Cassandra letters

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A series of letters from anonymous writer under the pen-name of Cassandra wrote a series of letters fuming wing anti-monarchist sentiment published in the Kaap Kourier. She was later identified as one influential politician of the Libertarians, working usually in the background - who is also an old personal friend of the president. These letters give a glimpse how a part of the Orange élite views the political events of the world.

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The first letter published October 29, 1901, was commenting on how the Austrian used the probably unsuspecting French to get their battlefleet to China, in order to attack New Switzerland.

Yet another vulture appeared over the struggling Asiatic republic of New Switzerland. The Spanish Empire, led by a monarch proved to be mentally unstable by his actions, decided to grab some more islands to sate their imperialistic hunger. The peace conference from the Austrian Empire seemed to be an altruistic move from the Habsburgs, but it turned out to be a cunningly well-planned measure to show their sheep-skin concealing the rabid despotic wolf hiding beneath. Their self-confessed "neutrality" during the peace talks was nothing if not biased towards the Middle Kingdom, as every "peace" proposal of theirs were heavily favoring their imperialistic cousins. Against the Republic of New Switzerland, small wonder, forcing them to accept such a peace treaty that would follow an unconditional surrender, not the stalemate that was going on for a while. Were it not for the Rohan delegates, there would not be any positive conclusion of the conference at all.

But after a month, everything is turning out to be a conspiracy of the decandent monarchies of Europe. Were it they who organized the "pirate raid" to appear in the guise of the victims, to get the sympathy of the international public?

At the first step, the Austrians and the Russians decides to take the unilateral move to provide a so-called unasked-for "Neutrality Patrol" in the waters around China, under the blatant pretext of observing whether the two parties keep to the words of the agreement.The Empire of Spain, however, were determined to wage war against Switzerland, did not step back from their provocative stance, pushing aside the Swiss well-founded requests for reparation for sinking a merchant vessel and a warship, under the eyes of neutral observers.
At the threat of the involvement of other powers in the conflict - not on the side of the agressively belligerent Spanish - their Juan just run to his another decandent imperialistic cousin, the Czar of Russia to beg for a guarantee against these attacks. There was not a better occasion for the czar, as Russia has been coveting a warm-water port for at several centuries, which now they could get on the expense of the Swiss. How can anyone with at least the resemblance of intelligence expect their joint "neutrality patrol" with the Austrians to be altruistic, not just a maneuvre to get into better position for their final onslaught on their common chosen prey?

Meanwhile, Premier Jardan plays the offended child. Throwing away one centuries' French effort to contain the Imperial Russia's ambitions, he just sits skulking in Paris for real and imaginary offenses by the Swiss, rejoicing their ultimate demise. And they are even unawarely assisting the conspirators in their plotting. When these Empires decide to move against their next pray, which Republic it will be the next time? South America or South Africa is too far, without any common borders, and that leaves only one republic left to make a new attempt against the free-thinking world - the 3-éme. France itself, indeed. They are pretending to be invulnerable, but can they be sure that if the alliance that is uniting against the Swiss will move on against them, they would prevail? The French army would, no doubt, put up a valiant fight against the mighty armies of Russia, Spain and Austria, add the Prussians joining seeking revenge, and the end result is pre-determined.  Their navies are more than adequate to cut off France from their colonies, France has simply not enough ships to contain their joint battlefleet and protect the undefended merchants and liners sailing from, say, Brazil to Metropolitan France. A job that the Spanish already proved they are really proficient in.

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A second letter, published four days later. Just before Orange declared war on Austria and took its colony of Namibia.

Alea Iacta Est

Myself, I cannot decide over the motivation of the Austrians. The first one in assuming their actions were planned to go like this. First, offer themselves to hold a peace conference, in order to get some political recognition they thought were lacking, to preserve their appearance of the great power they were centuries ago. On the peace conference, doubtless reading the proceedings, their confessed neutral stance was nothing but favoring the Middle Kingdom, and humiliating for the Swiss if they accepted it. This case we cannot really discount the rumors spreading that it was themselves hiring the renegade Agrival for the raid on the Tegethoff. The sinking of the battleship - a rather old one, outdated, not really expected to held long in a battleline if a real shooting erupts, was costly, but they planned it as an investment. They gained the sympathy trust of the international community, and more or less forced the peace conference to conclude - not as they intended, but it give them a cause to send their battlefleet to the area, as a "neutrality patrol". In the meanwhile, their stance against the Republic of New Switzerland is nothing but arrogant bordering the blatantly hostile. They kept on provocating the Swiss, and as they intended, the Swiss retorted to force keeping an openly hostile force out of their waters. Thus they get the war they craved for long. They surely claim that all their actions was driven mothing but honor. Which turned out to be a false one. A honor turning out to be a merely masquerade to justify their aggressive actions  If this happened, they tricked the international community, fooling them at the end. France, Russia, The Netherlands, Rohan, Orange, China, the Switzerland, save those who were their co-conspirators in the plot.
The second possibility is they really acted by their honor. Their stance on the peace conference could be attributed to the bias of the oldest European absolute monarcy against anything resembling a republic. They really intended their "neutrality pattrol". In this case they were played fools by the belligerents - probably China or Spain. Trapping them in their honor, counting on the growing paranoia of the Swiss, forcing them to a war they really wanted to avoid. They lost ships in the process, without the prospect to gain anything, as those who were prepared, will be quicker to go for the spoils. Not a flattering picture, but this decadent empire might just got what it deserved.
Of course, the Swiss could choose to avoid this war. They were humiliated accepting the peace treaty as if they were defeated in the war. They did not lose on the battlefield neither in the waters, yet they ceded  territory to end te senseless bloodshed. In vain, as it might turn out. Their government could not accept yet another humiliation, to comply the Habsburg arrogance.
So what to do, my fellow citizens? Our Republic could not act against the Spanish Empire, as they begged their elder brother for protection, as it turned out the child they wanted to beat up had friends himself. But yet another monarchy going to war, it seems the war is not on Switzerland, but on the concept of "republic". An idea that was chosen by Orange to accept as its own. Will our government stand aside, waiting for those empires to fell on their prey, if it was their tyranny from which we were forced to free - we might be the next one. I doubt it.

