Chapter 1606 Immigration Progress
Not to mention the entire Togoland, the level of development of Dapaon Town alone exceeds that of most inland settlements in West Africa. It has clean drinking water, electricity and various modern facilities. The first two alone are relatively rare in West Africa.
Even so, it was extremely difficult to develop Dapan Town. Archduke Ferdinand sighed and said, "Now we can only take one step at a time and see what happens!"
According to Archduke Ferdinand's idea, as the capital of the new Kingdom of Austria, it should at least be a city, regardless of its size. However, the town of Dapan in front of him was not even as big as the large manors in the Middle Ages.
…
December 3, 1935.
Far Eastern Empire, Xuzhou.
In order to provide immigrants for the Habsburg Monarchy and the new Kingdom of Austria, at the end of the year, local consulates launched an immigrant recruitment operation under the instructions of the East African government.
At the Xuzhou Consulate, Consul General Orwell had a conversation with some local East African offices, immigration officers and others.
"This time, the immigration quota delegated from mainland China is 50,000. This means that from now until the entire year of 1936, mainland China requires us to recruit 50,000 immigrants locally. These immigrants are to facilitate the Empire's strategic development in West Africa. West Africa's importance to the Empire is self-evident, so a large number of manpower is needed to deploy them. The best way to do this is to bring in immigrants and cultivate a force we can trust."
"At the same time, the mainland has also proposed several key areas, and the places circled on this map are the key areas for immigration."
On the map behind Orwell, several densely populated areas were marked in red. He pointed at these red areas and said, "This time, we must recruit as many immigrants as possible from these red areas."
In fact, Orwell himself didn't know why the mainland chose these places to absorb immigrants. After all, recruiting immigrants from the local area seemed a bit of a waste of time to him.
Of course, if he knew about later history, he would probably be able to guess Ernst's intention. The so-called red area is actually the approximate range of the "Yellow River Flood Area".
Ernst obviously couldn't tell anyone else this.
According to what Ernst told the East African officials, the above-mentioned areas are densely populated and relatively poor, making immigration work easier to carry out. In addition, a major war may occur in the Far Eastern Empire in recent years. Therefore, in order to minimize interference with its military operations and deployments, it is best not to act rashly in Xuzhou and surrounding areas.
Xuzhou has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times, and its status became particularly special in 1935. After the January 28 Incident, Japan continued to encroach on the northern part of the Far Eastern Empire, which led to the continuous improvement of Xuzhou's military status.
To put it more bluntly, Xuzhou used to be the rear, but now it has become the core hub connecting the front line, and also a strategic barrier for Nanjing. After all, Xuzhou is an important link in the entire Jianghuai military defense system and is also the forefront.
If they lose this place, it will become easier for the Japanese invaders to move south. At the same time, with the help of Xuzhou's railway hub, they can speed up the invasion of the Far East Empire.
No matter how incompetent the Jinling government was, it knew that to defend the Yangtze River, it was necessary to defend the Huai River, not to mention that they were in Jinling, a riverside city.
Therefore, in 1935, a large number of central and local troops were stationed and trained in Xuzhou and its surrounding areas. The city became increasingly military-oriented, and the transportation of troops and supplies on the Longhai Railway and the Jinpu Railway was extremely frequent.
At this time, East Africa absorbed a large number of people from Xuzhou and its surrounding areas, which would indeed affect the Far East Empire's "recruitment" work in the local area, so it made sense to recruit immigrants from places farther away from Xuzhou.
Of course, the so-called "further" is very limited. He only refers to Xuzhou and its suburbs. Other places in the Ninth Administrative Inspection District outside Xuzhou are key areas for recruiting East African immigrants.
The office of the Ninth Administrative Inspection District is located in Xuzhou.
Orwell went on to say, “All the immigrants were gathered in Xuzhou and then transported to West Africa through Jiaozhou Port.”
"Just last month, the Empire planned to support two pro-East African countries in West Africa, namely the Kingdom of New Austria and the Habsburg Monarchy, so there is a huge gap in the population."
"The threshold for this immigration recruitment effort doesn't need to be set too high. The most important requirement is good health. Ideally, applicants should be neither too old nor too young, ranging from ten to fifty years old. Family-based immigration is preferred."
East Africa helped the Habsburgs recruit immigrants, so naturally there was no need for very strict standards, and the immigration standards were even lower than those of the East African colonies.
