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.
Let's go to 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.
But Bartle Freer still has troubles to 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's 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 extortion 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 deal with the rest by themselves. Give them a hint that they will wait until the Orange Free State regains its identity as an independent country. , can have 'independent' financial rights, especially taxation, so don't mention it if it is superfluous."
This is the limit that Bartle Freer can do as governor-general. After all, it is the Transvaal people who have to do the things that offend others.
The British colony of Natal.
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Of course, this glorious history can be traced back to the prosperous era of the East Indian Ocean and African routes. 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 restrict the Cape of Good Hope and could not radiate to the Mozambique Channel, an important international passage.
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?
Furthermore, there is no artificial diamond technology in this era, and the value of diamonds is still very "valuable".
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 will know that this place was once an important military fortress.
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 Prosperity again.
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 led to 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 Indian servants in Natal The number of troops 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 quite a few troops and a large number of Indian cannon fodder." It's not that the agents of the National Defense 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 kind of good things can these primitive society guys make? This is similar to British Indian food, so there is no doubt that the Anglo-Saxons are not naturally good at cooking. meal.
"The British garrison is increasing very slowly. If we hadn't counted the ships at the port every day, we might not have found any clues about it. 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 measures in other places in Cape Town. Therefore, it is difficult for us to know the number of British troops in South Africa and the number of Indian servants. As a result, this was left to our colleagues at the City of Cape Town to investigate."
Cape Town is the core of the British people in South Africa. Natal can only obey the orders of 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 even 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 has a wider business scope and is more proactive.
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 Agency's chances of meritorious service are greatly reduced, but the advantage is 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 officers in East Africa have not yet reached the time to fight with them.
"We definitely have our people in Cape Town, but I don't know how it will develop, but I think it should be a little easier than here. Natal is too close to East Africa, and there are many troops here, so the British are not very strong in cracking down on spies. Much better than 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, as well as the East African garrison. Therefore, East Africa will definitely collect information about the British army in Natal. This is the British Army consensus.
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. They are not tired of deceit, conspiracy and other traditional solutions. , in this era, it is nothing more than.
Of course, the Japanese intelligence agencies mainly focused on dealing with the Far Eastern 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 collision.
(End of this chapter)