Chapter 1685 Supervision
The reason why East African governments intervene in fundraising activities of the Far Eastern imperial diaspora in East Africa is not hard to understand. On the one hand, it is to supervise these social organizations, and on the other hand, it is to prevent "illegal fundraising" and the illicit gains made by some people. In addition, it is to ensure that the funds raised are used effectively.
For the East African government, the Chinese Chambers of Commerce in East Africa are clearly not considered "one of their own," and they carry a strong sense of independent nationality and cultural identity.
However, East Africa is a country where immigrants from Germany and the Far Eastern Empire have merged, so it is necessary to guard against these social organizations.
This is not directed at the Far Eastern Empires. East Africa holds the same attitude towards Germany and the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, considering these three countries as East Africa's "mother countries."
Just as East Africa continues to crack down on the infiltration of German extreme nationalist organizations into the region, these organizations are the tentacles of Adolf's German nationalist party that have reached into East Africa.
Germany exploited the ethnic characteristics of East Africa, trying to bind East Africa to their war machine, and even attempting to control East African politics through this method.
Not to mention East Africa, a "German country," Germany has adopted this approach and achieved considerable success in other countries in the Americas with large German immigrant populations.
Countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Brazil have cultivated a group of fanatical "German zealots," and in the past, South American countries even became "sanctuaries" for many war criminals after Germany's defeat.
Even now, many South American countries are still closely allied with Germany as a result.
The East African government naturally does not want this situation to occur widely in East Africa, and as for completely severing ties with Germany, that is obviously impossible.
Germany was able to exploit nationalist sentiments in East Africa, which meant that the Far Eastern empires could do the same.
However, at present, the Far Eastern Empire is beset by internal and external troubles and does not have the energy or financial resources to do so, nor does it dare to offend the East African government. But this does not prevent them from using this to achieve some of their own goals.
For example, after the July 7 Incident in Beiping in 1937, the Nanjing government of the Far Eastern Empire issued "national salvation bonds" in its East African colonies and mainland China.
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for East Africa to regulate these local social organizations.
Then, the funds raised by these social organizations in East Africa also need to be "supervised," so it is conceivable that the amount of funds raised from East Africa cannot be small.
Whether these funds will actually be used by these organizations under the guise of "aid" on the Far East battlefield remains to be seen; human nature is difficult to withstand the test.
Finally, there is the question of how to implement these funds. On this point, the East African government is concerned about the Far Eastern Empire government itself.
For example, if funds were directly transferred to the Far Eastern Empire's government account, wouldn't they preemptively tamper with the funds themselves? The answer is clear: this would inevitably happen, and it might even happen on a large scale.
Even assuming the Far Eastern Empire government was very "clean" and actually spent the money on the war effort, East Africa was worried that the Far Eastern Empire government would use the money on other countries.
For example, regarding the procurement of weapons and supplies, would the Far Eastern Empire government use the funds raised from East Africa to place orders with Britain and the United States? This was also a concern for East Africa.
Rhine, the capital of East Africa.
Ernst and Crown Prince Friedrich had a discussion about these details.
“Father, we have now notified all lower-level governments that all activities of Far Eastern Empire residents and related organizations in the Empire must be reported to the Imperial Government.”
"At the same time, social activities involving fundraising need to be subject to the supervision of the Imperial Government, and we also provide them with corresponding services and channels to help these funds be used for the war against the Far Eastern Empire."
Ernst nodded and said, "Well done. In addition to this, we also need to strengthen oversight of our bureaucrats and provide corresponding reporting channels."
"As the saying goes, all crows are black. In addition to considering the corruption of the Far East Empire government and the greed of some organizations in the Empire, we certainly cannot completely trust our own people."
"The current fundraising campaign for the Far Eastern Empire is definitely not a small amount. Even if each person in the empire only contributes one Rhine guilder, the total amount for the entire empire would be more than two hundred million Rhine guilders."
"Based on this calculation, the final scale of private funds involved in the aid to the Far Eastern Empire would be several billion, or even tens of billions of Rhine guilders!"
