All the ingredients for lunch are sent all the way from Southern Africa, including the table wine and tableware used are all produced in Southern Africa.
"A chicken raised locally in London costs about twelve shillings in a London restaurant, and a chicken raised in southern Africa only costs ten shillings plus shipping. This is the cost advantage of southern Africa. Canada has nine hundred shillings."
With a territory of more than 10,000 square kilometers and a labor force of hundreds of millions, India still needs local support, and we in southern Africa are already capable of supporting the local community, so we have to do what we are best at." Roque is justified, and
Compared with Canada and India, Southern Africa is indeed very competitive.
"Lord, when was the last time you were in London? Nowadays, a chicken costs at least one pound, and only the rich can afford it." Clark Bell lamented that in an era of soaring prices, living in London is not easy.
"Sorry, the last time I went to London was six years ago, maybe seven years ago." Rock really can't remember clearly. The last time I went to London was to go to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for gilding. It was also the only time. That memory doesn't exist.
It's not good, Rock is already a little blurry now.
"It doesn't matter. Even if you go to London again in ten years, London will not change much." Clark Bell also didn't like the city shrouded in thick fog all year round, but many literary and artistic young people obviously didn't think so.
Knowing the dangers of smog, I actually think it is a symbol of romance.
"Locke, if war breaks out, how much supplies can southern Africa provide to the mainland?" George White finally got to the point.
Rock knows that Congress is formulating many response plans for various possible situations, of which material supply is a very important part.
The reality of the British Isles determines that the United Kingdom must rely on its colonies to meet its local needs. The "British Isles" here does not refer to the three "islands". The British Isles is made up of the two main islands of Great Britain and Ireland.
It is composed of many small islands. The origin of this term is probably the homophony of "British Three Roads", which is used to refer to England, Scotland and Wales.
There is no Ireland yet. Ireland did not become a Dominion until World War I, and then an independent country.
The total area of the British Isles is only 250,000 square kilometers, which is much smaller than France and Germany. Relying on locally produced materials cannot meet the needs of the people. Therefore, the United Kingdom mainly relies on input from its colonies to maintain local prosperity.
If war breaks out, Britain will inevitably start general mobilization. The reduction of agricultural and industrial populations will have a significant impact on production, so Britain will inevitably become more dependent on overseas dominions and colonies.
In the previous plan of Congress, if the UK encounters a shortage of materials, it will increase imports from the United States to alleviate the domestic shortage of materials.
Now it seems that there are better options.
"All!" Rock said decisively, but the meaning of "all" was different from what George White understood: "When the time comes, Southern Africa will do its best to provide the locals with all the materials they need. We have developed a lot in recent years.
Quickly, from starting with nothing, we have already seen initial results. London should also know the situation in southern Africa. We can produce almost all kinds of supplies needed by the locals, including rifles, ammunition, artillery, beef, fruits, and various textiles.
We can provide it all.”
Roque did not dare to take over everything. Although southern Africa is developing rapidly, its foundation is too poor. After all, it has only been developed for a few years, and its strength is still incomparable with that of the United States.
The United States now has a population of 100 million, while southern Africa only has more than 10 million people including Africans. The gap in human resources is really huge.
"Locke, production capacity is the most important issue." George White also has no decision-making power on this issue. The shortcomings of southern Africa are indeed obvious.
"Yes, I understand that we have been working hard to increase the population, but this is not a problem that can be solved in a short time." Roque is also helpless. Currently, southern Africa does not have the strength to fully compete with the United States, but in a certain period
In some areas, Southern Africa has successfully established advantages.
For example, the military industry.
Without the emergence of southern Africa, Britain would have begun ordering various supplies from the United States to meet domestic needs.
Now the situation has changed a lot. Although Britain still orders supplies from the United States just like in another time and space, the structure has changed a lot. Britain orders more living supplies from the United States, and more military supplies from southern Africa.
Ordering, especially weapons and ammunition, the .303 that Rock had been insisting on finally started to work.
0.303 refers to the caliber of the Lee Enfield rifle. Southern Africa, like the United Kingdom, insists on using the rather strange caliber of 0.303 inches, which is converted to 7.7 mm.
The rifles currently equipped by the US military are imitations of Mauser's Springfield rifles. Like Mauser, they have a 0.3-inch caliber, which is converted to 7.62.
