Chapter 338: Chapter 294: Balkan League and War Preparations

In mid-May, as Italy and Turkey were at loggerheads, Arthur also sent a business team to Southeast Asia to integrate and buy up all the rubber manors and companies.

Although Arthur’s takeover of rubber companies were all in Southeast Asia, it is currently one of the major rubber-producing areas in the world, and even in the future, it will still be the most important rubber-producing area in the world.

If Arthur remembers correctly, from 1914 onward, Southeast Asia accounted for half of the world’s total rubber production, and the region was a veritable rubber kingdom.

Integrating these rubber companies in Southeast Asia now and creating a unique rubber brand is also beneficial to the future development of the rubber industry in Southeast Asia.

The first person in charge of the Australian Rubber Company is Charles Wynne, the former head of the rubber company under the Royal financial group.

Charles Wynne has been involved in the rubber industry for more than ten years, and his leadership of the Australian Rubber Company has a positive effect on its business development.

Charles Wynne’s first task is to visit and take control of over 200 rubber companies and over 1,000 rubber manors bought up by the Royal financial group.

These rubber companies and manors will become the industrial foundations of the Australian Rubber Company and its main business.

To ensure Charles Wynne’s safety, Arthur dispatched more than ten security personnel to him, all of whom were members of the royal guard or experienced police officers. They were all equipped with Cassadine submachine guns and AS-1898 semi-automatic pistols to ensure Charles Wynne’s safety as much as possible.

After all, the capital behind the more than 200 rubber companies is a mixture of various interests, and no one can guarantee whether they would hand over the rubber companies to Charles Wynne peacefully.

After all, most of the employees behind these rubber companies are Southeast Asian natives who don’t have a good impression of Australasia and are susceptible to manipulation and could do something unexpected.

With the protection of more than ten security personnel, Arthur feels relatively at ease. After all, it would take at least a thousand natives to break through the defense of ten or so security personnel.

It is unlikely that any force in Southeast Asia would incite thousands of natives to attack Australasian businessmen.

At the end of May, with the help of the British, the Italian army quickly defeated Turkey’s limited garrison forces in Tripoli and successfully occupied Tripoli and the coastal areas.

However, due to the fierce resistance of the local Turkish population, the advance of Italian forces into the hinterland was very slow.

In early June, even before the war ended, Italy hurriedly declared the annexation of Tripoli and Xilaniya, and restored the old name of Libya to the region.

However, Italy’s harsh demands were immediately rejected by the Turkish government, and the local Turkish residents began to engage in widespread guerrilla warfare against the invasion, prolonging the Italo-Turkish War.

On June 21, 1911, as the Italo-Turkish War became more intense, Tsar Nicholas II inquired in his personal capacity about Australasia’s military industry’s production capacity. Arthur did not understand why, but quickly undertook to supply the Tsardom of Russia with 50,000 rifles and 3 million bullets.

In July 1911, the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Bulgaria formed an alliance. Half a month later, Montenegro and the Kingdom of Greece joined, forming the famous Balkan League.

Only then did Arthur understand why Nicholas II had inquired about the military industry’s production capacity in Australasia – it turned out that the puppet of the Russian Empire was about to make a move.

The purpose of forming the Balkan League is to jointly seize Turkey’s territory in the Balkan Peninsula, expand their own countries and territories.

With the support of the Russian Empire, Pan-Slavism has become the mainstream ideology in the Balkan Peninsula, and the various kingdoms of the Balkans have been actively expanding their armies and carrying out diplomatic work.

Moreover, during the Italo-Turkish War, much of Turkey’s domestic attention was drawn to the conflict, and preparing for war with Turkey now could achieve a surprising effect.

If nothing goes wrong, the order for 50,000 rifles from the Russian Empire should be prepared for the several countries of the Balkan League.

But no matter who it is for, Australasia is the side that makes money, and Arthur doesn’t concern himself with it too much.

In early July, another matter caught Arthur’s attention.

Since the end of May, Charles Wynne had spent more than a month integrating rubber companies in Southeast Asia.

On July 3, after more than a month, Arthur received a progress report from Charles Wynne, but the results of the report did not make Arthur very happy.

According to Charles Wynne’s report, the main personnel of the Australian Rubber Company had arrived in Southeast Asia at the end of May to start the process of integrating all the small rubber companies.

But the integration has not been smooth. Firstly, the previous rubber crisis has plunged the management of the large rubber companies into chaos, with not only the top executives disappearing but also the rubber company employees running away. Secondly, some senior executives of rubber companies have been resisting Charles Wynne’s leadership. This is not the main problem, but even more serious is that there have already been two aboriginal attack incidents. Although they were easily dealt with by the guards armed with submachine guns and semi-automatic pistols, there must be someone behind these natives.