02-02-2020, 05:06 AM
Madam Speaker,
The attack upon, and seeming occupation of, the island of Togofaga by the Iron Company, is an affront to sovereignty of all Euran powers. While it is true that technically Togofaga is a colonial settlement, the Florians are by far the least heinous of those who have staked claims upon our sacred Euran Fatherland. Indeed, the settlement of the Aldurians along our Euran shores would not have been possible without the ties of amity and commerce linking the coastal cities of Alkhiva with the Apollonian mainland. The attacks by the Iron Company, whose piratical fleet was funded by the systematic looting of state treasuries around the globe, represent a direct threat to our international trade.
The Iron Company, backed by sovereign power and a pernicious global ideology, has established a controlling influence over the government of the Norfolk Isles, and by the barbarically reckless use of a biological weapon of mass destruction, has taken Port Farrar out of commission, and, by establishing a strong cruising squadron in the Dyre Straits, threatens Alduria's remaining trade with the Jingdaoese treaty ports and with our Natopian friends on Tapfer also.
The Iron Company's reputation for reckless aggression is well established. It has sponsored rebellions in Elwynn and Shireroth, engaged in the wholesale destruction of a Ralgonese port, and plundered the rice harvest of Palesmenia. Still more legendary are the stories of its boundless corruption and avarice; the state coffers of first Shireroth, and then Batavia, were systematically plundered by Iron Company placemen and the misdirected revenues employed in the building up of the monstrous Iron Fleet whose activities are now such a peril to global trade and world peace. That the Iron Company has overreached in its greed can be seen in how it has been hounded from pillar to post. The Jingdaoese closed their ports to the Iron Company in 1642, the Ralgonese doing likewise in 1675 with the Raspur Pact followed suit in the following year. The "Verionist Vespers", triggered by the great calamity that Verionist mismanagement visited upon the land of Elsenar, saw the Iron Company's network of trade and influence dismantled in eastern Benacia. In Batavia today also, representatives of the law are proceeding with quiet determination to unravel the web of corruption spun by Iron Company agents during the preceding ministry there.
The beast is wounded and at bay, it may not even be long for this world, but a wounded animal, lashing out in primal rage, and with no concern for consequences beyond immediate survival, represents a profound danger to those caught in its path, as Alduria is by its proximity to the present theatre of war. Do not imagine that we can preserve ourselves from the present calamity by recourse to the tried and tested maxims of neutrality, for the beast has us already marked amongst the ranks of its "oppressors". Already Alduria has been obliged to make a display of strength and collective solidarity with its neighbours to deter efforts at closing those international shipping lanes. Our stand against the machinations of the sickly vicious beast has determined our standing in its worldview, a grotesque one which divides the nations and peoples of the world into two categories - predators and prey; the former it seeks to tear down out of fear, the latter it seeks to destroy purely out of hunger and exultation for the kill. By having stood against the animal before, it marks us as an enemy and will work for our undoing.
There are times when a wounded and cornered animal can be calmed by consoling words and kind gestures, sufficient as to allow those possessed of a generous spirit to render aid and so ensure that the beast causes no further harm to others or to itself. But when you are dealing with a rabid dog, its lips frothing with its own demented spittle and the freshly shed blood of blameless innocents, the only humane and rational recourse is to the rifle. I urge you my fellow delegates, for the defence of our people and our homeland, and for the defence of the rules based international order we wish to see born into existence, now is the time to set aside kindly thoughts and take up the gun, without malice, but with a firm resolve to do good for the world.
So how then does the Raspur Pact represent the best armament for us to take up in our own defence? Put simply it is an association of free and sovereign nations brought together for mutual defence, collective security, and the promotion of free trade. The forces at its disposal are formidable, the markets it would give us access to are vast - especially in Elwynn and Natopia - and global. Moreover our friends and neighbours in Constancia, with whom we share a common interest in the protection of freedom of navigation upon the high seas, are firm and fast members of the Pact, and we can do much to aid them and them to aid us, without this representing a diminishment of our sovereignty. Indeed, by acceding to the Pact we would benefit from the resources allocated to the Euran continental theatre command, acting as a force multiplier for our own navy.
Let us be clear - we need those forces, and access to the vast shipbuilding and manufacturing capacity of the Pact also, for the threat of piracy will remain the bane of our ocean going trade even when the last ship of the Iron Fleet is inevitably sent to rest at the bottom of the ocean. A vast pirate concern, tolerated, I am sad to say, by our friends in the USSO, operates in the coastal waters of Eura and daily attempts to compete with the Iron Company in causing the greatest harassment and harm to the merchant-shipping of our Florian friends. Now we have been assured in the past that Aldurian vessels would not be targeted out of respect for our neutrality, but the Bassarids themselves admit that these "prohibitions are not always obeyed by specific captains or crews". The fact remains therefore that the only cure for piracy is a fair trial and (ideally) the hangman's noose. With the USSO taking no steps against piracy, we must look to the Raspur Pact to help us in restoring the rule of law in the international waters which are, as I need not remind you, the primary conduit of our trade, the lifeblood upon which our prosperity and freedom depends.