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After Juan the Red really went mad and announced his Communist Peoples' Republic of Sovereign Nations with him as a Head of State with the powers of an absolute monarch, she felt the events worth another comment.

The mentally less and less stable Juan III is just overwashed with irrealistic ideas. He decided to switch from a conservative absolute Monarchy to a Socialist Absolute Monarchy. All his subject will have the same - really limited - rights as before. His single party is nothing more than a rude mockery of the representative governments all around the world, both in republics and constitutional monarchies before.  I might assume his paranoia turned himself against the aristocrats he cannot longer trusts, but can he trusts anyone by now? News reports beside the state media were becoming even more scarce than that would be justified by the ongoing war. Their House of Representative must be in a big turmoil right now, by the standards of any representative body since the Magna Charta, as they were just switched over to someone else. Other times, changing even a single sentence of a nation's Constitution takes months or years of debates. Juan, finding it inconvenient for his momentary purposes, cut the Gordian knot by throwing it away. Still not even a whisper of disagreement -
I recently started to be worried about the personal health of his opposition. They and all their families might be branded as traitors as far as we know.

And the person of Juan himself is uncertain in his new proposed establishment. Most probably he would just stay the same despot as he was before. Strange Socialism, where he is not, one might say, just more equal than the others but still well above them? Or just transfer the old power structure into the farce of his new party? Neither equality, nor liberty, nice socialism you have.

I hope this new feshion of disregarding documents acknowledged internationally - be they constitutions, or international treaties - won't spread any more, making decades and centuries' work from the Foreign Ministries useless. Austria did not even waited for the New Swiss government to sign the Peace Treaty, they violated Swiss territory on some arbitrary pretext of the Peace Treaty not yet in effect. Boldened by this, the Middle Kingdom also decided that his commitment by a Prince 'Tuan' would not be an obstacle in continuing the war. Now this other  monarch just get some miscallaneous legal documents from the pile on his desk when he had to go to the outhouse.

But this was only a side rant. I might continue with paraphrasing a poem:

"Where seek out tyranny?
There seek out tyranny..."

but rather go with a saying. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, flies like a duck and defecates like a duck, it is no swan but a duck. Nor Socialism but Tyranny. Or whatever.

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Cooments about France using gas shells against fortress Bugio - and the Portuguese communists holed within.

Fortress Bugio - some shouting in the wasteland

I burn in shame and try to sink into Earth. I did not believe that I will live long enough to live with it. Up till nations of Europe, and those of the same origin at least treated other Europeans and of European origin as more-or-less equal human being, and limited inhumane acts upon those of the pagan races, considered inferior to the white one - American natives, Arabs, Chinese, Indians, Indochinese, Negros, Persians and else. It was assumed that these barbarious races will slaughter their own kind without any hesitation - and thus similar acts are allowed against them. Like the human sacrifices of the Anahuac, or the indiscriminate shelling of Hong Kong by the Chinese. Europeans won't kill Europeans indiscriminately. We can be thankful to Monsieur Palpaté to cure us out of this illusion, and alsofrom  the feeling of a spurious moral superiory.  We are not better, only stronger. And I see it coming from a fellow republic - LA REPUBLQUE - shame on me that I believed in any of this before.

It is difficult to find words to describe what happened in Portugal, but I will make a try. A fortress, held by rebels, was shelled with some poisonous gas, identified as most probably Chlorine by a chemist friend of mine. And the deaths were anything but peaceful, the gas destroying their lungs, their eyes, causing enormous suffering to the victims. There were no survivors. I'd assume the use of this horrible weapon - or, rather, human-made pestilence - must have been approved at very high level. Not within the navy, as using this weapon had political side-effects as it proved to be, resulting the surrender of the rebels. Above the navy there's a Ministry and the chair for Premier Palpaté, who should know about this weapon. And it was used upon fellow white men - fellow Europeans - to test its effectiveness. They did not even had the half-decency to try it out on some rebellious village of Untermenshen in Brazil or Africa - at least no such an incident was reported, yet, but who knows. And what would have happened hadn't the communists fold? Would the French fleet, with the helpful assistance of their Normann accomplices, er... "allies"? Bomb Lisbon itself, to determine what effectiveness the gas has against innocent civilians? France managed to steal Brazil from them, so She felt it justified to use them as laboratory mice.

All of it, for what outcome? Just to restore a fallen monarch to its throne La Republique soit maudit, who was rejected by his own subjects wishing for some more say in the state affairs? This ignanimity will not be washed from France for a while, and every citizen of France should see this stigm looking into the mirror. If I were French, I'd would not accept anything but resignation of the Government which allowed this to happen, and the trial of those responsible for indiscriminate manslaughter.

And let me remind my readers that it was  not the first poison gas attack which surfaced from the murky dealings of those in power. A little more than two years ago, a Chlorine gas attack was launched against the Austrian battleship SMS Tegethoff, which was the host of the ill-fated peace conference. Then the ship was attacked by the infamous pirate and criminal Agrival Mars, and the gas attack was contributed to him. On the morning of March 15, 1903, a similar Chlorine attack was launched by French warships on a Portuguese fort. Everyone can make her own conclusions, but now I have doubts that the gas attack on the Tegethoff can be attributed to Agrival Mars. And France cannot claim that there were no French ships around, either.

Cassandra