The Rise Of Australasia
Chapter 517: Chapter 405: Distribution of Pension Funds

At the same time as the Allies were planning a major counterattack on the Eastern Front, they were also planning to provide new support to Russia Nation on the Eastern Front.

There were two routes for Britain and France to transport supplies to Russia Nation: one was from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea, but it would pass through the waters controlled by Germans.

The second was from the Mediterranean Sea and reached the Black Sea after passing through Constantinople, which was controlled by Turkey.

The good news was that with the participation of the Italian Descendants, the Allies had an absolute naval advantage on both routes, so the supply lines to Russia Nation were not cut off.

Especially on the route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea, although Constantinople had strong seaside fortifications, Turkey was bound to lose all of its European territories under the joint attack of the Balkan nations.

While Serbia and Russia Nation undertook the majority of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's military force for the Balkan nations, the attention of Greece, Montenegro, and Romania was focused on attacking Bulgaria and Turkey.

With ambitious Serbia, the Balkan nations had an absolute advantage in the Balkan Region, Bulgaria was struggling to defend its territory, and Turkey had almost lost all its European territories except for Constantinople.

Of course, there was still a reason to fight against Bulgaria and, with most of Serbia's military forces being constrained by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Turkey's Constantinople was still fortified for the time being. This also served as a thorn in the side of the Allies.

If the Allies wanted to transport supplies to Russia Nation as soon as possible, they had to remove the "nail" of Constantinople.

After much deliberation, the Allies' internal consultation resulted in the decision to open up a new front on the Balkan Peninsula, incorporating the Balkan nations and establishing a Balkan Front to completely eliminate Bulgaria and Ottoman Turkey, besieging Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe, while opening up trade routes with Russia Nation.

Of course, since the new battlefield opponents were just Bulgaria and Turkey, and at most a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's military, Britain and France did not plan to send troops there.

After communicating with Australasia, Commander Martin was responsible for the Balkan Front, leading the Guard Division Two, Third Division, Colonial Divisions One, Two, Three, and Four, with more than 100,000 troops to form the Balkan Expeditionary Force. They would join forces with Greece, Romania, Montenegro, and Serbia to attack Bulgaria and Ottoman Turkey and protect the Mediterranean Route.

Following the defeat of Bulgaria and Turkey, the Balkan Expeditionary Force would join forces with Russia Nation, surrounding Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the east, west, and south.

In doing so, the German-Austrian duo would be trapped like sitting ducks, not only having their foreign trade and transportation lines completely cut off, but also not receiving any external resources and supply support.

To complete the entire encirclement, the end of the war would be in sight. Even if the German-Austrians fought back fiercely, they would be exhausted after numerous rounds of attrition.

Arthur knew that the Australasia Army was to support the Balkan nations. In fact, he also supported such a plan.

At present, the Westline Battlefield has entered a stalemate, and Germans are desperately defending themselves. Even under the alliance of Britain-France-Australia-Italy Four Nations, there was no way to deal with Germans in the short term.

The current Westline Battlefield has become a reaper, harvesting the lives of soldiers from both the Allies and Allied Nations time and time again while the battle lines of the two countries have not moved at all.

Avoiding such futile consumption is best. After the main Australasia forces go to the Balkans, they will target Bulgaria, known as the "Balkan Prussia," and the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which could still be considered a major power several decades ago.

There is a significant gap in combat capabilities between these two countries and Germany, so it is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the fighting ability of the Australasia Army abroad while gaining enough contributions in the war to obtain more benefits in the future.

On May 25th, 1915.

At the same time that the Australasia Expeditionary Force arrived on the Balkan Peninsula and prepared to launch the first offensive, the first military promotion and pension ceremony for injured and fallen soldiers were held in Australasia Domestic.

Nobody knew how long the war would last, so Arthur decided that after each wave of the army's withdrawal, a military promotion and pension ceremony would be held.

Only by promptly delivering the pension to the families of fallen soldiers and providing compensation and rewards to all soldiers participating in the war could they do justice to the soldiers' bravery on the battlefield and their contributions to the country.

At about ten o'clock at noon, Sydney Palace Square was surrounded by a crowd, including more than 10,000 soldiers from Division Four.

"Gentlemen, ladies. On this special day, we stand together solemnly and sorrowfully to commemorate the more than 10,000 fallen soldiers in the war.

