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Chapter 848 General Mobilization

The farce in Congress soon resulted in a report on Roark's desk.

The result of the vote was indeed no surprise, 117 to 8, with 6 abstentions, and it was rejected without any suspense.

This is the current situation in southern Africa. The world war is about to break out, European countries are preparing their troops, and southern Africa is still busy fighting for power. Fortunately, Yang Smozi went to the mainland, otherwise it would be worse.

"The Progressive Party, haha ​​-" Stoudemire shook his head and smiled bitterly. The Progressive Party was a political party founded by Cecil Rhodes. It has now fallen into disgrace. Dr. Starr Jameson is still alive, but it is nothing like death.

In both cases, the Progressive Party has completely broken away from the control of Dr. Starr Jameson, and the number of seats in Parliament is constantly decreasing, and it cannot even hold the 15 seats in the Cape.

In theory, the congressional seats in Southern Africa are divided into proportions based on the population of each state. When the federal government was established, the Cape had the largest population, so it also had the largest number of 15 seats.

It can be seen from the voting results that even the MPs in Cape Town did not support Edmund Gaunt 100%. There were only a pitiful eight votes in favor, which clearly shows the chaos in Cape Town.

In contrast, the Liberal Party has an overall advantage. When the federal government was established, the Liberal Party had to unite with the Progressive Party to gain power. Now even if it loses the support of the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party has won more than half of the seats and has the right to form a separate cabinet.

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This is also the source of the conflict between Philip and Adelaide. This is an election year. Adelaide and Philip are competing for the right to represent the Liberal Party in the prime ministerial election. No matter who wins, they can basically defeat the candidates of other parties without any suspense.

The Progressive Party nominated Edmund Gaunt to run for prime minister, and Edmund Gaunt's support rate can be seen from the voting.

Of course, other parties have also launched their own candidates, but the support rate is lower. If the Progressive Party joins forces with other parties to fight to the death, it may still have a chance of winning and strive for a chance to jointly form a cabinet, but even that chance is slim.

, if the situation is severe, the Liberal Party can also choose to form a coalition government with the Nyasaland Party.

"Don't worry about these things, how is the research on compressed biscuits?" Rock doesn't care about the bad things in Congress. With Philip and Irving here, any proposal that is unfavorable to Rock will not be passed. Rock is focusing all his energy now.

In the organization of material supply.

In the upcoming world war, Southern Africa has now clearly defined the role of European factories, providing all war-related materials to the Allied Powers. Weapons and equipment are of course important, but textiles and food are equally important.

Textiles are mainly handled by the Johannesburg Textile Company, and in terms of food, Stoudemire's South African company is responsible.

Prior to this, the luncheon meats, coffee drinks and various cans produced by the South African company had been very successful, but these were not enough. Rock also needed to compress biscuits to provide better supplies to the Allied Powers.

Compressed biscuits are not an invention of southern Africa. Compressed biscuits have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs more than 4,000 years ago. Now there are also factories in Europe producing compressed biscuits. However, the quality is uneven, the taste is rough and the nutrition is insufficient. The most important thing is that the shelf life is not long enough.

Often we don’t find that the compressed biscuits have gone bad until we eat them.

Think about it, the soldiers who have been fighting on the front line for a day will feel so bad when they find out that the compressed biscuits they are issued are a package of smelly garbage full of bugs.

Therefore, Roque asked the South African company to research compressed biscuits with a longer shelf life, better taste, and rich nutrition. This was not Roque’s personal request, but a request made by Roque to the South African company on behalf of the Ministry of National Defense.

"Following your instructions, we have developed six flavors of compressed biscuits, including green onion, beef, salt, pepper, barbecue, pineapple coffee, and a shelf life of more than two years. Are you satisfied?" The South African company is very efficient, but the research and development of compressed biscuits is difficult.

Engineers have weird ideas. It’s understandable that they use green onions, pepper and salt, but barbecue coffee is weird.

"Two years?" Rock suspected. It had only been a few months since Rock had put forward higher requirements for compressed biscuits. I really don't know how this "two years" was determined.

"Engineers from the South African company discovered that the reason why compressed biscuits deteriorate is mainly due to the oxidation of oil, so we now use palm oil. Combined with the existing information, the shelf life can definitely be extended to more than two years." Xiaosi is still very confident about his engineers.

I am confident that the South African company may be the strongest food processing company in the world now.

After the independence of East India, the South African Company immediately purchased a large number of plantations in East India. Like spices, coffee, cocoa, cane sugar, and natural rubber, palm oil production is also high in East India.

