The Dragon

[Desertfox]

Phoenix Daily Star, November 8th

Heroism in Taiwan! The lies of the Middle Kingdom never cease to amaze. Opression? Ask any man, woman, or children in Taiwan, they will tell you who the opressors really are, and not with words but with actions. The civilians of Taiwan faced with the Chinese Menace did not ask for relief, they took matters into their own hands and attacked the true oppresors. 

Fighting for their very own homes and families, these men, womem, and even children, most of them Chinese themselves drove back the invaders, in heavy hand to hand combat. Their heroism is not in doubt, and let those who make war on New Switzerland notice, if attacked we will fighting with everything in our power.


Some of the women.


Women militia practicing


Militia in Taipei

As to the charges of Chlorine,a broken phosporous shell is a long way from a 'Horendous Chlorine Attack'. The chinese sure have a good imagination.

[Desertfox]

November 2nd

Bumbling Germans shoot Chinese! The heroic defenders of Taiwan salute the crew of the Battleship Schanhorts for their contributions to the defense of Taiwan. If only Schanhorts had had the courtesy to stay a while longer. No matter the people of Taiwan will always remember Schanhorts.


November 24th

Invasion? We don't think so. Fishermen have commented on the strange crisom color of the seas around Hainan, and a lot of women in China wait for husbands who wont return. Yes the Chinese 'Invasion' of Hainan ended where it began, on the shores of the islands as the invaders where driven into the sea at the point of a bayonet.


November 27th

The Chinese don't learn, do they? They 'Invaded' again only to be driven back into the waves. How many times will they have to be driven into the sea to learn not to mess with NS? The machine gun and the bayonet await the next Chinese 'Invasion'.

[Desertfox]

December 28th

Barbarians! When will the World awake to the danger possed by the Middle Kingdom? A clearly marked (Green Cross) Hospital Ship, bound for Taiwan with food and medicine for the suffering population, was boarded by Chinese forces and several hundred tons of food and medical supplies where dumped overboard. What action can be more barbaric than that? When they don't even respect the international smbol of peace?

[maddox]

The ship still floats???
Then the green cross works. Great  TB protection if you ask me.

[Desertfox]

January 3rd

Can any more lies come from the mouth of the Middle Kingdom? They have the gall to blame the victim for the acts of the agressor. Well they might be right, maybe that food was destined for combatants, that's if you consider the entire population to be such, which they might soon be due to their starving condition so well exemplified and directly due to the Chinese actions. Neutral observers can speak for the Swiss, can they speak for the Chinese?

[miketr]

Iberia can confirm the New Swiss story in part.

1)   Starting on December 6th Swiss Hospital Ships made call at Manila and the ships captain told the Iberian customs service to inspect his ship for weapons.  Per the treaty of Madrid 1905 New Switzerland shipping has free access to Iberian ports so normally no inspection would be done frankly and the reports received were less than what would be done otherwise.  As such the Imperial Government is not willing to state without reservations that the Swiss ships are carrying nothing but medical supplies, food and other humanitarian aid for Hainan and Taiwan.  That said our inspectors didn't find anything.  The ships captain said his orders were to halt and obey any inspection order given by any party.

2)   Within a week there were at least six hospital ships on the run and the Governor General for the Philippines order the inspectors to stop checking the ships and return to there normal duties.

3)   Iberia received reports from the Swiss Ships and one patrol of Iberian Torpedo Boats that the Navy of the Middle Kingdom was stopping and inspecting the ships.

4)   Around December 26th Iberia received reports the Middle Kingdom boarding parties were dumping food with the exception of such items as powdered milk for infants.  The Imperial Government has received no reports of medical supplies being dumped however.  An Iberian naval officer was told by a Middle Kingdom naval officer, "We are not thieves or pirates so we don't ship goods away to sell them."  The reason we have been informed is because that food stuffs cannot be assured of going to the Swiss Army.

It is clear to the Iberian Government that the Middle Kingdom has established an effective blockade of Hainan and Taiwan.  It's also clear that New Switzerland defacto accepts this as being true by its use of Hospital ships.

