Chapter 263: Chapter 240: Five Years of Shipbuilding, Aiming for the Powers

The war was over, but there was still much work to be done in the aftermath of the war.

First, in accordance with the London Agreement, Australasia needed to withdraw its military from Portuguese India and the East Asian colonies, and to ensure the safety of all Portuguese citizens in these two regions.

Well, yes, the personal safety of the citizens.

As for the property of these Portuguese people, most of their previous factories, equipment, and other assets had long been carted away by Australasia, a fact well known to all nations.

And the more than a thousand Portuguese soldiers captured by Australasia were also transported to Portuguese India, waiting for the Portuguese to receive them.

Arthur made no claim for ransom for these people, after all, Australasia had made enough money in this war, and being too greedy would have been counterproductive since the war’s pretext was to seek justice for the fishermen in the first place.

In fact, Australasia’s gains from this war were considerable. Setting aside the resource-rich Portuguese Timor for now, the factories and various facilities in the other two colonies were almost completely emptied.

After all, Portugal had operated in these areas for decades, if not hundreds of years, and the wealth they had left behind was enough for Australasia to reap a great harvest.

As for the population issue in Portuguese Timor, there was a relatively reasonable solution, which was to offer severance pay to those who were willing to leave and allow them to relocate to Portugal’s other two colonies in Asia.

Those who were unwilling to leave would have to accept Australasia’s rule and even join its nationality.

They would undergo a probationary period of at least three months, and only after it was determined that there were no issues would they be granted Australasian nationality.

Once more immigrants were brought in from the Native Land of Australasia, the rule of Timor would become more stable.

On October 21, 1907, the Australasian government officially announced that the Timor region would become the second colony of Australasia and establish a Colonial Government to manage the area.

Timor, or Portuguese Timor, was officially renamed Australian Timor.

The Governor of Australian Timor was Roman Pito, a member of the Royal Parliament and a former member of the Upper House of New Zealand.

After his successful entry into the Royal Parliament, Roman Pito had expressed his absolute loyalty to Arthur in a very humorous manner, without being overly officious and keeping a low profile.

Appointing such talent to manage the relatively small Australian Timor was more than enough and would make the New Zealanders feel valued by Arthur.

It should be noted that even the newly-appointed Governor of Australian Timor held an administrative rank equivalent to the Governors of States and had a slightly higher status than the state Governor.

After all, the state Governors were elected by the people of the states, while the Governors of the colonies and the Capital Territory were appointed by Arthur himself.

This degree of closeness and distance meant that the Governors of the colonies and the Capital Territory had a higher status than the state governors, and this was also why the Governors were members of the Royal Parliament while the state Governors were not.

After the military withdrew from the two occupied areas, they returned to their original stations and entered daily training.

Only one battalion of the First Division remained as a garrison unit in Australian Timor. The other soldiers returned to their stations in Australasia.

Although the victory in this war exposed many shortcomings in Australasia’s military capabilities.

Although the Australasian Army is very strong and could compete with the German regular forces, the total number of soldiers in the Australasian Army is only just over 60,000, which is equivalent to a Guard Division and three Regular Divisions.

This number of personnel is too few to defend the vast area of millions of square kilometers that comprise Australasia.

Next is the issue of Australasia’s navy, which is the most exposed weakness so far.

Australasia’s naval strength has not changed much compared to the colonial period, with only a few additional medium-sized frigates and cruisers.

A navy of this scale can only defend against pirates and the surrounding weaker countries, but it is nowhere near a match for European Nations.

Even countries like the Netherlands and Portugal, whose paper strength is similar to Australasia’s, have much larger navies than Australasia, making them formidable opponents.

Especially in this war, the naval disadvantage almost led to setbacks. If it had not been for timely negotiations with the three European countries, the war might have lasted even longer.

Following consultations between Arthur and government officials, the expansion plan for the Australasian navy over the next five years was formalized.

The first point was the expansion of the most important type of warships – battleships.

The good news was that the two Russian warships were already in the final stages of construction, and the Peter Pavlovskiy battleship was nearing completion.

Next, the two Russian battleships would enter their sea trials phase, freeing up more resources for constructing warships for Australasia.

For this reason, the construction of battleships was the main focus of the five-year plan and was on a large scale.

According to Arthur’s decision, the Australasian navy will order three Monarch-class battleships, which will be named the HMAS Australasia, HMAS Australia, and HMAS New Zealand.