No one knows how long the war will last, and no one knows how many more soldiers will be sacrificed. However, the belief in protecting the country drives these brave and fearless soldiers to charge at the enemy time after time. Their courage in the face of death brings peace and stability to our domestic life.

All our soldiers are great, and they may be your fathers, husbands, sons, friends, or people you don't even know.

But for the country, the royal family, and all the people, they bravely and fearlessly gave their lives.

I declare that all fallen soldiers' families can receive ten times the national per capita annual income as a one-time compensation, and their children will be funded by the royal family to provide free education until they reach maturity or graduate from high school.

These fallen soldiers will be buried in the Sydney Heroes Cemetery, where they will be admired and remembered by the people of the nation.

All injured soldiers can receive double their salary during their recovery period, and those permanently disabled will be given five times the national average annual income as compensation. The treatment of all injured soldiers will be covered by the state and the royal family.

Hearing Arthur's pension policy, some soldiers in the audience couldn't help but hold their heads high in pride.

Australasia's current pension policy is one of the best in the world, and it is firmly implemented.

It is worth noting that Australasia has relatively fewer casualties among the major warring nations, which is the fundamental reason why Australasia can firmly implement the pension policy.

Take Russia as an example. At present, the number of deaths in Russia has reached hundreds of thousands, and the number of casualties has exceeded one million.

With such a large number of casualties, even if each person were compensated with merely a hundred rubles, the total cost would be in the billions of rubles, or over 10 million pounds.

And a hundred rubles of compensation is just over ten pounds, which is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the families of the injured and deceased soldiers.

This is actually one of the reasons why Russia collapsed relatively quickly in the original history. Russia mobilized tens of millions of troops into combat, with casualties reaching millions.

But among these millions of Russian casualties, pitifully few could receive a pension.

Many Russian peasant families, after sacrificing an able-bodied adult, not only received no compensation but had to face even higher taxes.

And that's not all, many Russians also faced job losses, reduced income, price increases caused by inflation, shortages of supplies, and other factors. Public discontent inevitably led to rebellion.

In addition to the compensation for the dead and injured soldiers mentioned above, all soldiers of the Fourth Division were awarded twice the nation's annual income in addition to their wages, in recognition of their contribution in the war.

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Soldiers, the royal family, and the government will never forget your contributions to the war, and neither will I.

May Australasia grow stronger under your protection, and may all Australasians live without fear of war, hunger, poverty, and disease, and enjoy peace, health, and happiness in Australasia."

The cost of these pensions and rewards is not insignificant. Based on the scale of over 2,000 deaths and over 6,000 injuries in the Fourth Division, the cost for the Fourth Division alone has exceeded two million Australian dollars, almost one-fiftieth of the current annual income of the Australasian government.

Of course, Arthur would not miss such an excellent opportunity to win the hearts and minds of both the public and the military.

All pensions and rewards for the soldiers were funded by the royal family and personally given to every soldier or soldier's family member.

This made each soldier even more loyal to the royal family, and the families of the deceased soldiers were grateful to the royal family, without any complaints.

According to Australasia's pension policy, fallen soldiers can receive 10 times the average annual income, or more than 500 Australian dollars, as compensation.

This amount is actually quite substantial and enough to buy a property in downtown Sydney, start a small-scale factory and become a small capitalist.

Alternatively, buying a large amount of land in the suburbs to become a farm or ranch owner is another good option.

Based on the pre-war value of 7.33 grams of gold per pound, more than 500 Australian dollars is equivalent to nearly 3.66 kg of gold. If compared to the prices in later generations, this pension is equivalent to more than a million dollars.

Of course, if considering the difference in prices over about 100 years, this amount would likely need to be multiplied several or even more than ten times.

Regardless, this pension is not a small amount and is sufficient for the families of fallen soldiers to lead a better life.

In addition, the government will also cover the education of the deceased soldier's children, further saving their families a considerable expense.

In order to reassure all the soldiers, Arthur promised that they could go to the Royal Bank today to receive their pensions and rewards.

As long as they could provide the soldiers' personal and family information, they could choose between checks or cash as payment methods. Or they could continue to deposit in the Royal Bank and enjoy the highest interest rates on their savings.

For Arthur, it's best to have the pension and rewards delivered to the soldiers on the same day as they are promised.

Making promises and not delivering would only arouse the resentment of the people. In any case, Arthur had already earned several times the 2 million Australian dollar cost from military trade with Russia.