The Rise of Australia

Chapter 951 "Declaration of the United Nations"

It was quite smooth to win over Turing. At least he accepted the position appointed by Arthur and joined the work of the computing laboratory.

Arthur did not expect the newly established computing laboratory to gain anything in a short time.

For computer technology, it will take at least several decades to achieve real results.

Of course, it is necessary to make arrangements now. Otherwise, Arthur is not sure whether Australasia can gain an advantage in the future competition of computers and networks without any preparation.

Winning over Turing is only the first step of Arthur's deployment in computer technology.

Next, Australasia will absorb as many talents in mathematics and logic as possible to prepare for the birth of computers.

Speaking of which, as one of the leaders in the history of British deciphering secret telegrams, Turing's arrival in Australasia must have had an impact on Britain's deciphering of German secret telegrams.

Although Arthur's main purpose was not this, it would definitely be a good thing if the British could bear more losses.

Until Turing joined the computing laboratory, the London Conference on the division of world interests had not yet been discussed.

For this conference, it will take at least some time to get a clear result.

Arthur was not interested in listening to the arguments between the British and the French. For Arthur, he only cared about the final result of the negotiation and whether Australasia's interests would be damaged.

However, considering the importance of Australasia to this war, even if Britain and France were reluctant, they would not be able to make any moves in the distribution of the results of the war.

On November 24, 1937, with the discussion of various countries, the first agreement reached a consensus was signed, which was the famous "Declaration of the United Nations" in history.

This "Declaration of the United Nations" has nothing to do with the division of interests. Its main purpose is to determine the attitude of the signatory countries towards the Allied Powers led by Germany.

The "Declaration of the United Nations" stipulates that all contracting countries must invest all human, material and financial resources in this war, and shall not sign an armistice agreement with the warring countries alone.

This undoubtedly cuts off all retreat routes for Germany. For Germany, they have only two choices, that is, to defeat all enemies or be defeated by all enemies.

It's funny to say that this meeting has been going on for five days, and the only result that was finally determined was the "Declaration of the United Nations". There are still big problems in the distribution of interests among countries.

Arthur didn't have the patience to wait for the results of this meeting. On November 27, 1937, Arthur took a special car to Sydney to attend the ceremony of the official opening of the Sydney Metro Ring Line.

Speaking of Sydney's subway, it has a history of 11 years.

At present, Sydney has built Line 1 in the north-south direction, Line 2 in the east-west direction and the Ring Line, with a total length of more than 75 kilometers.

Among them, Line 2 is the shortest, only about 12 kilometers, and the Ring Line is the longest, about 44 kilometers.

Subways are not unfamiliar to later generations, and they are extremely helpful to urban development.

Take the world's earliest subway, the London Metropolitan Subway, as an example. When the entire line was opened in 1863, it set a record of carrying 9.5 million passengers that year, which also made the British see the importance of the subway.

This also has to sigh at Europe's leading position in science and technology. Even in later generations, more than half of the people have never taken the subway, but in 1863, 160 years ago, London citizens were able to experience the subway as a means of transportation.

Although the earliest subway was no different from an ordinary train, it is definitely not an easy task to build a safe enough railway line underground.

The good news is that it is precisely because countries such as the United Kingdom have accumulated enough experience in building subways that the construction of subways in Australasia has become much easier.

Of course, the experience accumulated bit by bit by human technological progress is actually the result of hundreds of casualties.

It is precisely because of this that Arthur specifically asked the Sydney City Government to slow down the speed to ensure the safety of the entire project when he decided to build the subway.

In fact, as early as the beginning of this year, Line 3 of the Sydney Metro, which is the longest ring line in total, has been completed.

But in order to follow Arthur's order, the Sydney City Government opened the train for nearly a year before deciding to completely open the ring line subway.

The reason why Arthur decided to personally attend the opening ceremony of the ring line subway is precisely because of the importance of the subway to urban development.

According to the tender announcement of the Sydney Municipal Government when building the subway, the three railway lines are expected to greatly facilitate the travel of all Sydney citizens and tourists, and reduce traffic congestion in the Sydney city as much as possible.

According to the current operation status of Sydney Metro Line 1 and Line 2, it is basically certain that the ring railway can effectively increase the development speed of Sydney.

It is precisely because of the importance of subway to urban development that the Melbourne Municipal Government is currently actively requesting the construction of railways and seeking financial subsidies from the national government.

For Sydney and Melbourne, the two twin cities of Australasia, Arthur will naturally not favor one over the other.

As early as a few years ago, the construction of Melbourne's Line 1 railway began, and it is expected to be completed in the middle of next year and open to traffic in 1938.

But then again, the only two cities that need to build railways are Sydney and Melbourne.

Other cities, including Fort St. Arthur, are not so densely populated, and there is no need to build subways for the time being.

After all, the biggest purpose of the subway is to ease traffic congestion and improve people's travel efficiency. Only large cities with a population of more than 3 million, such as Sydney and Melbourne, need to build subways.

In fact, in addition to building subways, Arthur has a more ambitious goal for the future development of Australasia, which is to build a southeastern triangular urban agglomeration in Australia.

The urban agglomeration is based on Fort St. Arthur, Melbourne and Sydney, which basically covers the most essential parts of the Darling River and Murray River basins, and also includes densely populated areas such as Victoria, the Capital Territory and Sydney Territory.

Because of the special geographical environment in Australia, the population in the southeast of Australia is far greater than that in the west.

At present, the population of Sydney is close to 5 million, and the population of Melbourne has exceeded 3.5 million, making them the two well-deserved cities in Australasia.

