Chapter 730: Refugee Camps

  Chapter 713 Refugee Camp

The difficulties encountered in the immigration work did not come as a surprise to Franz. It was an inevitable result that could not be stopped by individual will.

There were millions of refugees in the Polish region, and with the Russians unable to provide relief, there were only two options for maintaining local stability: deportation or massacre.

The only option available to the Russians was expulsion, not because the tsarist government did not have the courage to raise the butcher’s knife, but mainly because the butcher’s knife together would inevitably invite the international community to intervene.

It was now the late 19th century, and the rules of the game had already been laid down, and a wilful breach of them would inevitably lead to rejection by the European world.

Peak period of the Russian Empire is naturally not afraid of offending the European world, now is not the same as the Russo-Prussian War has not yet ended, the tsarist government does not want to be diplomatically isolated, we must abide by the rules of the game.

The Russian army began to expel the refugees, Austria’s immigration work will naturally be affected, even if the tsarist government full cooperation, it is still the same, the Russian soldiers can not go to identify each and every refugee.

In these times of military chaos and unchanging communications, no matter how hard the Immigration Department tried, it was impossible to notify everyone.

There was little that the Immigration Department could do except to set up fixed points of emigration in the cities, and even leaving the cities had to be done with care.

There was no social order in the world outside the city, and the bandits didn’t care if you were Austrian or not, they all treated you the same – robbery.

Putting down the telegram in his hand, Franz said as if nothing had happened: “Things have come to this, no matter what we do will not help.

Immigration difficulties are caused by force majeure, not a person’s responsibility, can not complete the previous plan, do not need to be accountable.

Tell the Polish regional staff to keep themselves safe. Try to get the Russians to send soldiers to protect them when traveling, and the Foreign Ministry will be responsible for coordinating this.”

Austria has a set of perfect assessment and accountability system, officials do a good job is the performance, will be used as the main reference basis for promotion and advancement; on the contrary, if you can not complete the task, you need to be accountable, if there is a problem basically career is over.

However, there are exceptions to the rule, if the force majeure, and officials are not obvious personal fault, the same does not need to take responsibility.

Undoubtedly, what happened in Poland belongs to force majeure, the Government of Vienna can not stop, let alone the following staff?

With such a good opportunity, Franz naturally had to buy people’s hearts. Words of concern, not only to those officials in Poland, but also to the domestic officials.

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Foreign Minister Weissenberg replied.

Prime Minister Felix: “Your Majesty, a large number of refugees have gathered on the Polish border and want to cross into Austria.

Many refugees have crossed the mountains and sneaked into the country through the mountains. From the outbreak of the Russo-Polish War until now, the border guards have apprehended more than 100,000 illegal border crossers.

This situation has become even worse especially since the Russians began to expel the refugees, and every day thousands of refugees are caught deliberately breaking through the border.”

Illegal border crossings were a problem that plagued the Vienna government from the outbreak of the Russo-Prussian War, and the actual situation was much worse than Felix makes it out to be.

It also involves a historical legacy; there are a lot of people who are involved in the Austro-Polish border, and many of the refugees who illegally cross the border have local populations who provide them with cover.

On top of that, there is a large number of illegal immigrant organizations that exist. These organizations are in control of unknown mountain trails and organize the smuggling of refugees from the Polish regions.

There is no doubt that these organizations are out to make a profit. Those who have money pay smuggling fees, and those who don’t directly arrange to enter black factories, or maybe construction sites.

According to Austrian court statistics, more than 76% of the offenses in the border area are caused by illegal immigrants.

The Government of Vienna naturally wanted to combat such criminal activities, which seriously jeopardized Austria’s social order.

Unfortunately, it has had little effect, and illegal immigrant organizations are like leeks, with one crop soon to be followed by another.

In contrast, the illegal immigrants who have joined their friends and relatives are a bit more peaceful. Most of them are hiding in the countryside, and their friends and relatives will try to arrange their livelihood.

After a few years of learning the Austrian language, most of them apply for naturalization. The way to do this was simple: they would go to the border and pretend to be citizens of Poland, and there were so many German states that there was no way to check them.

Well, the latter was the result of the Vienna government turning a blind eye.

Reality is so, sometimes it is hard to get confused, people themselves say they are Germans, the government naturally lazy to go deeper. Otherwise, the proportion of Austria’s main ethnic groups would not have been on the rise.

In Galicia, where Germans were less than one-tenth of the population in 1848, the percentage rose to 38.6% in 1880, surpassing Poles and Ukrainians to become the largest ethnic group.

Under normal circumstances this could not have happened, yet in reality it did. What happened in between, Franz doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know.

What seemed like self-deception actually worked. People were actively integrating in, their identity was completely unquestionable, and they were going to be in a hurry with anyone who questioned their nation.

Essentially, the European nation is a mess, most of the nationalities are later artificially split out, the 19th century is Europe’s last chance for national integration.

The massive influx of refugees into Austria was a foregone conclusion, and anyone who knew that the Kingdom of Prussia was no match for the Russians and ran behind the Kingdom of Prussia had to go through war.

In addition to the Kingdom of Prussia, and Poland bordering on Russia and Austria are left, as long as there is no living tired, will not run to Russia, then only to Austria.

