial revenue from the Dutch East Indies back to the mainland and then build a large number of unnecessary facilities?

Without the financial revenue of the Dutch East Indies, I am afraid that the financial budgets of various departments of the Royal Government will be cut by more than half. Whether the government can continue to operate is a question, and the various welfare subsidies and security benefits of the people will naturally be cancelled.

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