Seeing that Arthur had never taken the initiative to mention sending more troops to Europe, Churchill finally could not hold back any longer and said bluntly, "Your Majesty the Emperor, we need Australasia's support in Europe."
Arthur nodded. He was not surprised by Churchill's request for aid. At present, the war had already left Britain and France at a disadvantage. If the British did not intend to seek peace, they would certainly have to look for more help from abroad.
But clearly, Arthur could not possibly take the initiative to offer Britain assistance. As the saying went, one did not cast the net until one saw the rabbit. Arthur had already made his strategic plans—how could he mobilize hundreds of thousands of Australasian troops because of a few words from Churchill?
"We are also watching the battlefield in Europe, but unfortunately, because of our war with the island nation, we do not have any troops to spare to help you at the moment.
"To be honest, maintaining a force of 800,000 in Europe is already giving me a tremendous headache. There are still more than 200,000 troops in Africa and the Middle East, and we have already committed over a million troops to the war against Germany. For Australasia, that is already doing everything we can." Arthur smiled and nodded, then began a grand contest of complaints with Churchill.
When it came to comparing hardships, Arthur was in no way inferior to these politicians. If the British could count all their colonial troops among the forces they had committed, then Arthur could naturally count the troops from Borneo and the Philippines as part of Australasia's contribution as well.
Including the forces committed by Borneo and the Philippines, Australasia had already deployed at least two million troops in the entire war.