If the Russian army had not intentionally pushed the refugees towards the Kingdom of Prussia, there might have been more running to Austria.

In a sense, those who run to the Austro-Prussian border now are either the lucky ones or the smart ones.

It was not safe to run to Prussia, and it was not certain that relief would be forthcoming. The same cannot be said for Austria, where the Russian army, no matter how brutal, will not mess with the border area.

Under normal circumstances, the Russians would stop as soon as they entered the default buffer zone between the two sides.

When you get here you can muddle through, just try to muddle through, you can’t get through but you can still illegally break in, just be smart enough to surrender when you see the defenders, and the pipers will be there.

As for the future?

Why think so much, right now or first survive.

Austria is a lawful country, as long as it is not violent, if caught, there are only two results, prison and exile.

After pondering for a while, Franz slowly said: “Establish temporary refugee camps in the border areas, and the number of people breaking through the border will increase. Not only the Austro-Polish border, but also the Austro-Prussian border will become a high incidence of refugee influx next.

I’m afraid the number of refugees this time will be astronomical, there’s no chance that our prisons won’t be able to hold them. Throwing them all in the colonies will be a big problem to manage.

Prime Minister, what big projects need to be built in the country, there’s just a batch of free labor coming to our door right now, we can’t waste it.”

The most important thing in a country governed by the rule of law was to obey the law. No matter how many refugees there were, as long as they crossed the border illegally, those who should be arrested should still be arrested, and those who should be imprisoned should still be imprisoned.

This was a matter of principle, and Franz would not break the rules. The fact that he was willing to pay for the establishment of a refugee camp was already a sign of his conscience, and there was no such thing as gratuitous relief for refugees from other countries these days.

Prime Minister Felix: “The Ludwig Canal (the predecessor of the Main-Donau Canal) in the Bavarian region is no longer sufficient to meet the demand, and the government is studying whether to expand it.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to build fifty large and medium-sized reservoirs in the next ten years; the Ministry of Railways plans to build the Circum-Arabian Peninsula Railway and the Middle East Railway; and the Ministry of Electricity is ready to push ahead with plans for hydroelectric power plants, planning to increase the proportion of hydroelectricity, from the current 0.3% to 8.5% in the next ten years ……”

A series of big plans made Franz feel as if he was back in the era of the Austrian Great Construction. But he was well aware that it was markedly different.

Back then, Austria was engaged in infrastructure construction with the efforts of the whole country, and now these plans, although huge, only require the government to invest a portion of its energy to be sufficient.

Canal expansion, the construction of reservoirs, the problem of these projects are centered on the “money”, the technology does not have any difficulty.

The same cannot be said of the railroad project and the hydroelectric power plant, which, in addition to economic problems, also have technical problems.

Austria has experience in building railroads in the desert, but only for short distances; this time, it is a completely different level to build desert railroads of hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.

Hydroelectric power stations are relatively simple, and only relatively so. The reason for this is very simple: hydroelectric power plant technology has just been born and is still in the experimental stage.

This can be seen from the amount of electricity generated, hydropower only accounts for only three thousandths of the total amount of electricity generated, almost negligible.

Most of the rivers in Europe have a relatively small drop, which undoubtedly increases the difficulty of utilizing hydroelectricity, if not for the large number of rivers in Austria, it is estimated that no one would even think of promoting hydroelectricity.

Franz asked, “Have the technical problems of the desert railroad been solved?”

Do not ask about hydroelectric power plant technology, that is because most of the construction of hydroelectric power plants in Austria is private investment, capitalists are more shrewd than anyone else, the business of losing money will not be done.

Prime Minister Felix replied, “It has been initially solved, the Ministry of Railways plans to build sand forests, planting shrubs, date palms, poplars, and sand-fixing herbaceous plants on both sides of the railroad.

Considering the threat of sandstorms, desert roads will be built first in areas where sandstorms are frequent, and no railroads will be built for the time being. These issues need to be taken into account mainly for feeder railroads further inland.

The Middle East Railway and the railroad around the Arabian Peninsula to pass through the region, most of the areas are desert areas, many areas to be affected by the wind and sand, and is not a real desert, sand forests are already enough.

We have already made attempts, and so far the effect is good, as long as it does not catch up with the big sandstorms, can play a very good protective effect, just need a little long time.”

Franz nodded, these days the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula were not as devastated as in later times, especially after Austria occupied these areas, it also implemented policies such as land fallow and banning animal husbandry at the first opportunity to protect the natural environment.

“Proceed according to the plan, these free laborers, the government is responsible for the distribution of reasonable use, send language teachers for indoctrination.

Remember to kick out the outlaws in here first, the rest depends on individual performance, those who perform well can be treated slightly better, and activists can end their labor service early.

After the end of the labor service, they are allowed to leave freely, and those who are willing to stay will be paid normal labor wages.

Refugees carrying family members who are old and weak can be given some preferential treatment and resettled in areas with better conditions as much as possible.”

Preferential treatment of the elderly and weak is not Franz Madonna, able to carry the family together with the fleeing, the character will not be poor to where, there is a family drag, this part of the people tend to be the most easy to assimilate.

……

(End of chapter)