The farce that took place in Congress was soon reported on Roque's desk.

The result of the vote was indeed no surprise, 117 to 8, with 6 abstentions, and it was rejected without any suspense.

This is the current situation in southern Africa, the outbreak of the world war is imminent, the European countries are fierce, and southern Africa is still busy fighting for power.

"Progressives, hehe-" Xiao Si shook his head and smiled bitterly, the Progressive Party is a political party founded by Cecil Rhodes, and now it is degenerate, Dr. Starr Jameson is still alive, but it is no different from dead, the Progressive Party has completely escaped the control of Dr. Starr Jameson, and the number of seats in Congress is constantly decreasing, and even the 15 seats in Cape are not satisfied.

Southern Africa's parliamentary seats are theoretically divided according to the population of each state, and the Cape had the largest population at the time of the federal government, so it also had the largest 15 seats.

From the voting results, it can be seen that even the Cape parliamentarians did not support Edmund Gaunt 100%, and only had a pitiful eight votes in favor, which shows the confusion of the Cape.

In contrast, the Liberal Party has an overall advantage, and when the federal government was formed, the Liberal Party had to unite with the Progressive Party to gain power, and now even without the support of the Progressive Party, the Liberal Party has already won a majority of seats and has the right to form a separate government.

This is also the source of the conflict between Philip and Ade, this is an election year, and Ade and Philip are competing for the right to represent the Liberal Party in the Prime Minister's election, and no matter which of them wins, they can basically defeat the candidates of other parties without any suspense.

The Progressive Party's nomination for the prime minister's election is Edmund Gaunt, and Edmund Gaunt's approval rating can be seen from the vote.

Of course, the other parties have also put forward their own candidates, but the support is even lower, and if the Progressive Party loses with the other parties, there may be a slight chance of winning and fighting for a coalition government, but even then the chances are slim, and if the situation is serious, the Liberal Party can also choose to form a coalition with the Nyasaland Party.

"Leave this alone, how's the research on compressed biscuits going?" Roque doesn't care about the bad things in Congress, with Philip and Owen here, any proposal that is unfavorable to Roque cannot be passed, and Roque is now focusing all his energy on the organization of material supplies.

In the midst of the impending world war, Southern Africa had now defined its role as a European factory, providing the Allies with all the materials related to the war, weapons and equipment were important, as were textiles and food.

The textiles are mainly handled by the Johannesburg Textile Company, and the food side is the South African company of Xiaosi.

Prior to this, the South African company had produced luncheon meat, coffee, beverages, and various canned goods, but this was not enough, Roque also needed to compress biscuits to provide better supplies for the Allies.

Compressed biscuits are not an invention in southern Africa, compressed biscuits have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs more than 4,000 years ago, and now there are factories in Europe producing compressed biscuits, but the quality level is uneven, the taste is rough, the nutrition is insufficient, and the most important thing is that the shelf life is not long enough.

Think of how bad it must have been for the soldiers who had been fighting on the front line all day to find out that the compressed biscuits they were distributed were packets of stinking and bug-ridden garbage at mealtime.

So Roque asked the South African company to study compressed biscuits with a longer shelf life, better tasting, and nutritious biscuits, which was not Roque's private request, but a request made by Roque to the South African company on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

"According to your instructions, we have developed six flavors of compressed biscuits, namely green onion, beef, salt and pepper, barbecue, pineapple, and coffee, with a shelf life of more than two years, are you satisfied?" The South African company is efficient, but the engineers who developed the compressed biscuits have a strange idea, and it is understandable that the green onions, peppers, and salt are strange, and the barbecue coffee is wonderful.

"Two years?" Roque suspects that it has only been a few months since Roque put forward higher requirements for compressed biscuits, and he really doesn't know how this "two years" was determined.

"Engineers from the South African company found that the main reason why compressed biscuits spoiled was due to the oxidation of the oil, so we now use palm oil, and combined with the available information, the shelf life can definitely be extended to more than two years." Xiao Si is still very confident in his engineers, and the South African company may be the strongest food processing company in the world right now.

After the independence of the East Indias, South African companies immediately bought a large number of plantations in the East Indias, and along with spices, coffee, cocoa, cane sugar, and natural rubber, palm oil production was also high in the East Indias.

