Chapter 48 Return to Australia
October 24, 1900 — the first day after Queen Victoria's passing.
Shortly after the Queen drew her final breath the day before, officials had begun preparations for the transportation of her remains to be interred in Britain.
Although the Isle of Wight was the place she had most wished to remain in during her life, as the sovereign of the British Empire and the beloved monarch of her people, Queen Victoria's body would be buried in the Royal Mausoleum on British soil.
Transporting the body would not be easy. The journey from the Isle of Wight to Britain's mainland would take more than half a month, and that's without accounting for time lost in resupply and stopovers, which could extend the trip even further.
To speed things up, Crown Prince Edward ordered the HMS Renown, one of the Royal Navy's fastest battleships, to carry out the transport mission.
The Renown could complete the route from Britain to New Zealand in just over twenty days, making it ideal for the task.
As Britain made arrangements to return Queen Victoria's remains home, the foreign royals and dignitaries had no reason to remain on the island. One by one, they bade farewell and returned to their own countries.
The only one among them who had some rapport with Arthur was Wilhelm II. Before leaving, the German Emperor pulled Arthur aside to speak privately for a while.
Wilhelm II was astonished at how much Queen Victoria had cared for and favored Arthur. The Kaiser had planned to remain at her side in her final moments to earn goodwill from the British people, but it was Arthur's presence that had kept him away.
Still, Wilhelm II expressed no displeasure, and instead took the opportunity to reaffirm the German-Australian cooperation treaty.
It was plain to all that, after being entrusted with British New Guinea and New Zealand, Australia would become the most powerful nation in the Southern Hemisphere—unchallenged in both the South Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean.
The only potential competitor—Great Britain—had already, at Queen Victoria's request, extracted solemn oaths from Edward not to threaten Australia, and even to offer it protection as a fully independent state for the next ten years.
If Australia could count on both Britain and Germany's support for a full decade, it would have ample time to consolidate its hold on New Guinea and New Zealand. Along with the Australian mainland, even Britain might one day find itself powerless to control the juggernaut it had created.
Wilhelm II welcomed such a development. Germany had little at stake in the region aside from its tiny portion of New Guinea.
And in truth, neither the British nor the German part of New Guinea was heavily populated—the entire island housed barely 1.4 million people.
To Wilhelm II, exchanging Germany's holdings in New Guinea for the support of a unified and industrialized Australia in a future world war was a bargain.
Before unification, Australia could at best harass French colonies. Afterward, it could pose a genuine threat to them—even conquer outposts in remote areas.
Take French-controlled New Caledonia, for example—it was close to the Australian mainland. If war broke out between France and Australia, could France realistically defend it?
The logistics alone would be staggering. The cost of merely maintaining control over such a distant colony would far exceed its strategic value.
This was why Wilhelm II was so determined to solidify his ties with Arthur. He even promised to expedite German support for Australia's industrialization.
The urgency stemmed from Queen Victoria's dying wish: she had decreed that Britain must provide Australia with at least £5 million in aid each year for ten years and continue to allow immigration without interruption.
To Wilhelm, this was unacceptable. It would only bind Australia more tightly to Britain—contrary to Germany's interests.
So he launched a plan to encourage German migration to Australia. His thinking was simple: if the majority of Australia's population were German, then Australia's future policies would naturally align with Germany's.
Arthur had no knowledge of Wilhelm's intentions. But even if he had, he would have merely smiled faintly.
To shift the ethnic balance in Australia, Germany would need to send at least 4 million immigrants. That kind of number wasn't achievable in ten—or even twenty—years.
And in those same twenty years, Australia could attract millions more from across Europe and beyond, rendering any German population shift meaningless.
The only way to make Germans the majority in Australia would be to accept immigrants solely from Germany—a strategy Arthur would never approve.
While Germans were highly literate and well educated, Australia, as an immigrant nation, needed to maintain a dominant core ethnicity.
Arthur was happy to welcome migrants from other countries—but only so long as those of British descent remained above 50% of the population.
An immigrant nation needed diversity, yes—but it only needed one dominant voice. To avoid future problems, the proportion of the core population had to be safeguarded.
After bidding farewell to Wilhelm II, Arthur boarded a battleship bound for Australia.
Unlike the trip to Britain, he was now returning without Crown Prince Edward, but accompanied by 2,000 Royal Guards and over a hundred new attendants.
The Royal Guards required no introduction—elite troops of the British Army. Combined with his existing forces, Arthur's guard now numbered 4,000, solidifying his power base even further.
Queen Victoria hadn't given Arthur these attendants without purpose. Despite his success in securing power in Australia and winning the support of much of the population, Arthur was still technically an outsider.
And now that he had severed his remaining influence in Britain, it would be difficult to recruit truly loyal followers.
No one could guarantee the loyalty of newly hired attendants. Human hearts were unpredictable.
But these attendants were different. Most had served the royal family from a young age and were fiercely loyal to Queen Victoria.
Now, by transferring them to Arthur, their loyalty had shifted to him.
They were far more reliable than any staff Arthur could have recruited in Australia—and much more experienced in service and administration.
(End of Chapter)
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