After all, even if there were any problems with immigration, the Habsburgs would be held responsible. Of course, although East Africa did not care about the quality of immigrants, it still put forward some requirements.
Take health for example. Without a strong body, it would be difficult to live in West Africa. Even taking a boat to West Africa would be difficult, and you might die at sea.
Orwell continued, "The liaison offices of each administrative supervisory district can use this as a standard to formulate immigration guidelines."
"But I believe this task won't be difficult for you. Fifty thousand people may seem like a lot, but if you break it down into your area, you only need to recruit a few thousand people per jurisdiction to complete it easily."
In the 19th century, it was actually quite difficult for East Africa to recruit immigrants in the Far Eastern Empire. This was mainly because the people of the Far Eastern Empire at that time had a high degree of distrust towards East Africa.
In addition, the misconduct of other powers or countries in the Far Eastern Empire made the Far Eastern Empire generally wary of foreigners. Therefore, unless they could not survive, no one was willing to take the risk of immigrating to the unfamiliar country of East Africa.
For example, at the end of the 19th century, many people from the Far East Empire were turned into so-called "piglets" by American countries through human trafficking, and then transported to their own countries to engage in jobs that were basically life-threatening, such as building railways, mining, or plantations.
This was obviously not conducive to the development of East African immigration work in the Far East Empire in the 19th century. In addition, East Africa was not well-known at the time, and many people regarded the staff of the East African Immigration Agency as "scammers."
After entering the 20th century, with the growing strength of East Africa, the spread of its reputation in the Far East Empire, and the return of some "exemplary personnel", East African immigration quotas became a "hot commodity".
Unfortunately, after entering the 20th century, the threshold for immigrating to East Africa became higher and higher. It was not until before World War I that East Africa began to develop overseas colonies on a large scale, and the threshold was lowered again.
However, this lowering of the threshold only applied to the East African colonies at the time. On the contrary, the local requirements for immigrants decreased instead of increased.
Even so, the Far Eastern Empire's enthusiasm for immigration to East Africa has not diminished, and going to the East African colonies is better than staying there.
Now that East Africa has directly offered an immigration quota of 50,000 people, a large number of local people will definitely flock to it. Even if they don’t know the situation of the New Austrian Kingdom and the Habsburg Monarchy, they will compete for this opportunity out of trust in East Africa’s “reputation”.
This is why Orwell is confident that this task is not difficult to complete, and the heads of various regions are also ready to improve their performance.
For example, Kamal, the head of the office of the Seventh Administrative Inspection District of East Henan, is full of confidence in this mission.
He said to Morris, the head of the First Administrative Inspection District of East Henan, "Bolaite, if we had enough manpower, even tens of thousands, let alone thousands, wouldn't be a problem for us. However, the cost of immigration is bound to be high. I don't know how the government can afford such a large sum this time."
The scope of the Seventh Administrative Inspection District in East Henan is located in Huaiyang County, and its jurisdiction area is roughly most of Zhoukou, while the First Administrative Inspection District is almost Kaifeng and other places.
Originally, East Africa also had a consulate in Kaifeng. However, as East Africa's power in the Huaihai region continued to shrink, there are now only two consulates left, in Xuzhou and Jiaozhou. The area under the jurisdiction of the original Kaifeng consulate has been incorporated into the jurisdiction of the Xuzhou consulate, which has more convenient transportation.
Of course, a part of the original Xuzhou Consulate was separated and moved to Guanzhong, becoming the first consulate of East Africa in the northwest, strengthening exchanges between East Africa and the northwest of the Far East Empire.
In other words, originally East Africa had set up several consulates in Huaihai Province, but now there are only two left, which are responsible for the East African civil servants and institutions in the entire Huaihai region.
Bolet responded to Kamaier, "This is indeed not difficult for our local offices, especially our Kaifeng liaison office. We can probably complete the work in Kaifeng."
As the provincial capital, Kaifeng had a population of over 200,000 in the urban area alone in 1935, making it a large city. Therefore, the Kaifeng Liaison Office had the easiest task of recruiting immigrants among the local liaison offices. It could easily meet the target without even leaving Kaifeng.
Regarding this, Kamaier was very envious. He said, "Although Huaiyang has a large population, most of them are distributed in rural areas. Our workload is definitely much greater than yours. We certainly cannot accomplish this by relying solely on the county town. We must also recruit at the grassroots level."
