Chapter 54: Urban Planning

"Have your officials settled in well? There have been many visitors from England recently, and I cannot personally greet you, Arthur, for which I hope you will forgive me," said Prince Edward, smiling.

After receiving a satisfactory answer from Arthur, Prince Edward's smile became even warmer, and he even showed concern for the officials Arthur had brought with him.

"They have all been settled with the help of Aunt Beatrice. I understand that Uncle has the funeral of his grandmother and British affairs to attend to, so it's normal for him not to have time," Arthur replied.

Although obtaining support from England was inevitable, how much support they could get depended on Prince Edward's attitude.

Without tearing their faces apart, Arthur didn't mind improving his relationship with Prince Edward, especially since the interests of Australia and the British Empire did not conflict in the short term. At least until England was in decline, Australia did not have the qualifications to confront it.

"Hahaha, as long as Arthur doesn't mind. Here, try these. These are the foods you loved to eat in England before, and I specifically instructed the chef to make them for you. After spending a long time in Australia, you must miss them, right? Even with the few chefs your grandmother gave you, it's not easy to make authentic British flavors in Australia," Prince Edward laughed and invited Arthur to taste the food that had already been prepared.

Under the tacit understanding between Prince Edward and Arthur, the banquet hall experienced a very warm uncle-nephew dinner.

During the meal, Prince Edward and Arthur talked about various interesting things, chatting for a long time like ordinary uncle and nephew.

It wasn't until late at night, when the guards reminded them, that the two suddenly realized the time and ended the dinner.

Although most of the conversations during the dinner were nonsense, Arthur also learned a few important pieces of news.

There were two main events that Arthur had to deal with. The first was the arrangement for the funeral of Queen Victoria, which was decided by the British Cabinet and Prince Edward after consultation. The funeral was officially scheduled for November 29, just two days later.

The second event was the coronation ceremony of Prince Edward. Although in theory, Prince Edward automatically became the King of England after the death of Queen Victoria, he had to hold a coronation ceremony before he could officially become the King.

The coronation ceremony of Prince Edward was scheduled for the seventh day after the funeral of Queen Victoria, which was on December 6, 1900.

As for the discussion about supporting Australia, it had to wait until Prince Edward officially ascended to the throne and convened a meeting to decide.

Overall, it was acceptable for Arthur because he still had a good reputation and popularity in the public of England. If the British Cabinet made the decision to support Australia, they would have to consider the wishes of the British people, who held a favorable view of Arthur.

Returning to his room, Arthur was tired and quickly arranged his bed before falling asleep. In the two days before the funeral of Queen Victoria, Arthur and the Australian diplomatic delegation had a relatively relaxed schedule. Since there was not much to do, Arthur spent his time touring London with the delegation, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the capital city and discussing the feasibility of implementing various advanced technologies in Sydney.

Sydney was a good capital city for New South Wales, but for Australia as a whole, it was only a qualified capital.

Sydney's city was not well-planned due to its origins as a colonial settlement. Although the population is not yet very large, issues are gradually emerging.

As Australia welcomes more immigrants, the population of Sydney is expected to grow, potentially reaching a population of 500,000 or even a million in the future. In this context, Sydney's urban planning is lagging behind, and many problems will become more serious over time.

Currently touring London with a diplomatic delegation, they are seeking opportunities to address these issues. As the capital and one of the most developed cities in the UK, London's population has already exceeded two million.

London is undoubtedly one of the world's brightest jewels in terms of development, and its urban construction, while not perfect, is generally worth considering and learning from. As long as problems such as heavy industrial pollution are avoided, London's urban development is relatively excellent.

Most of the delegation members are well-traveled, so in addition to enjoying London's beautiful scenery, they began to discuss whether Sydney could implement or improve aspects of its urban development based on London's construction plans.

In contrast to history, Sydney is now Australia's capital, rather than Melbourne. Melbourne is currently the largest city in Australia, followed closely by Sydney. The reason for choosing Sydney as the capital is that it is the capital of New South Wales, while Melbourne is the capital of Victoria.

From the perspective of volume and influence, New South Wales has a greater influence than Victoria, which is why Arthur chose to settle in Sydney.

However, both Sydney and Melbourne have their shortcomings in design, as they did not consider the possibility of becoming massive cities. Based on current urban design, Sydney can only accommodate slightly more than one million people, and any more would cause significant difficulties and chaos for urban planning.

Although one million people may seem like a lot, it is now quite common for major powers and developed countries to have cities of this size or larger.

If Australia wants to become a strong nation, the capital city's population limit must not be limited to just one million; it should be at least several million. This means that the government must improve the construction of Australia's major cities, particularly the capital city of Sydney.

Otherwise, while there may not be an immediate impact, a large influx of immigrants will eventually cause problems due to insufficient urban planning, leading to chaos.

In addition to sightseeing in London, the three ministers were also tasked by Arthur to investigate the situation of various officials in the British Cabinet and establish good relationships with one or two of them to prepare for the upcoming aid conference.

After all, the UK's aid to Australia is determined by the Cabinet conference, so establishing good relationships with these British Cabinet officials in advance will also help Australia obtain more significant assistance in the future.

Given the relationship between Australia and the UK, as well as Arthur's reputation and the prestige of the late Queen Victoria, it should not be too difficult for the three ministers to establish good relationships with the British Cabinet officials.