Iberian News 1912

[miketr]

Greek Recovery Administration Formed

To see to the long term security and prosperity of Greece the Provisional Government announces the formation of a Recovery Administration.  The Iberian Government has agreed to provide the Provisional Government with advisors and access to the Iberian Central Bank in Madrid for monetary matters.  A complete survey of Free Greece will need to be conducted.  This is to determine the state of critical infrastructure such as railroads, bridges, ports and the like. 

The state of land ownership will be in chaos with large numbers of dead and many Muslim's have chosen to flee.  Also It is unknown if the government tax records were left behind, taken with the withdrawing Ottomans or destroyed.  So attempting to figure out who owns what will be critical. 

A major Iberian firm Halliburtez, with extensive experience in construction and a special task force from various civilian Iberian Government agencies has been prepared.  They will be providing oversight and as quickly as possible will be training Greeks to assume key roles.

The Recovery Agency and of course the Provisional Government will be locating first to Pylos and later Athens.   

The Provisional Government asks that the International Community and the Green Cross coordinate any relief activity through this agency.

As to what specific aid the Recovery Administration is looking for.

1)   Skilled individuals to help with the work of the Recovery Administration.  Being able to understand Greek would be useful and of secondary utility Spanish or Portuguese as most of the current Administration and work force is made up of Iberians; but ones who are in the process of learning or already know Greek so as already noted knowing Greek is Key.

2)   Materials for shelter, food and of course funds to purchase other needed items.

3)             Once the extent of the damage is known help with the rebuilding.
         
The recovery agency while answerable to the Provisional Government will not have anything to do with fighting of the war.  It will only be operating in areas free of the Ottomans.

[Sachmle]

A major Iberian firm Halliburtez

Oh lord, help us all.....Is Ricardo Chenerez (props to Guinness on the last name) in charge of it?

[miketr]

Mr. Chenerez is the second ranking member of the board not the company president.  ;)  OOC I was trying to figure out how to do that name conversion by the way.  The contractor doing the police force will be Aguanegra for those who are wondering...  ;)

[Sachmle]

Perhaps Jorge Arbusto is president of Halliburton.....

[Guinness]

The CSA calls for competitive bids for the rebuilding of Greece.

Just kidding :)

[P3D]

Call him Lopez de Futastan y Ramodon.

(Hungarian pun, meaning "This one steals but then runs away in a sprint")

[miketr]

Pylos, Greece
October, 1912

The men of the 1st Regiment of the Greek Legion marched down the dock from their transports in harbor.  At the head of the column fluttering in the breeze was the regiment's colors, the white and red of the Iberian Cross of Burgundy but the place of honor was reserved for the Greek blue and white.   

"Well Lieutenant Plastiras what does it feel like to be home?"

Turning to look at the cheering crowds as he answered, "It is good Coronel but it's been several years."

Coronel Rico looked over the marching troops, "Yes it's been a long time coming, just remember we have plenty of work left to do.  I am going to arrange the announcement in the city center after we get the Hauser's ashore and some of their horses useful.  Have your men spread the word Lieutenant and we will need to handle this correctly."

Nikolaos Plastiras looked at the damaged city, "They have been through so much Coronel you must be careful some are going distrust you, some are going to hear what they want to hear and many are going to be confused it must be kept simple, sir."

Looking around the city and fixing his gaze on the group of Norman Officers watching the unloading, "Yes Lieutenant very simple; the simplicity of raw emotion."

A few hours later in the central plaza of Pylos

Colonel Rico stood on an impromptu stage made up of crates.  In front of him was a double row of the Greek Legion and around the square where some of the Iberian Hauser's.  The plaza itself and nearby buildings where filled with civilians.  In accented but understandable Greek colonel Rico addressed the crowd.

"People of Greece the Sultan has accepted that there is to be a free and independent Greece!"

A roar rose up from the crowd it took several minutes for the crowd to calm down enough for the Colonel to continue.