[The Rock Doctor]

An effective blockade by the Middle Kingdom implies a loss of sea control by the Swiss:  not good news for them.

[The Rock Doctor]

"Gran Colombia would, itself, interpret the Third Den Haag Convention to read that a hospital ship is intended to evacuate wounded personnel to friendly territory.  Such a ship would be expected to carry aboard itself foodstuffs adequate for its crew and embarked wounded for the duration of the voyage - plus a reasonable reserve for contingencies.  Gran Colombia does not view a hospital ship as an appropriate means of transporting food and supplies to a civilian population, but that is our own interpretation of the convention.

"Gran Colombia is aware from Swiss news reports that the civilian population, including children, has risen to combat Middle Kingdom troops.  This puts the population's status as civilians in question, and Gran Colombia concedes that cutting off the flow of foodstuffs to an actively combative civilian population is not an unreasonable action on the part of the Middle Kingdom.

"To Gran Colombian eyes, it seems the most humanitarian course of action would be for Swiss and Middle Kingdom authorities to negotiate a surrender of Taiwan and the evacuation by New Switzerland of such inhabitants as wish to leave the island.  To this end, Gran Colombia offers the services of its diplomatic corps."

[Desertfox]

Well I had other ideas in mind for the hospital ship, however that didnt work out as planned.

But China has not declared an official blockade, and irrespective of that food is not contraband, so if say Iberia wanted to ship food to Taiwan the Chinese would be powerless to stop such shipments per International Law.

Roky, the evacuation of 5 million people?

[P3D]

Good luck to find the necessary amount of shipping. Currently the passenger tonnage avaliable on the market is ferrying Holland/DKB/Swiss/Austrian/French/Italian troops all across the oceans*. The rest is just delivering passengers for exorbitant prices.

And evacuating 5 million Taiwanese would require several years. Unless you are willing to evacuate them to the closest land (mainland China). Even so, a lot of them would not agree to leave (those with property). The irrealistic evacuation of Shanghai and Tsingtao, won't happen here again.

*: every nation has access to enough shipping to carry one full corps with combat loading. Anything more must be build specifically for the purpose (e.g. Austrian troopships).

[Desertfox]

I perfectly understand the implications, hence the question. And they certainly would not be going back to China, that's why they are in Taiwan in the first place.

[maddox]

When does the Middle Kingdom declares anything to the New Swiss?

The last real declaration was the one that stipulated the genocide and utter deletion of New Switserland as a country, and the Swiss as a people.

[The Rock Doctor]

That's an in-character response, Foxy. 

Fact is, evacuating several million people would probably collapse your economy.  Think how much trouble there was with New Orleans; that was with about one-twentieth of the people, in the most prosperous nation in the world, in a situation of comparative peace.

My own view is that it sounds like New Switzerland has lost the battle for Taiwan.  The Middle Kingdom can afford to play a game of blockade and attrition; New Switzerland can't - it's got other enemies to deal with.  Throw in the towel on that front, and concentrate on winnable battles elsewhere.

[Desertfox]

From an OOC perspective that's my best choice as I can defeat the Dutch/Germans/Austrians combined, but not MK at the same time, also Taiwan has not economic or strategic value at this time.

However can NS afford to abandon what is essentially an ally? Especially when Im courting Siam and NZ. What about the humanitarian cost? What will happen to the 6 million population of the island, Chinese who hate the MK? Holocaust early?

Techniclly the MK has attacked a neutral and independant nation (RoC) without cause. In fact some NPCs have done more militarly to the NS war effort that the RoC has done.


As for the IC response:

"NS accepts GC offer and is ready to begin negotiations."

[The Rock Doctor]

Warfare is about hard decisions.  In your case, it's a decision about bleeding an enemy versus dragging out the suffering of an ally.  In the case of Siam and New Zion, it's a question of possible reward versus the risk of suffering the same fate as Taiwan.  They have to look out for themselves, first and foremost, and getting involved in the Swiss war may not ultimately be a better decision than staying neutral.

Kindly tell me what date NS accepts the Colombian offer, so that the Middle Kingdom can then be contacted.

Mods - some clarification on Taiwan's pre-war status would be useful.