Ernst's words were not an exaggeration at all. The currency of East Africa itself had a relatively high exchange rate among the great powers, and the donations from overseas Chinese to the Far Eastern Empire's resistance against Japan in his previous life were conservatively estimated to be at least two billion US dollars, which translates to more than 10 billion Rhine guilders.
Given the circumstances in East Africa, the funds that could be raised are likely to be even greater. In fact, the East African colonies in Southeast Asia alone could potentially raise billions of guilders.
Moreover, East Africa has the world's largest group of wealthy overseas Chinese businessmen, and some of these patriots may have hundreds of thousands or even tens of millions of dollars involved in their affairs.
Crown Prince Friedrich had no doubt about Ernst, and said, "Father, your thinking is clearly correct."
“Money can move people’s hearts. In order to ensure that this huge amount of money is put into practice as much as possible, we have now announced our own ‘aid to China’ fund project to the public.”
"And we urge people in society who have this idea to donate to this fund as much as possible."
The actions of the East African government now openly and unabashedly demonstrate its support for the Far Eastern empire, thus deeply offending Japan.
After all, the donation channels established by the government are undoubtedly a reflection of the will of the East African government. In other countries around the world, even if there are similar activities, they are basically private activities, and other governments at most turn a blind eye.
Even Japan's allies and countries with close diplomatic relations may directly obstruct overseas Chinese from donating to their motherland.
Crown Prince Frederick said, "Japanese spies in the Empire will certainly report this situation back, which will provoke protests and hostility from the Japanese government."
Ernst was not worried about this at all. He said, "That couldn't be better. After all, we never intended to be on good terms with Japan, let alone have Japan go to war against the Empire. That was an important part of our plan."
"Unfortunately, Japan is still focused on the Far East battlefield, and the northward faction within Japan has not lost power. In addition, Germany has not yet made any move, all of which make Japan hesitant to move south."
"However, it's best to keep a low profile as much as possible before then, and let the security department focus on identifying and monitoring Japanese spies."
"We want them to send the message back to Japan as late as possible. In addition, if the Japanese government raises objections, we will still emphasize East Africa's 'neutral' position and firmly believe that the so-called 'aid to China' fund has nothing to do with our government, but is a private activity."
It is true that the "Aid to China" fund was set up by the East African government, and East Africa even promoted it through news and media. However, the fund itself is still disguised as a private capital organization.
The main reason Ernst did this was because he was concerned about Germany. He worried that if East Africa openly supported the Far Eastern Empire, or more accurately, if it made no attempt to conceal its hostility towards Japan, Germany might become a "frightened bird."
Just like in the previous life, after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany was obviously in a terrible mood.
While modern Germany appears far more powerful than ever before, East African governments are uncertain whether they hold greater "awe" for superpowers like East Africa and the United States.
Therefore, before Germany launches the war, it is best to give Germany the illusion that East Africa is not too concerned about the war on the Eurasian continent.
As for the troubles that East Africa is causing Japan now, it can be easily covered up with other excuses, since East Africa is not the only country that has provided aid to the Far Eastern Empire.
Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union all had corresponding underhanded actions, but their actions were more covert and smaller in scale than those in East Africa.
From a perspective of interests, the actions of East Africa and these entities are also understandable.
After all, Japan's invasion of the Far Eastern empires did indeed pose a real threat to the interests of these countries.
Germany probably wouldn't understand this, since its interests in the Far East empire were not significant, and Japan would deliberately avoid harming German interests, and might even take the initiative to show goodwill towards Germany.
Therefore, Japan is a mad dog, and East Africa, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union have all been bitten by this mad dog. Naturally, they retaliated against this mad dog, and Germany, as a "bystander", could not find fault with it.
The only difference is that Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union responded with insults or kicks, while East Africa picked up a thick stick from the roadside and delivered a vicious blow to the mad dog's head.
Ernst said, "We are not worried that Japan can escape our grasp, but our attitude toward Japan will obviously affect the Germans' next strategic deployment."
"Therefore, we still need to maintain the illusion of 'neutrality' so that other countries can feel more at ease and boldly follow their own paths."
If Japan was a pawn in East Africa's reshaping of the Southeast Asian landscape, then Germany's war against Europe was undoubtedly the best opportunity for East Africa to expand its influence into Europe.