"Now we have formed a complete production line, each soldier is equipped with individual rations including luncheon meat, canned food, compressed biscuits, instant coffee, and nutritious and delicious chocolate, a single soldier ration can fully meet the nutritional needs of a soldier on the front line for a day, all the food included in this individually packaged individual ration has a shelf life of more than two years, the company has begun to organize large-scale production, I have prepared material warehouses in Port Edward and Walvis Bay, each warehouse can store five million copies." Xiao Si felt that five million servings was already an incomparably huge number, according to the needs of southern Africa, the two warehouses combined with 10 million servings, which could meet the consumption of the Northern Rhodesian Division and the First Cavalry Division for a year, but in Europe, by the middle and late stages of the world war, 10 million individual rations could only meet the consumption of the British army for two days.

And that's just the UK, France? What about Germany? What about Russia?

Forget it about the Russian army, it is estimated that Russia cannot afford it.

Fortunately, the production capacity of South African companies can continue to be tapped, and the Nyasaland military industrial complex has begun to go all out, and South African companies must also keep up with the rhythm.

Not only the Nyasaland Military-Industrial Group and the South African Company, but the horror of the mobilization order is that once it is issued, the whole society becomes a close-knit precision instrument, and all the materials of production and life have to serve the war effort.

Although Nyasaland and Rhodesia did not issue a mobilization order, the current situation is similar to the general mobilization, the automobile company in Nyasaland has begun to adjust the production line, after 1912 the new production line is all used to produce military cars, the tractor factory has also been urgently converted to the production of tanks, it does not matter if there are no orders for the time being, Roque hopes that when Europe needs it, only southern Africa in the world can provide the materials that Europe needs.

In this respect, southern Africa has a huge advantage that even the United States does not have, and although the industrial capacity of the United States is strong, it is impossible for the private enterprises of the United States to start mass production of certain goods that seem to be unsellable for the time being, without orders.

In this case, once the demand becomes a reality, the prepared southern African enterprises will be the only option, after all, the construction of factories and the training of skilled workers will take a long cycle, and it will take time for the industrial heritage to become a reality.

Kitchener's order for 2 million rifles represents that Britain is gradually shifting the focus of the arms race to the army, and even Britain, a traditional maritime country, has begun to attach importance to the army, which also means that the arms race has reached the point of bayonet red.

"Cecil, you underestimate the scale of the world war, five million copies are far from enough." Roque reminded Xiao Si to take precautions, unlike weapons, food is fast-moving consumer goods, not only the military has needs, but also civilians, if you don't prepare now, you will be caught off guard and give the opportunity to others.

"Then expand the size of the warehouse, if two is not enough, build ten-" Xiao Si also underestimated the intensity of the world war, this is not a skirmish between colonies, once it breaks out, it will be protracted, unless one side completely admits defeat.

Roque smiled and didn't speak, no matter how good the relationship was, Roque couldn't make decisions for Xiao Si, Roque said everything that should be said, and it was Xiao Si's business to listen or not.

Xiao Si was still very smart, and when he turned around, he decided to expand not only the size of the warehouse, but also the size of the food factory.

Like companies in Nyasaland and Rhodesia, companies in the Transvaal are starting to mobilize, and Johannesburg Textiles is researching winter clothing that goes far beyond the needs of southern Africa, and in addition to cotton and wool textiles, down from sheepskins, cowhides and poultry is also being used in large quantities, making clothes that are warmer, more expensive and more profitable.

The size of the pharmaceutical company is now five times larger than two years ago, starting from the Russo-Japanese War, after the Italian-Turkish War and the Balkan War, the pharmaceutical industry in southern Africa has increased significantly, the South African company has prepared individual rations for the Allied army, and the pharmaceutical company has prepared portable medical kits for the Allied army.

Measuring the size of a water bottle and weighing no more than two kilograms, each kit contains band-aids, tourniquets, bandages, trauma medicine, iodine, sutures, sewing needles, and cold medicine.

Roque does not ignore the threat of influenza, which is fatal in severe patients in the 21st century, and is more lethal in this era.

One such medical kit, priced at £1.5 to the outside world, can be of great use to a soldier when he or her comrades need it, as long as they know how to use simple battlefield first aid.

In addition to textiles and medicine, more businesses moved to the news, vodka factories switched to producing alcohol, camping tents were converted into makeshift field tents, and agricultural cooperatives everywhere once again bought and sold agricultural products, the last time this was in the immediate aftermath of the Boer War.

Since April, newspapers have been carrying out a series of propaganda about the situation in Europe, and everyone has felt so deeply that war is imminent, so much so that attention to the prime minister's election has declined.

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