After the Bechuana military exercise, Hopkins submitted his resignation to Ade, but Ade did not approve it.

If Hopkins resigns, then the only person qualified to succeed Hopkins as Secretary of Defense is Roque, and then Roque will be based in Pretoria, which Roark obviously can't do, so Hopkins still has to stay as Secretary of Defense.

It must be said that Hopkins is still very qualified as a minister, and in principle, there is no Ministry of Defense in Southern Africa, although Southern Africa is autonomous, but there is no right in defense and foreign affairs, and this part of the rights still belongs to London, and most of London's energy involved in the arms race is really not spare to take care of Southern Africa, so London will allocate funds to Roque to support Roque to form an army.

London is more concerned about the return of southern Africa to the British mainland.

During Hopkins' tenure, the basic defense system had been established in southern Africa, with four standing divisions of professional soldiers being the main force of the Southern African Defence Force, in addition to twelve general divisions of conscripts as auxiliary forces, the navy of southern Africa was building its first cruiser, and the air force was not yet in force, but four air bases had been built in Nyasaland and Bechuana to deal with threats in Tanganyika and South-West Africa.

The amazing thing is that the formation of so many troops did not cost much money to the federal government, and the Ministry of Defense because the compulsory troops can undertake projects externally, and even achieve a balance between revenue and expenditure, although Roque is responsible for all this, but the achievements made are nominally the credit of Hopkins.

For that reason, Hopkins is a qualified secretary of defense.

If you change to someone else, maybe because of Roque's too much power, you are worried that you will be set aside, so you will cause some trouble for Roque from time to time.

Hopkins's biggest advantage is that he is not greedy for power, if it were not for Roque's efforts, with Hopkins's ability alone, the formation of an army force of this size in southern Africa, not to mention the air force and navy, would be a fantasy, maybe it is still those half-dead colonial servant army units that can't even defeat the rebels to support the façade, and they can't provide any kind of help when Britain needs it.

Now it is different, Roque has the ability to get money from London, the ability to get loans from the RAND Bank, and the ability to obtain various resources within the federal government, and Hopkins is happy to give up power, after all, the annual salary of 5,000 pounds is still very good.

After going to the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice respectively, Roque still went to Philip's house for dinner in the evening.

Today, the elder of the parliament also finished his work early and went home to hug his grandson, Phyllis has been in Nyasaland for the past two years, and rarely returns to Pretoria, Philip is very rare for his two grandchildren.

Owen was there when Roque got home, and the three men chatted in the study as usual.

The conversation certainly revolves around the railroad between Rhodes and Walvis Bay.

"I really don't know why you like to build railroads so much, and it's a deserted place like Georgetown, maybe you won't be able to recover the cost in a hundred years." Majority Leader Owen was not optimistic about Roque's proposal.

Georgetown is not far from the border between Bechuana and Southwest Africa, it is a city that has just been named, the scale of more than 2,000 people, it is not enough to say that it is a city, but Georgetown has the potential to develop into a transportation hub in Bechuana in the future, and now the railway between Rhodes and Georgetown is being built, and Roquet is also preparing to build a railway from Georgetown to Gator City.

Crocodile City, located between the Okavango Marshes and Lake Ngami, was home to more than 50,000 troops during the exercise, leaving behind a super-sized city and hundreds of square kilometers of security.

At least all the crocodiles in this area have been killed.

For Owen's sluggishness, both Roque and Philip are accustomed to it, so Philip doesn't bother to explain at all, or Roque's attitude is better: "If the railroad between Rhodes City and Walvis Bay is built, then it will take three days from Rhodes City to Walvis Bay, passing through Georgetown and Windhoek along the way, once war breaks out-"

"So you think the Germans will agree?" Owen is really sad for Southwest Africa, Germany still has the strength to engage in an arms race with the British government in Europe, and it is at a complete disadvantage in Africa, and the current situation in Southwest Africa is like a toddler facing a strong man who is eight feet tall and has a waist circumference of eight feet.

"If we come forward, Southwest Africa will definitely not agree, so it is the Americans who come forward." Roque knows how deep the feud between Southwest Africa and Southern Africa is that cannot be resolved in a sentence or two.

"Everybody knows that you found all those Americans." Owen is also speechless, and Roque often plays some seemingly useless little tricks, but they are very effective.

"The Americans are still very useful." Philip has seen Roque more and more pleasing to the eye in the past two years, and often laughs at his aunt.