"Now we have formed a complete production line. The individual soldier rations provided to each soldier include canned lunch meat, compressed biscuits, instant coffee, and nutritious and delicious chocolate. An individual soldier ration can fully meet the nutritional needs of soldiers on the front line for a day. This

All the food included in this individually packaged individual soldier ration has a shelf life of more than two years. The company has begun to organize large-scale production. I have prepared material warehouses in Port Edward and Whale Bay, each warehouse can store five million servings.

"Xiaosi feels that five million copies is already an extremely huge number. According to the needs of southern Africa, the two warehouses add up to 10 million copies, which can meet the consumption of the Northern Rhodesia Division and the First Cavalry Division for a year, but in

In Europe, by the middle and late stages of the World War, 10 million individual soldier rations could only meet the consumption of British troops for two days.

This is just the UK, what about France? What about Germany? What about Russia?

Forget about the Russian army, I guess Russia can't afford it.

Fortunately, the production capacity of South African companies can continue to be tapped. Nyasaland Military Industrial Group has begun to go all out, and South African companies must keep up.

It’s not just the Nyasaland Military Industrial Group and the South African Company. The terrifying thing about the mobilization order is that once it is issued, the whole society becomes a closely cooperating precision instrument, and all production and living materials must serve the war.

Although Nyasaland and Rhodesia have not issued mobilization orders, the current situation is similar to the general mobilization. The automobile company in Nyasaland has begun to adjust its production lines. All new production lines put into operation after 1912 are used to produce military vehicles and tractors.

The factory was also urgently converted to the production of tanks. It didn't matter that there were no orders for the time being. Rock hoped that when Europe needed it, only southern Africa in the world would be able to provide the supplies Europe needed.

In this regard, Southern Africa has a huge advantage that even the United States does not have. Although the United States has strong industrial capabilities, it is impossible for private companies in the United States to start mass-producing something that temporarily seems to be impossible for companies in Southern Africa without orders.

Supplies that cannot be sold.

In this case, once the demand becomes a reality, Southern African companies that have been prepared will become the only choice. After all, the construction of factories and the training of skilled workers require a long cycle, and it will take time for the industrial foundation to become a reality.

Kitchener's order for two million rifles means that Britain is gradually shifting the focus of the arms race to the army. Even Britain, a traditional maritime country, is beginning to pay attention to the army. This also means that the arms race has reached the point where the bayonet is red.

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"Cecil, you underestimated the scale of the world war. Five million servings is far from enough." Rock reminded Stoudemire to prepare for a rainy day. Unlike weapons, food is a fast-moving consumer goods. Not only the military has needs, but civilians also have needs.

, If you don’t prepare now, you will be caught off guard when the time comes and hand over the opportunity to others.

"Then expand the size of the warehouse. If two are not enough, build ten -" Stoudemire also underestimated the intensity of the world war. This was not a small-scale conflict between colonies. Once it broke out, it would be protracted unless one party completely surrendered.

Rock smiled and said nothing. No matter how good the relationship was, Rock couldn't make decisions for Xiao Si. Rock had said what needed to be said, and it was Xiao Si's business to listen or not.

Stoudemire was still very smart, and he decided not only to expand the size of the warehouse, but also to expand the size of the food factory.

Like businesses in Nyasaland and Rhodesia, businesses in the Transvaal have also begun to mobilize. The Johannesburg Textile Company is researching cold-proof clothing that far exceeds the needs of southern Africa. In addition to cotton and woolen textiles, various sheepskin

Cowhide and poultry down have also begun to be used in large quantities. Clothes produced using these raw materials have better thermal insulation properties, are of course more expensive, and are more profitable.

The current scale of pharmaceutical companies has expanded five times compared to two years ago. Starting from the Russo-Japanese War, and after the improvement of the Italian-Turkish War and the Balkan War, the pharmaceutical industry in southern Africa has greatly improved. South African companies have prepared individual rations for the Allied Forces.

, the pharmaceutical company prepared portable medical kits for the Allied forces.

This medical kit, which is the size of a kettle and weighs no more than two kilograms, can be carried by individual soldiers. Each medical kit includes band-aids, tourniquets, bandages, trauma medicine, iodine, sutures, needles, and cold medicine.

Rock will not ignore the threat of influenza. Severe influenza in the 21st century will be fatal, and the mortality rate in this era is even higher.

Such a medical kit sells for 1.5 pounds. As long as a soldier knows simple battlefield first aid, it can play a huge role when he or his comrades need it.

In addition to textiles and medicine, more companies took action. Vodka factories were converted to produce alcohol, camping tents were transformed into temporary field tents, and agricultural cooperatives in various places once again implemented unified purchasing and marketing of agricultural products. The last time they did this was just after the Boer War.

Starting from April, newspapers began to publish endless articles on the situation in Europe. Everyone was deeply aware of the approaching war, so much so that attention to the prime minister election was declining.


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