According to the report from the Royal Shipyard, the first ship, HMAS Australasia, will be able to start construction in January next year, while HMAS Australia and HMAS New Zealand will follow in March and July, respectively.

Due to the simultaneous construction of three battleships, the construction period will be somewhat extended.

Conservatively estimated, the completion time of the HMAS Australasia will be around March of 1909, while the completion of the last-started New Zealand battleship will not be later than October 1909.

Including the sea trial period of about one year, the Australasian Navy will welcome its first dreadnought at the beginning of 1910, and receive three dreadnoughts in 1910 if everything goes smoothly.

By then, with three dreadnoughts, the Australasian navy will undoubtedly rank among the world’s top ten.

In addition to the Monarch-class battleships, Australasia also has a new class of strategic ships, or more precisely, battlecruisers.

In fact, the British Empire already has battlecruisers.

This is a type of warship that has been weakened in some aspects compared to battleships or dreadnoughts.

For example, the hull and turret armor thickness of the British Invincible, Invincible, and Indefatigable battlecruisers currently in service is only 6 to 7 inches, about 150 to 180 millimeters.

However, at this time, the armor of the battleship has reached 11 to 12 inches, or 280 to 300 millimeters.

The difference in armor thickness is literally twice as large, not to mention the actual protection capability, which may vary even more.

This disadvantage of the British battlecruisers, due to the reduced armor, allows the battlecruisers to have an unparalleled advantage over battleships: extremely fast cruise speed.

When dreadnoughts can only reach conventional speed of 19 knots and maximum speed of 21 knots, the Invincible-class battlecruisers have a horrifying speed of 26 knots, significantly ahead of the dreadnoughts.

Moreover, the dreadnoughts’ speed is well ahead of the old battleships, which is enough to prove how exaggerated the speed of the battlecruisers is.

More importantly, the British Invincible-class battlecruisers are equipped with 12-inch, or 305-millimeter, guns.

This caliber is on par with that of the battleships of the same period, meaning that the battlecruisers, with their speed far exceeding that of the battleships, have the same firepower as them.

Aside from the greatly weakened armor protection, the performance of the battlecruisers in other aspects can be considered top-notch among the battleships at present.

Although the weak armor significantly reduces the protection capability of battlecruisers, their extremely fast speed gives them strategic significance that no other warships can have.

Battlecruisers can use their high mobility to perform flanking, encircle enemy fleets, and pursue and intercept them, making escape almost impossible for the enemy.

More importantly, the fast pace of dreadnought upgrades does not affect the battlecruisers as much.

Maintaining nearly the same firepower as battleships and having a very high speed, the strategic significance of battlecruisers will never disappear.

After the birth of the Monarch-class battleships, Arthur had instructed the shipyard experts to explore this type of warship.

After a long time, the experts have achieved some results.

The Australasian strategic cruiser is named the Unity-Class Fast Cruiser, measuring approximately 173 meters in length, 24 meters in width, and 7.9 meters in height.

The estimated standard displacement of the Unity-Class Fast Cruiser is about 17,000 tons, and the expected full load displacement can barely reach 19,000 tons.

The power system of this fast cruiser is not much different from that of the Monarch-class battleships. However, due to the drastic cut of armor, the expected speed of the fast cruiser can reach more than 24 knots.

The maximum speed will have to be tested after the warship is built, but it is expected to exceed 25 knots.

The Fast Cruiser is equipped with four twin 45-caliber, 283-millimeter main guns, 12 single 45-caliber, 4-inch auxiliary guns, and seven machine guns.

It also has four 458-millimeter underwater torpedo tubes for both defense and attack against submarines.

Aside from the fact that the armor protection is significantly insufficient, there are no obvious flaws in this Unity-Class Fast Cruiser, which is why Arthur has been determined to build it.

In addition to the Monarch-class battleships, building the Unity-Class Fast Cruisers is also a key part of Arthur’s plan.

However, the construction plan for the fast cruisers only includes two ships, which will start construction after the completion of the HMAS Australasia and HMAS Australia. The completion of these ships is expected to be sometime in the second half of 1910, with the naval outfit possibly not happening until around 1911.

But no one can deny that, after equipping three Monarch-class battleships and two Unity-Class Fast Cruisers, the scale of the Australasian navy will definitely reach the major power level, albeit a low-level one.