gnovel Chapter 790: 590: The German Who Defaulted on Debts_1
Chapter 790: 590: The German Who Defaulted on Debts_1
Chapter 790: Chapter 590: The German Who Defaulted on Debts_1
Turkey was not a qualified ally, a fact that had already been proven during World War I.
Indeed, without any exaggeration, as a powerful nation, Australasia at any time should not trust any of its allies and should remain vigilant toward all countries, which fits the current global pattern.
However, compared with the alliance between Turkey and Australasia that Vice President Ali Yustafa Yusufu spoke of, Arthur was more interested in Turkey’s strategic location.
As a country that nominally spans across both Europe and Asia, Turkey is very close to the Suez Canal and the Strait of Constantinople and is also near the Balkans.
Looking further, Turkey’s geographical position can also have a profound impact on the Middle East Region, which is helpful for Australasia’s Middle East petroleum strategy.
Overall, the benefits of gaining Turkey as an ally outweigh the drawbacks. After all, today’s Turkey is not the former Ottoman Empire; it is a new country undergoing reforms, and theoretically, it is worth looking forward to.
This is not to say that Arthur is blindly confident about Turkey. Just by looking at the reform plans listed by Vice President Ali, one can see Kemal’s firm attitude toward reforming Turkey.
The previous war had already given Kemal most of the power in the Turkish government, which meant there was almost no opposition to this modernization reform.
In Kemal’s reform plan, he planned to abolish the Ottoman Empire’s religious system, the polygamous practice that had prevailed for hundreds of years, and the traditional Ottoman attire, among other things.
This represented a huge change for Turkey, and the new Republic of Turkey was bound to be different from the previous Ottoman Empire.
Under Arthur’s guidance, the talks between Australasia and Turkey went smoothly.
In March 1924, both parties officially reached a cooperation plan, marking the official start of Turkey’s modernization reforms.
To build Turkey into an advanced nation, Kemal made an extremely bold decision to implement full Westernization.
Firstly, Kemal abolished the traditional Ottoman dress code and required all government personnel to wear Western suits and hats during work hours, banning all non-clerical personnel from wearing religious robes or displaying religious symbols.
Further, all independent religious schools and theological seminaries in Turkey would be closed down. The historical Islamic clergy system and the Sharia law, considered a sacred code, were abolished, greatly reducing the influence of religion in Turkey.
Many European nations were surprised by Turkey’s bold reforms since it was the first nation to comprehensively study the West, even adopting everyday attire and governmental systems from Australasia and Europe.
To ensure Turkey’s republican system, Kemal modeled the new government on the political systems of Australasia and various republics around the world, centering it around the President and allowing the Grand National Assembly to control legislative power.
As the world looked on with astonishment, Turkey officially started its secularization and modernization reforms, with the success or failure of these reforms determining whether Australasia’s investment would pay off.
While Turkey was creating significant news, other regions in Europe were not so quiet.
Currently, the German government indeed does not have the money to pay back reparations, and after much thought, the government decided to temporarily default, seeing that it genuinely had no money to pay back and the French couldn’t do much about it.
The time entered 1924, and many nations that had signed the contract also received requests from Germany to postpone the reparations due in 1924 until 1926 to alleviate Germany’s severe fiscal crisis.
If this had happened before the mitigation of reparations, the countries involved might have convened a negotiation conference. After all, Germany’s financial status post-defeat was indeed dire, and making some concessions was inevitable.
But what time is it now?
Only four years had passed since the reduction of German reparations and the decrease in the proportion of payments for the first three years. Now, at the time when the reduced reparations were to be paid for the first time, the Germans were applying for a delay—wasn’t this treating all the nations like fools?
Even if Germany’s financial situation had been problematic before, it had been eased for four years; there should have been some improvements, right?
If they now cannot pay even a reduced reparations sum, it might be necessary to reconsider the German attitude toward war reparations.
As one of the main recipients of German reparations, Australasia naturally also received the German request to postpone repayment.
When Roger asked for his opinion, Arthur gave an ambiguous answer, “If Britain and France both agree to extend the repayment period again, we have no problem with that. Most of our debts have already been mortgaged to Britain and France, we can just follow their lead in reparations matters.”
The share of reparations for Australasia was already one of the lowest among the Allies, and after the last reduction, there wasn’t much left.
In the development over these years, Arthur had transferred some of these loans to Britain and France, leaving Australasia with a German reparations share of about £100 million, already far less than the shares held by Britain and France.
Whether the repayment time is postponed or they default on the debt, the losses for Australasia would be far smaller than those for Britain and France.
This is the real reason Arthur asked the government to follow the actions of Britain and France, after all, there were leaders in front, and there would be someone more anxious than Australasia.
Compared with Australasia’s wait-and-see attitude, the French position was very resolute.
Because they had already warned Germany before, the French government publicly stated that they would not accept any method or any reason for delaying reparations, demanding that the German government promptly repay this year’s reparations within the stipulated time and fulfill the duties under the contract signed at the time.
The French demands received considerable support from a number of small and medium-sized countries, as these nations did not possess the same confidence in facing the once powerful Germany.
Britain and France could afford to demand payments with stern faces, but these nations needed to maintain good relations with German diplomats during interactions.
After all, the limiting treaty couldn’t restrict Germany forever, and the scale of Germany still fell within the range of Powerful Nations, not something a mere small or medium-sized country could afford to offend.
Besides, even with just an Army of 150,000, Germany’s military strength still far exceeded some of the small and medium-sized countries, which was also why these countries were not willing to offend Germany directly.
France’s ability to outright oppose the German request was like a ray of dawn in the dark night for these smaller nations, appearing so righteous and eye-catching.