Don’t underestimate the 0.003-inch difference. Although it is almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, it cannot be used universally on a rifle. The rifle bullet used by Lee Enfield is 0.303-inch in rifle bullet, the specification is 7.7x56 mm, and the Springfield rifle uses
The specification of m1906 rifle ammunition is 7.62x63 mm. The lengths of the two bullets are completely different, so they cannot be used universally. If the United States wants to produce ammunition for the United Kingdom, it must build another production line. When the United Kingdom orders small batches, the United States will not
Spend this money.
What if a new production line is built but the UK doesn’t buy it?
At this time, the benefits of Rock's insistence on unified specifications are shown. If the rate of fire is not considered, but the power is considered, the 0.303-inch in rifle bullet is indeed inferior to the m1906 rifle bullet. After all, the amount of powder is there, and the United States is also because of the Spanish-American War.
During this period, the Mauser rifles equipped by the Spanish army performed well in the war, so they decided to obtain the authorization from Mauser to develop the Springfield rifle. When Nyasaland expanded its arsenal, some engineers also suggested developing more powerful rifle ammunition, but
Being directly rejected by Rock, Rock was preparing for this moment.
In fact, it’s not much different. The effective range of the Springfield rifle is 550 meters, which is not as far as Lee Enfield’s one thousand meters. However, this range is meaningless. At a distance of one thousand meters, even a precision shooter can only do it without a scope.
Blindly, whether you can hit the target depends entirely on God's will.
Under the combined effect of so many factors, Southern Africa has now become the best choice for the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom not only orders the weapons and ammunition it needs from Southern Africa, but also orders large quantities of daily necessities. Only the parts that Southern Africa cannot provide will be ordered from the United States.
Since the beginning of this year, the value of various supplies ordered by the UK from southern Africa has exceeded 50 million pounds, which has effectively alleviated the financial crisis of the southern African federal government.
The supplies ordered by the UK are mainly focused on military products. Although most of the profits go to the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group, the federal government also collected more than 5 million in taxes, otherwise Ade would not have given Rock like this.
Great support.
"We must make full use of India's human resources." George White actively helped to find ways.
As long as it involves human resources issues, India is the panacea. All British people know this.
"We are also hiring a large number of Indian workers, but their efficiency is very problematic." Rock also has a headache. Now not only Henry's mine, Nyasaland is also hiring a large number of Indian workers.
There is no other way. If given the choice, Rock is really unwilling to hire Indian workers.
Although the salary of Indian workers is very low, the salary of Africans is even lower. Compared with African workers, Indians are not very efficient and have many bad habits. In southern Africa, Indians also regard themselves as British.
Some people try to take advantage of the opportunity to work in Southern Africa to immigrate their families. This is strictly restricted. Southern Africa only requires adult males, and no one else is allowed.
Since the beginning of this year, Southern Africa has hired at least 100,000 workers from India, which has effectively alleviated the labor shortage in Southern Africa.
After lunch, the military observation group's work for the day has been completed. Don't expect them to work more than ten hours a day, that is simply impossible.
After returning the military observation group to the hotel, Rock went to find McMahon again. The military observation group requested to go to the border town of Salum tomorrow.
"What do you think? Can you be sure of Salum's safety?" McMahon threw the question back to Rock.
"It's definitely not safe. We only have four companies in Sarum. Sarum is less than ten kilometers away from the border. The guerrillas will leave and come back at any time. If something goes wrong, we won't be able to explain it." Luo
Grams doesn't want to cause trouble. Judging from the intentions of the military observer group, they will not stop after arriving in Sarum. They must see with their own eyes the performance of the southern African army on the battlefield.
"Then don't go. You can go somewhere else." McMahon didn't take any chances. Wouldn't it be better to just stay in the hotel? This is not London.
"where to?"
"You might as well lead them to Port Elizabeth. They were originally going to inspect Port Elizabeth anyway." McMahon wanted to send the military observation group away.
The reason why the military observation group visited Port Elizabeth was because of the oil in Port Elizabeth. The British military's current warships have begun to use internal combustion engines. The status of oil is becoming more and more important. The United Kingdom now wants to determine the reserves of the Elizabeth Oil Field. If the Elizabeth Oil Field can replace the Romanian oil field
role, then the UK will have greater initiative.
"Port Elizabeth has not been safe recently. Yesterday, the Umbrella Company had some conflicts with the Ottoman Empire's troops." Roque also did not want the military observer group to go to Port Elizabeth. This group of people is now hated by everyone.