Bolet said somewhat complacently, "There's nothing we can do about it. After all, the provincial capital is Kaifeng! But honestly, our Kaifeng liaison office is actually at a disadvantage. After all, the Kaifeng Consulate used to be on the same level as the Xuzhou Consulate, but now I can only go to Xuzhou to accept missions."
Kamal said disdainfully, "Haha, if the Kaifeng Consulate hadn't been downgraded, you wouldn't be able to get to your current position as director. Besides, your office is in the original consulate area, and the conditions are much better than ours. Just be happy about it."
Bolet said, "Actually, I'd rather work in Xuzhou or Guanzhong. After all, these two places are more valued locally and offer more opportunities. Of course, there are also opportunities in Kaifeng in the future."
"Right now, the relationship between the Far Eastern Empire and Japan is becoming increasingly tense. Future changes in the Far Eastern Empire's situation could lead to changes in the Empire's diplomatic relations with the Far Eastern Empire at any time, affecting the Empire's adjustments to its Far Eastern institutions. In any case, Kaifeng is likely to be valued again."
What Bolet said makes sense. The current strategic direction adopted by East Africa in the Far East is to shrink, so personnel and institutions will have to be laid off and integrated, and opportunities will become fewer.
However, as the Far Eastern Empire is an important country in the world, East Africa is unlikely to give up such a large market. In the future, East Africa's various activities in the Far Eastern Empire will surely become active again.
Now Kaifeng is still the provincial capital. If East Africa strengthens its attention to the Far East Empire, Kaifeng's chances will definitely be greater than most small places. It can be said that it is not as good as the best, but better than the worst.
…
As the news of East African immigrant recruitment was released, just as Orwell had predicted, a large number of people rushed to various immigration recruitment points in East Africa to apply for immigration.
In just one week, the Xuzhou Consulate completed the submission of more than 2,000 immigration applications. At this rate, 50,000 people may be completed by the beginning of next year.
This speed also shocked the Habsburg royal family in Rhine City.
Emperor Rudolf said, "This is too much. If we continue at this rate, East Africa could easily recruit 100,000 immigrants from the Far East every year. No wonder East Africa has such a large population now."
Ernst was not surprised by this. He said, "The Far Eastern Empire has a large population and a very high fertility rate. However, due to wars, disasters, and political turmoil, the Far Eastern Empire is unable to support such a large population."
"In fact, this situation also occurred in the German region in the 19th century. Not to mention East Africa, there are estimated to be at least five million Germans in the United States."
The data Ernst mentioned is still a relatively conservative one. After all, many descendants of German immigrants in the United States have identified with their American identity instead of considering themselves Germans. Otherwise, there might be 20 to 30 million Germans in the United States.
Emperor Rudolf said, "However, at this rate, immigration recruitment must be slowed down. The Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of New Austria simply cannot support such a large population. Even with our support, 50,000 is already the limit for both countries."
Naturally, the Habsburg royal family had to pay for this round of immigration, including ship tickets, food and accommodation, etc. The expenses were huge, so no matter how wealthy the Habsburg royal family was, they had to spend frugally.
Of course, as long as they survive the first stage of immigration, the Habsburg royal family will be able to start recovering their costs. After all, as long as these immigrants arrive in the Habsburg Monarchy and the New Kingdom of Austria and settle down, they can continue to generate income for the Habsburg royal family.
Ernst agreed with Rudolf's idea: "It's really not appropriate for you to accept too many immigrants now. East Africa could do so in the past because there was plenty of room for expansion and land for immigrants to live in. The Habsburg Monarchy and the New Kingdom of Austria didn't have such conditions."
When East Africa was expanding on the African continent, it had very few concerns. After all, the African continent, especially the inland areas, was mostly "unowned land" and could be used as it pleased.
The division of power around the Habsburg Monarchy and the New Kingdom of Austria has long been clarified. If they want to expand their territory, they must directly confront the two world powers, Britain and France.
However, now is not the time for the Habsburg family to declare war on the two countries. Only after they are dragged to death in Europe can the Habsburg royal family take action.
Before that, the Habsburg Monarchy and the New Kingdom of Austria could only manage their respective territories. Given the current situation of the two countries, absorbing 50,000 immigrants was a bit too much.
(End of this chapter)
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