The attack upon, and seeming occupation of, the island of Togofaga by the Iron Company, is an affront to sovereignty of all Euran powers. While it is true that technically Togofaga is a colonial settlement, the Florians are by far the least heinous of those who have staked claims upon our sacred Euran Fatherland. Indeed, the settlement of the Aldurians along our Euran shores would not have been possible without the ties of amity and commerce linking the coastal cities of Alkhiva with the Apollonian mainland. The attacks by the Iron Company, whose piratical fleet was funded by the systematic looting of state treasuries around the globe, represent a direct threat to our international trade.
The Iron Company, backed by sovereign power and a pernicious global ideology, has established a controlling influence over the government of the Norfolk Isles, and by the barbarically reckless use of a biological weapon of mass destruction, has taken Port Farrar out of commission, and, by establishing a strong cruising squadron in the Dyre Straits, threatens Alduria's remaining trade with the Jingdaoese treaty ports and with our Natopian friends on Tapfer also.
The Iron Company's reputation for reckless aggression is well established. It has sponsored rebellions in Elwynn and Shireroth, engaged in the wholesale destruction of a Ralgonese port, and plundered the rice harvest of Palesmenia. Still more legendary are the stories of its boundless corruption and avarice; the state coffers of first Shireroth, and then Batavia, were systematically plundered by Iron Company placemen and the misdirected revenues employed in the building up of the monstrous Iron Fleet whose activities are now such a peril to global trade and world peace. That the Iron Company has overreached in its greed can be seen in how it has been hounded from pillar to post. The Jingdaoese closed their ports to the Iron Company in 1642, the Ralgonese doing likewise in 1675 with the Raspur Pact followed suit in the following year. The "Verionist Vespers", triggered by the great calamity that Verionist mismanagement visited upon the land of Elsenar, saw the Iron Company's network of trade and influence dismantled in eastern Benacia. In Batavia today also, representatives of the law are proceeding with quiet determination to unravel the web of corruption spun by Iron Company agents during the preceding ministry there.
The beast is wounded and at bay, it may not even be long for this world, but a wounded animal, lashing out in primal rage, and with no concern for consequences beyond immediate survival, represents a profound danger to those caught in its path, as Alduria is by its proximity to the present theatre of war. Do not imagine that we can preserve ourselves from the present calamity by recourse to the tried and tested maxims of neutrality, for the beast has us already marked amongst the ranks of its "oppressors". Already Alduria has been obliged to make a display of strength and collective solidarity with its neighbours to deter efforts at closing those international shipping lanes. Our stand against the machinations of the sickly vicious beast has determined our standing in its worldview, a grotesque one which divides the nations and peoples of the world into two categories - predators and prey; the former it seeks to tear down out of fear, the latter it seeks to destroy purely out of hunger and exultation for the kill. By having stood against the animal before, it marks us as an enemy and will work for our undoing.
There are times when a wounded and cornered animal can be calmed by consoling words and kind gestures, sufficient as to allow those possessed of a generous spirit to render aid and so ensure that the beast causes no further harm to others or to itself. But when you are dealing with a rabid dog, its lips frothing with its own demented spittle and the freshly shed blood of blameless innocents, the only humane and rational recourse is to the rifle. I urge you my fellow delegates, for the defence of our people and our homeland, and for the defence of the rules based international order we wish to see born into existence, now is the time to set aside kindly thoughts and take up the gun, without malice, but with a firm resolve to do good for the world.
So how then does the Raspur Pact represent the best armament for us to take up in our own defence? Put simply it is an association of free and sovereign nations brought together for mutual defence, collective security, and the promotion of free trade. The forces at its disposal are formidable, the markets it would give us access to are vast - especially in Elwynn and Natopia - and global. Moreover our friends and neighbours in Constancia, with whom we share a common interest in the protection of freedom of navigation upon the high seas, are firm and fast members of the Pact, and we can do much to aid them and them to aid us, without this representing a diminishment of our sovereignty. Indeed, by acceding to the Pact we would benefit from the resources allocated to the Euran continental theatre command, acting as a force multiplier for our own navy.
Let us be clear - we need those forces, and access to the vast shipbuilding and manufacturing capacity of the Pact also, for the threat of piracy will remain the bane of our ocean going trade even when the last ship of the Iron Fleet is inevitably sent to rest at the bottom of the ocean. A vast pirate concern, tolerated, I am sad to say, by our friends in the USSO, operates in the coastal waters of Eura and daily attempts to compete with the Iron Company in causing the greatest harassment and harm to the merchant-shipping of our Florian friends. Now we have been assured in the past that Aldurian vessels would not be targeted out of respect for our neutrality, but the Bassarids themselves admit that these "prohibitions are not always obeyed by specific captains or crews". The fact remains therefore that the only cure for piracy is a fair trial and (ideally) the hangman's noose. With the USSO taking no steps against piracy, we must look to the Raspur Pact to help us in restoring the rule of law in the international waters which are, as I need not remind you, the primary conduit of our trade, the lifeblood upon which our prosperity and freedom depends.