The combined population of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory in the west of Australia is only equivalent to that of these two cities, which is enough to prove the huge development gap between the east and west of Australia. This is indeed the biggest problem in Australia. In fact, only the land in the southeast is the most suitable for development. This is why Arthur wants to build a triangular urban agglomeration in the southeast.

The good news is that with the promotion of the two super cities of Sydney and Melbourne, and the catch-up of the capital Fort St. Arthur, the triangular urban agglomeration in the southeast of Australia is still very likely to be built.

Apart from anything else, the population of the three corners that make up the urban agglomeration has exceeded 10 million, accounting for more than one-fifth of the population of Australasia.

Coupled with the assistance of several small and medium-sized cities around the urban agglomeration, it is no problem to create the most prosperous region in Australia and compete for one of the most prosperous urban agglomerations in the world.

After attending the opening ceremony of the Sydney Railway Ring Line, Arthur took some government officials to experience the first officially opened subway of the ring line.

In general, the experience is not bad, and the overall comfort and safety can be guaranteed.

In order to ensure that there is enough air circulation inside the subway, vents are built at intervals during construction, and fans are used to deliver enough air to the inside.

Each subway entrance will also have a corresponding escape hatch to ensure that in the event of any accident, subway passengers can quickly escape from the escape hatch to the ground.

The entire subway does not run fast, and because there are many stops, the overall speed is only about 35 kilometers per hour.

But the advantage is that the subway does not need to go through the twists and turns on the ground, and can basically go to the destination in a straight line.

According to the current driving speed, it takes no more than half an hour to drive from the northernmost to the southernmost part of Sydney.

Similarly, it takes only about half an hour to drive from the easternmost to the westernmost part, which basically meets the needs of Sydney citizens from their residence to their office.

The north-south and east-west railways, plus the ring line that surrounds the city, ensure that most people can quickly get close to their desired destinations through the subway.

Of course, the subway is not omnipotent, and it is definitely impossible to make everyone go to their desired destination.

But Sydney already has dozens of subway stations, and it is still possible to quickly shorten the travel time between two locations through the subway.

According to the current data on ground car driving in Sydney, it takes about the same time to drive from the westernmost to the easternmost part of the city as the subway.

But the problem is that because of the huge size of Sydney and the large population, there are also many vehicles in Sydney.

Once a traffic jam occurs, the travel time required by the car will be extended indefinitely.

But the subway will not have this trouble. The travel time required for the subway is completely unified, which also means that for some people who do not want to drive, the subway is definitely a more convenient means of transportation.

The most important thing is the subway fare. After all, whether a means of transportation is good or not, in addition to safety, practicality and speed, there is another factor that is particularly important, that is, the cost of using this means of transportation.

Just like the current airplane, it is indeed the fastest means of transportation for humans. For airplanes, the time required to fly around the world is calculated in days.

This is different from the previous round-the-world voyage. If a ship is used, the round-the-world voyage will take nearly half a year at the slowest, and several months at the fastest. The time spent on the two is completely disproportionate.

But here comes the problem. Even with the rapid development of aircraft, the ticket price of civil aircraft is still very high.

As one of the main manufacturers of passenger aircraft, Australasia should have very low air ticket costs.

But in fact, according to the statistics of the aviation industry on major airlines, the ticket prices of short- and medium-haul flights in Australasia are generally above 35 Australian dollars, and the ticket prices of medium- and long-haul flights are as high as 60 Australian dollars.

Although the current per capita income has exceeded 200 Australian dollars, it takes at least two months' salary to take a flight, which is still an unaffordable expense for most people.

This also means that the potential users of airplanes are only those middle and senior executives of enterprises and companies. They will use airplanes, a faster means of transportation, when they are on business trips.

Of course, there are also those rich people who are not short of money. After all, for the truly rich, a plane ticket of dozens of Australian dollars is just a drop in the bucket, and they may even pursue more expensive flights with better experience.

In fact, when pricing the subway ticket, Arthur took into account that the subway is a real means of transportation used by ordinary people in large quantities compared to airplanes.

Therefore, for the pricing of subway tickets, considering reducing the living pressure of ordinary people, Arthur also indicated that the national government should provide certain subsidies for subway construction to reduce the cost of subway construction by municipal governments, and reduce subway ticket prices in disguise.

At present, the most expensive part of subway construction is to build subway stations and subway lines underground. The locomotive and carriages of the subway are not much different from those of trains, and the funds required in this regard are not much. After all, the train industry in Australasia is also quite developed.

If the train-related industry is not developed, Arthur would not be able to spread railways all over the country in just a few decades.

While Arthur was experiencing the Sydney Metro Circle Line, the subway department established by the Sydney Municipal Government also disclosed the price of subway tickets.

Still the same as the previous prices of Lines 1 and 2, there are two prices for the Metro Circle Line, namely station-based and full-trip.

The station-based fare is 1 penny per station (1 Australian dollar = 10 Australian shillings = 100 Australian pence), and the fare is calculated according to the specific number of stations the passenger takes. It only costs 1 penny to sit one station.

The full-trip fare has only one price no matter how far or how many stations you take, that is, the full-trip fare is 1 shilling and 2 pence.

The two pricing methods correspond to two types of passengers, that is, short-distance passengers and long-distance passengers.

For most people, they may only need a short-distance subway.

At this time, the one-stop one-fare method is very suitable, which can save this group of people some subway fees.

The full-trip ticket can also save money for passengers who need to take many stations. In the face of reducing the cost of living for civilians, such measures have indeed been achieved.

It is also because of this that since the announcement of this subway fare charging method, Sydney citizens have been relatively welcoming to it, and even specially thanked Arthur and the Sydney City Government.