Chapter 695 Natal
Cape Town.
"The demands of the Transvaal are too excessive! Is this a naked threat to us?" Governor Bartle Freer was really angry at this group of brainless Boers.
Start a war with East Africa directly! Battle Freer felt that the Boers were not seeking war with East Africa, but were waging war against his immediate superior.
Bartelle Freer still has troubles that he cannot express, because the Orange Free State is still a British colony.
What would Britain do if the Transvaal launched a war against East Africa at this time? Ignore it? That is obviously impossible.
This is basically no different from a direct war between Britain and East Africa. After all, it was a fact that the Orange Free State was integrated into the Cape Colony.
So Bartle Freer could only accept the blackmail from the Transvaal.
"Tell those Transvaal people that you can provide them with military assistance, but it will only last for half a year, and they will have to solve the rest by themselves. Give them a hint that they will wait until Orange is free. After the state regains its independent state status, it can have 'independent' financial rights, especially taxation. Don't mention it any more. "
This is the limit of what Bartel Freer can do as governor. , after all, it is up to the Transvaal people to do the things that offend others.
As for the mine owners and businessmen of diamond and other resources, they just pay an extra tax. This money is enough for the Transvaal people to survive. The diamond business is a hugely profitable industry. Although East Africa has also been exporting in recent years, East Africans are as restrained as the British. After all, they can sell them at high prices. Who would sell these things as stones?
And there is no artificial diamond technology in this era, and the value of diamond is still very "valuable".
……
British Colony of Natal.
Pietermaritzburg is the capital of the Natal colony and the location of the Port of Natal. As soon as you hear the suffix of this place name, you know that it was once an important military fortress.
Of course, this glorious history can be traced back to the prosperous era of routes in the East Indian Ocean and Africa. It was the British who ended this prosperity.
At that time, Pietermaritzburg was an important stronghold on this route, echoing Cape Town. After all, the location of Cape Town Port could only clamp the Cape of Good Hope and could not radiate to the Mozambique Channel, an important international passage. .
Although the construction of the Suez Canal was promoted by the French, control is now in the hands of the British, so the Suez Canal has lowered the strategic position of the Natal colony, but now due to East African reasons, Pietermaritzburg The former port city was once again prosperous.
First of all, the new Hamburg Port City has driven the development of regional commodity trade, and secondly, the increase in the number of troops stationed here has driven the prosperity of the consumer market.
“Another ship arrived at Natal Port today. There are obviously more Indians on the streets, and many of them are soldiers. This is the most common method used by the British, using Indians as lackeys, but now The number of Indian servants in Natal is somewhat higher than expected. It is obvious that they are not to help the British manage the colony. After all, the colony does not need so many manpower to manage.”
"Now the Natal colony has almost turned into an Indian nest. There is no doubt that there are more Indians here than the indigenous people. The air is filled with the smell of curry and masala. It seems that the British have hoarded it here. There are many troops and a large number of Indian cannon fodder. "It is not that the agents of the National Defense and Security Service maliciously framed and slandered the Natal colony, but the catering business in the streets and alleys here is indeed very prosperous.
Most of the people doing business here are Indians, and the British cannot cook, and there are so many troops, so the food problem is solved by Indian cooks.
With the booming business, Indian restaurants and food stalls can be seen everywhere, but Indian catering also provides convenience to East African spies, because only Indian food here is slightly in line with the appetite of East Africans.
After all, many American cooks are black, and many of the dishes are created by black people. What good things can these primitive society guys make? This is similar to British Indian food, so there is no need to doubt the Anglo-Saxon People are born not to cook.
"The British garrison is increasing very slowly. If we didn't count the ships at the port every day, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to find any clues. Therefore, the British must want to be surprised in the future, and this conclusion must be sent back to the country."
"They used merchant ships to transport soldiers from India to the Natal colony in batches. I believe there should be similar operations in other places in Cape Town. Similar measures are taken, so it is difficult for us to know the results of the number of British troops and Indian servants in South Africa. This can only be investigated by our colleagues in Cape Town."
Cape Town is the only one. The core of the British in South Africa, like Natal, can only obey orders from Cape Town, so it is difficult for East Africa to gain other gains except watching the increasing number of Indians in Natal.
As for military intelligence and the like, that is the work of the East African Military Intelligence Agency. After all, the East African Defense and Security Agency is not yet mature, so it can only undertake some peripheral work.
This is not because the Military Intelligence Bureau is more powerful. To be honest, the work of the Military Intelligence Bureau is less technical than that of the National Defense and Security Bureau. After all, they can only serve the war, while the National Defense and Security Bureau's business scope is wider and proactive. Stronger sex.
East Africa rarely allows espionage personnel to perform dangerous missions, because espionage personnel need a lot of experience to feed them, and East Africa's short history makes it unable to afford the loss of talents of this special nature.
In this case, the East African Defense and Security Bureau's chances of meritorious service are greatly reduced, but the victory lies in safety. After all, they are not without opponents. There are some intelligence organizations in the hands of some forces in this world.
Some of them can even be traced back hundreds of years, so they have trained many old foxes. These intelligence agents in East Africa have not yet reached the time to fight with them.
“There must be our people in Cape Town, but I don’t know how the development will be, but I think it should be easier than here. Natal is too close to East Africa, and there are many troops here, so the British The crackdown on spies is also much stronger than that of Cape Town.”
After all, Cape Town is not at the forefront of the confrontation. On the other hand, opposite the Natal Colony is New Hamburg, one of the largest cities in East Africa, and the Port of New Hamburg. There are troops stationed in East Africa, so East Africa will definitely collect information about the British army in Natal. This is the consensus of the British Army.
Europe lacks professional and relatively independent intelligence agencies, but intelligence agencies affiliated with the military are indispensable. The benchmark is the Military Intelligence Agency in East Africa, and what is really lacking is the East African Defense and Security Agency.
However, Japan should have relatively strong intelligence agencies. This is most felt by Japan’s East African Defense and Security Bureau. Moreover, Japanese culture is deeper than that of Europe. They are familiar with Sun Tzu’s Art of War and other works on the Far Eastern Empire, and they are not tired of deceit and conspiracy. Traditional solutions like this are just that in this era.
Of course, the Japanese intelligence agencies mainly focused on dealing with the Far East Empire, while the East African Defense and Security Agency took the opportunity to conduct sneak attacks on the Japanese mainland. The two intelligence agencies became parallel lines and rarely intersected. This can be regarded as an accidental attack. Hit by mistake.
(End of this chapter)