The Rise Of Australasia
Chapter 515: Chapter 404: A Helpless Choice

"Your Majesty, this is the request for aid telegram from Russia. Please take a look." Foreign Secretary Darren, handed a list of russian supplies requests to Arthur, frowning slightly as he spoke.

In fact, Minister Taylor could usually agree to requests for supplies unilaterally, since they would not be given away for free. The Russian side would purchase at a slightly lower price than the market price, so it would be absolutely profitable for Australasia.

However, the problem was that the size of the supplies list was so huge that Minister Taylor dared not make a decision rashly, so he had to hand the list to Arthur and wait for his command.

When Arthur received the telegram and saw the enormous appetite of the Russians, he was surprised as well.

One million rifles, 2,000 various caliber artillery pieces, 150,000 marching tents, 300 million bullets, 5 million various types of shells, medicines worth 45 million rubles, food worth 55 million rubles, 300,000 military helmets....

Australasia had already shipped supplies to Russia several times in the past. Although the stockpiling of supplies had started a few years ago, not much was left after being consumed at such a high frequency.

The list of supplies currently requested by the Russians was more than half of Australasia's total domestic inventory, and even more than half of some supplies.

Under such circumstances, Arthur naturally could not agree to all of the Russian demands.

After all, transporting the supplies to Russia as requested on the list would drastically reduce Australasia's stockpile, and some supplies would be completely exhausted.

It is essential to understand that the clothes, food, and medicine requested in the list are not only needed by the military but could also be used by civilians.

As the King of Australasia, Arthur would naturally prioritize the needs of Australasians before fulfilling ally obligations and shipping supplies to Russia.

Not to mention, just one million rifles, 2,000 artillery pieces, and the corresponding ammunition and shells alone could arm at least two army groups, roughly a fighting force of about 1 million people.

The Russians' needs certainly could not be that large, and Russia had also sent requests for supplies to the British, French, and Italians, so their actual needs might not even amount to one-third of what they requested.

After some consideration, Arthur decided to reduce the quantity of some items. If the Russians agreed, the supplies could be loaded and shipped immediately.

If not, it would not matter to them. After all, if Arthur insisted that Australasia lacked supplies, could Russia send someone to verify?

In fact, the Russian government never thought that Australasia could transport the supplies as requested on the list.

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After cordial exchanges between the two governments, the amount of supplies to be purchased from Australasia was finally determined: 300,000 rifles, 500 artillery pieces, 100 million bullets, 3 million shells, 200,000 military uniforms, 1 million tonnes of food, and 500 tonnes of medicine...

The total value of these supplies already exceeded twenty million pounds, and at Arthur's repeated request, the Russians adopted a payment method of 2 million population plus fifteen million pounds.

Using the 2 million population to offset a 5 million pounds burden was not a loss for the Russian government, and for the Australasian government, it was an even greater gain.

One must know that the number of immigrants from other European countries has significantly decreased by now, and the only reliable source of immigrants is Russia.

These 2 million Russians could speed up Australasia's population advancement towards the 20 million mark.

Perhaps Australasia's population could surpass 20 million before the end of World War I, making up for the disadvantage in population numbers.

Of course, 20 million population could only be considered as having the foundation of a strong country. To become a world power, or even a top power and world hegemon, the population had to be at least in the hundreds of millions.

In view of the urgent battle situation on the Russian frontlines, in order to deliver these supplies to the Russian front more quickly, Arthur and the Russian side agreed to use three methods to transport supplies to Russia.

The first was to use airships directly, although an airship could carry at most 40 tonnes of supplies, but there were dozens of transport airships in Australasia, capable of transporting up to 2,000 tonnes of cargo per trip.

Moreover, airship transportation was arguably the fastest way. It would take only slightly more than half a month to go from Sydney directly to the Russian frontlines.

In addition to airship transport, the other two methods were sea transport to Vladivostok via the Siberian Railway or direct sea transport to Russia's Black Sea coast, where supplies would reach the Russian frontlines by land.

Under ideal conditions, these supplies could all be sent to Russia in about a month and a half to two months.

The Russian army only had to hold on for about half a month before the arrival of the first batch of supplies.

Referring to the current situation where the Russian army was most short of weaponry and ammunition, the first batch of supplies to arrive quickly by airship would be some rifles, a large number of bullets, and shells.

With the support of these supplies, the Russian army would be able to hold on for longer until more materials arrived.

Nicholas II, upon receiving Arthur's response, finally relaxed his furrowed brows a little.

Britain and France had also promised to support some supplies, and coupled with the supplies promised by Australasia, the material crisis currently faced by Russia was finally solved.