October 24, 1900—the day after Queen Victoria's death.
As soon as the Queen stopped breathing yesterday afternoon, people were assigned to prepare Queen Victoria's remains and transport them back to the United Kingdom for burial.
Although the place Queen Victoria had most wanted to stay during her lifetime was the Isle of Wight, as the monarch of the British Empire and the queen revered and worshiped by all British people, her remains ultimately had to be buried in the Royal Cemetery in the United Kingdom.
Transporting the remains was extremely difficult. The voyage from the Isle of Wight to the United Kingdom would take at least half a month, and with the time needed to resupply along the way, it could take even longer.
To transport Queen Victoria to the United Kingdom as quickly as possible, Crown Prince Edward ordered the accompanying HMS Renown to handle the operation.
As one of the Royal Navy's fastest warships, HMS Renown could reduce the voyage from the United Kingdom to New Zealand to just over twenty days at best.
While Britain was busy transporting Queen Victoria's remains, the royal families and high-ranking officials of the other countries had no reason to remain on the Isle of Wight either.
Everyone said their farewells to one another, then boarded warships and returned to their respective countries.
The only one among them who had any connection with Arthur was William II. Before leaving, William II specifically called Arthur aside, and the two chatted for a while longer.
William II was extremely surprised by Queen Victoria's concern and affection for Arthur. Originally, on the night before, when Queen Victoria was nearing death, William II had wanted to stay by his grandmother's side and take the opportunity to earn some goodwill from the British people.
But he had never expected that, because of Arthur, he—a man of imperial rank—had actually been unable to approach Queen Victoria the previous night.
William II did not show any displeasure over this, however. He merely reiterated the cooperation treaty between Germany and Australia.
After all, anyone with eyes could see that once Queen Victoria handed British New Guinea and New Zealand over to Arthur, Australia would become the strongest country in the Southern Hemisphere, without an equal in the South Pacific and eastern Indian Ocean.
The only power capable of competing with Australia, the British Empire, had also, at Queen Victoria's request, not only made Edward, who was about to become king, agree to a nonaggression treaty, but had also promised to protect Australia as an independent country for ten years.
With the backing of both the British Empire and Germany, ten years would absolutely be enough for Australia to completely digest the power of British New Guinea and New Zealand. Adding Australia's homeland to the equation, even the British Empire would be helpless against this colossal force it had created with its own hands.
William II was happy to see this happen, though. After all, Germany had almost no interests in this region, apart from German New Guinea.
In reality, neither British New Guinea nor German New Guinea had a large population. Even New Guinea as a whole had only just reached a population of more than 1.4 million.
In William II's mind, if German New Guinea could be exchanged for the support of a powerful, unified Australia in Germany's coming World War I, then it was absolutely acceptable.
Before unification, Australia could only harass the rear of France's colonies. After unification, however, Australia would be capable of threatening France's colonies in future wars, and even annexing some remote regions would not be a problem.
Take France's New Caledonia, for example. It was extremely close to Australia's mainland. If a conflict broke out between Australia and France, could France hold on to the region?
One had to understand that the logistical costs brought by distance increased tenfold. The logistical expenses France needed merely to hold on to the region might far exceed its value.
Thus, William II's intention to win over Arthur became even more obvious. He even specifically promised that, after returning, he would arrange support for Australia's industries and accelerate the pace of cooperation between Germany and Australia.
The reason William II was so anxious was that, before Queen Victoria's death, she had specifically instructed that the British Empire must provide Australia with at least five million pounds in support every year for ten years, and must not cut off the source of immigrants.
This would draw Australia, which had broken away from Britain, even closer to the United Kingdom—something that did not serve William II's interests.
To win Arthur over, William II decided to launch Germany's immigration plan for Australia. As long as most of Australia's population became Germans, wouldn't Australia's policies subtly begin favoring Germany?
Arthur did not know what William II was thinking. But even if he had known, he would only have given a faint smile.
To change Australia's demographic structure, Germany would have to send at least four million immigrants to Australia.
A number that huge would be impossible even over twenty years, let alone ten.
And during those twenty years, Australia could attract millions or even tens of millions of immigrants from Europe and the rest of the world. Changing the entire immigration structure would be even more impossible.
There was only one way to make most Australians people of German descent: Australia would have to accept immigrants exclusively from Germany for a short period.
But Arthur was not a fool. Although Germans had a relatively high literacy rate and generally received more cultural education,
a settler country like Australia still had to ensure the dominance and proportion of its primary ethnic group.
Arthur was willing to accept immigrants from other countries, but only on the condition that the proportion of Australians led by those of British descent remained above fifty percent of Australia's total population.
Settler nations needed diversity, but only one group needed the greater voice. To prevent future immigrants from creating countless problems, the proportion of the primary ethnic group could only be increased.
After bidding farewell to William II, Arthur also boarded a warship and set off for Australia.
But unlike on the journey there, Arthur was now without Crown Prince Edward at his side, while gaining a full two thousand Royal Guard Army soldiers and more than a hundred attendants.
The Royal Guard Army needed no explanation. It was an elite force of the British Army. Together with the guards Arthur already possessed, its total strength would reach four thousand, making Arthur's position even more secure.
Queen Victoria had not given Arthur these attendants without purpose. Arthur was, after all, an outsider in Australia. Although he had seized power with remarkable ease and won the support of most Australians, some matters still had to be guarded against.
Moreover, Arthur had lost all his influence in Britain as well. If he wanted to recruit sufficiently loyal attendants, it would theoretically be very difficult.
After all, no one could guarantee the loyalty of newly recruited attendants. One could never know what lay in another person's heart.
But Queen Victoria's attendants were different. Most of them had served the British Royal Family since childhood and were utterly loyal to Queen Victoria.
After Queen Victoria gave these attendants to Arthur, the person to whom they pledged allegiance became Arthur.
They were far more loyal than the attendants Arthur had painstakingly recruited in Australia, and they also had greater experience both in serving others and in working as subordinates.
Second update. Please support me. I wrote a little extra, so please show your support!
Before you continue