"If Henry is here, he can answer your question." Roque didn't respond positively, and at this time he missed the tacit understanding with Henry.

"Be careful." Philip is still very well aware.

Roque nodded, and Owen was confused, neither of them could understand what Philip and Roque were saying.

It wasn't until Philip had left the study under the pretext of watching his grandson that Roque explained to Owen.

"The Germans need more steel-"

"What does this have to do with us?" Owen, of course, knew that Germany needed steel, and Britain had support from its colonies around the world, which was relatively easy, but Germany was very difficult.

This is also the basis for the United States, Germany and Britain engaged in an arms race, and a large part of the steel was bought from the United States.

"Favart." Roque was succinct and to the point.

"You want to buy steel for the Germans?" Owen was horrified, this was a real enemy.

"Whoever said that I was going to sell to the Germans, I was going to sell to the Americans-" Roque was right, it was definitely not possible to sell directly to the Germans, but it was no problem to sell it to the Americans, and as for who the United States sold the steel to after it bought it from Favart, then Roque didn't care.

"It's dangerous, be careful—" Owen's attitude was the same as Philip's attitude just now.

Working with the Germans was a dangerous thing, but if done correctly, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

It's the same as the French selling Miss 75 all over the world, thinking that Germany doesn't know Miss 75's performance.

In fact, it is all self-deception, Roque sold steel to the Americans, and he will definitely make demands to the Americans that steel cannot be resold to the Germans.

In fact, this kind of requirement is useless at all, and if you do a few more things, apply for a few shell companies, and do a few more procedures, Favart's steel will not even be shipped to the United States, and it can be sent directly to Germany.

This is also a source of confidence that Roque believes that South West Africa will agree to build a railway, and that the construction of a railway between Rhodes City and Walvis Bay will indeed pose a potential threat to South West Africa.

But will the threat disappear if the railroad is not built?

No, with or without a railway, the threat still exists, the straight-line distance from Cape Town to Walvis Bay is about the same as the straight-line distance from Rhodes City to Walvis Bay, and Georgetown is only 600 kilometers away from Walvis Bay.

Compared with the tense border situation, there was a lot of harmony at dinner.

Philip lives on a manor house on the outskirts of Pretoria, and the smile on Philip's face never disappears at a huge long dining table that can seat twenty people at a time.

After dinner, Roque and Philip went for a walk in the garden, which was the time for the two to really communicate freely.

"You still have to control the point, there are more and more Chinese in southern Africa, and some people have already described southern Africa as a colony of the Chinese, so you have to pay attention to the influence." Philip was blunt and didn't need to be named, and Roque knew who was making a big fuss.

"What else can we do? With such a large country, such a small population, and no more whites willing to emigrate, if the Chinese are not introduced, then southern Africa will become an African country sooner or later. Roque also bluntly said that such a small number of whites in southern Africa, relying on natural reproduction, will not develop in a hundred years.

Population is the basis of everything, it is possible with talents, and everything is impossible without people.

Although Roque continues to immigrate, there is still a huge human resource gap in southern Africa, not to mention, the farms in southern Africa are hundreds of thousands of acres at every turn, the area is indeed large, but to develop and utilize it can also exhaust people to death, and now the development of farms in the Transvaal and Nyasaland is better, the farms in Rhodesia are seriously underdeveloped, and the farms in the Cape have existed for hundreds of years, but they are still mainly grazing, really those farmers don't know how to grow alfalfa? It's just too busy.

The industry in southern Africa also needs a large number of workers, arsenals, shipyards, automobile factories, and engine factories are currently running at full capacity, but they are still unable to meet the market demand, if they can, Roque also wants to replace all the miners in Johannesburg and Favart with their own people, but it really can't be done, in the final analysis, there is still a lack of people, if there is enough population in southern Africa, Roque will move all Africans in southern Africa to the Kingdom of Mozambique, let them play by themselves, The new king can marry 10,000 wives.

"It's much better now than it was before, at least the Boers are honestly in Orange, the unrest in the federal government has to be cleared one by one, and the arms race in Europe will definitely end with a world war of unprecedented proportions, and we will carry out a clean-up operation before the war breaks out." Philip was as worried, and his heart was as heavy as the cloudy sky.

Roque knew what Philip was referring to, but Roque also needed an opportunity, and it was better to force some people to jump out.