While East Africa does have military and political influence in Europe, it is negligible. If a major European power targets East Africa, East Africa cannot find any effective countermeasures or deterrents.
The root cause lies in the fact that key transportation routes between East Africa and Europe are controlled by European countries. The Suez Canal and Gibraltar are controlled by Britain, and the Mediterranean coast of North Africa and the Middle East, as well as East Africa, lack land-based support.
At the same time, the powerful European nations of this era were also quite strong, including Germany, the Soviet Union, Britain, and France, which were considered military powers on a global scale.
Therefore, if superpowers outside the region like East Africa and the United States want to extend their reach into Europe, they must first let the other side fight amongst themselves before they enter the fray, thus naturally taking over the springboard for communication and connection between themselves and Europe.
Conversely, if these European countries were truly at peace, that would be what the United States and East Africa should be worried about, since if Europe were peaceful and united, they would be united against external threats.
This not only threatens the global standing of East Africa and the United States, but could also erode their overseas interests.
Despite the fact that European countries are currently harboring their own agendas and unable to integrate into an effective whole, if we look back two or three decades, even without unity, Europe would still be the dominant force in the world order.
Moreover, East Africa and the United States are not "ideal states," which means that East Africa and the United States are also likely to decline, and there is even a possibility that the two countries may split apart.
Therefore, taking advantage of the fact that both countries are currently in a relatively strong position, it is natural for them to further expand their own competitive advantages.
In addition, at this stage of development, East Africa and the United States also need new spheres of influence and broader overseas markets. Looking at the world, apart from the Far East, only Europe, a more tempting pie, can satisfy the needs of the two superpowers.
Even excluding the Soviet Union, the whole of Europe has a population of over 400 million, comparable to that of the Far Eastern Empire, and their purchasing power is incomparable to that of the Far Eastern Empire today.
Therefore, theoretically, even if East Africa and the United States were to divide Europe in two, they would still be able to share a huge high-consumption market of 200 million people.
Even if the Soviet Union or a European country like Germany were to get a share of the pie in the future, the market size would still be considerable.
Crown Prince Frederick said, "Currently, the situation in Europe is relatively stable, but the ambitions of countries such as Germany and the Soviet Union are also clear."
"And the country most likely to be the one to break the deadlock in the European situation is undoubtedly the most powerful Germany. As long as the Soviet Union cannot hold back Germany, Europe is in danger of falling into German control."
East Africa's biggest concern is that the war in Europe will end too quickly. After all, East Africa's current plan is to let Europe be greatly weakened by the war, so that it will be easier for East Africa to enter Europe in the future.
If Germany had swiftly defeated the Soviet Union, which country in Europe could have stopped Germany's "iron torrent"? The answer is none.
Therefore, if Germany quickly defeated the Soviet Union, it would mean that Germany could gain hegemony over the whole of Europe at minimal cost.
If this happens, there will be no time or possibility for East Africa and the United States, countries outside of Europe, to intervene.
Moreover, once Germany has truly solidified its position as the hegemon of Europe, it will inevitably openly regard East African countries and the United States as competitors, or even enemies, in the next stage.
To the north, Germany, as the dominant power in Europe, may erode East Africa's interests in Europe and North Africa. To the east, the Middle East and Central Asia, and even the Indian Ocean, may be threatened by Germany. In South America, Germany's current influence is already somewhat "excessive."
Therefore, if Germany were to truly rise to power, it would undoubtedly be one of the biggest threats to East African overseas interests.
The same logic applies to Americans. Europe holds a more significant place in American overseas interests, so the United States clearly does not want Germany to become too powerful in Europe. Moreover, if Germany dominates Europe, it would obviously pose a considerable threat to American interests in North America, especially in the Caribbean.
Adding to this Japan, which is currently Germany's "quasi-ally," means that Germany is fully capable of confronting the United States by supporting Japan, which in turn threatens the United States' core interests in the Pacific and Far East.
Therefore, neither East Africa nor the United States wants Germany, or more accurately, neither Europe, to have a true hegemon or ruler.
(End of this chapter)
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