African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1410: Chapter 5: London Naval Conference_3

London.

The London World Naval Conference, led by the United Kingdom, was formally convened. In addition to European countries such as the UK, France, Germany, and Austria, extraterritorial powers like East Africa, the United States, and Japan were also invited.

Aside from Russia, which was unable to attend due to special reasons, this world naval conference was essentially an internal meeting of the imperialist powers. Even if other countries wanted to participate, they simply did not have the national strength for it—after all, only imperialist countries had the capability to engage in a naval arms race on a scale sufficient to reshape the world’s maritime order.

”Mr. Bruce, why are you East Africans wearing masks over your mouths?”

Outside the venue, the East Africa delegation was particularly eye‑catching, because every one of them was wearing a mask, making them stand out sharply from the crowd.

Bruce said, ”We heard there’s been an outbreak of plague in Europe recently, so this is a recommendation from our medical staff. They said this might have some effect.”

”Heh, even if there really is a plague, what use can a rag do? I’d still advise your people to take off such conspicuous things!” the staffer said.

Masks, or rather masks specifically used in the field of medical hygiene, had in fact not been around for very long. In the previous world there was a saying that modern medical masks originated in the Far East Empire.

Of course, in Ernst’s timeline, the country that invented medical masks was naturally East Africa. From the colonial period on, East Africans had grown accustomed to wearing masks when dealing with large‑scale infectious diseases.

Medical masks were an essential item in East African medical institutions, and in East African hospitals, medical staff wearing masks were a very common sight.

But Europe today was a different story. Many people did not believe masks had any use; this was even the mainstream opinion among European medical personnel. Or rather, in the past they simply had never seen doctors practicing medicine while wearing masks.

Bruce, on the other hand, was not affected in the least. He said, ”No need, but thank you for your concern. Just treat this as a kind of East African custom.” 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

He couldn’t even be bothered to explain to these people. In fact, if this affair were not particularly important, Bruce and the other East Africans would have been very reluctant to attend this conference.

After all, gathering in this London ”epidemic zone” meant there was a high probability they would be caught up in the European influenza.

Bruce and the others were quite convinced by the notices issued by medical institutions back home; after all, those drew on decades of accumulated East African experience.

In the previous century, East Africa had been a country where plagues were relatively rampant and widespread, and facts had proven that when an epidemic broke out, only by paying attention to hygiene, wearing masks, disinfecting, and so on—a combination of measures—could one best protect one’s own safety.

Of course, the behavior of Bruce and his colleagues inevitably drew pointing fingers from the various delegations; for a time, it was as if the East Africans had become a laughingstock.

Quite a few East African participants were livid, but Bruce reassured them: ”Let’s just do our job and ignore what they think. Back when I was fighting in Africa we ran into some epidemics. Some comrades were just like them, but in the end it turned out that only by following the advice from the medical authorities could you avoid certain risks. Those who refused to listen were the ones who went to hell early—they didn’t die on the battlefield.”

Bruce was a soldier, so he inevitably ran into some special situations—after all, epidemics breaking out on the battlefield were a constant feature, something very common in East Africa in the last century.

So Bruce’s experience in this regard was quite extensive. What’s more, the East African Army often undertook special missions, such as cordoning off epidemic zones, handling corpses of those who died from non‑natural causes like plagues, and so on.

Thus the East Africa delegates could only endure the gossip from the other countries and ignore the mockery in their words; this in turn provided the press from the United Kingdom and other countries with a fine batch of material.

For a time, East Africa became a global joke, adding comic relief to this London Naval Conference. Yet after Europe had been scourged by the influenza, they would no longer be able to laugh. Instead, those who mocked East Africa today would themselves become the punchline for future generations.