"The Sultan however has said this Greece is to be limited to the mainland south of the Aliakmonas River, in the Pindus Mountains, a few of the Aegean Islands and Crete."

The crowd was quiet while considering what they had been told.

"Also the Sultan wants a population exchange between Greece and the Ottoman Empire."

Several people in the crowd called out, "What does that mean?" "Huh?" "The Turkish dogs have fled already!"

"The Sultan's government intends to remove all the Muslims from Greece..."

Interruptions of, "Those we don't kill first!" "Good riddance!" and the like...

"And do the same with Greek Populations in the Ottoman Empire...  The Turks mean to eject all the Greeks from the rest of the Aegean, Cyprus, Macadeonia, Thrace and the cities in Anatolia such as Constantinople, Smyrna..."

More interruptions of, "Like hell!" "I fought for a free Greece, all of it!" "Never!"

After several minutes had gone by and no sign of things calming down he pulled out his pistol and fired once into the air.  The near riot subsided...

"The Provision Government has refused and so have your allies, Austria and Iberia..."

More cheers from the crowd.

"The Alliance means to continue the fight..."     

More cheers from the crowd.

"Till the Aegean is reclaimed..."

More cheers from the crowd.

"Till Thrace is reclaimed..."

More cheers from the crowd.

"Till we march into Constantinople..."

More cheers from the crowd.

"Till the cross is returned to the top of Hagia Sophia!"

More cheers from the crowd and then several started to chant, "E-lef-the-ri-a i Tha-na-tos!* Which was quickly taken up by the whole crowd.

*Freedom or Death

[miketr]

von Hamburger und zu Heisshund, Austria
Georgios Theotokis, Greece
Juan Antonio Yanez y Barnuevo, Iberia
Küçük Mehmed Kamil Pasha, Ottomans
French Minister, France as Host

Paris
October 8th,

The Ottoman Empire had requested that the various parties return to hear a new offer from the Sublime Porte.

Küçük Mehmed Kamil Pasha opens with, "Gentlemen, I understand that we have been far apart on matters thus far, but I have been instructed to renew efforts to end this before various third parties manage to worm their way into the process.  My government would like for your governments to consider the following terms for peace."

A one page set of terms are handed across the table and to the head where the French representative sits.  All is quiet as the paper is read.

Von Hamburger und zu Heisshund turns to his Iberian colleague and in a hushed voice says, "This is acceptable, apart from #2..." "Halkidiki with Atos will be transfered to the Kingdom of the Hellens, naturally."

Juan Antonio Yanez y Barnuevo nods and looks at Mr. Theotokis who has a slight frown on his face, "Mr. Ambassador I will send your offer to my government and of course I will need to talk to my colleagues.  We will have a reply to you very shortly."

In another room down the three allies meet.

"Ambassadors Greece was to be of all Greek lands, remember Constantinople was to be ours," Mr. Theotokis said in a tired voice.

"Prime Minister, in the long term yes but half a loaf now is better than none and we are getting all sorts of rumbles that the other European Powers won't accept the straights in Greece's hands."  Von Hamburger und zu Heisshund explained.

"We got the most important item off the list Prime Minister, that population exchange."  Juan Antonio Yanez y Barnuevo added quicky.

Von Hamburger und zu Heisshund, "Also this agreement is for now... who is to say what the future holds, Prime Minister."

Mr. Theotokis nods, "Yes and Greece will need to be ready much will have to be rebuilt."

"My Emperor has kept his promise so far.  We supported you, our armies fought the Turks and there is a Free Greece, the rest will come... just not today is all."

"Very Well, the provisional government will go along with it. I will need some time to talk the rest around."

"Excellent and we need to work out some other details..."

[miketr]

Peace?
October 8th

Rumors are swirling that the Balkan Wars or the 10th Crusade as some foreign Media has called the conflict may soon be over.  The Hapsburg, Iberian and Provisional Governments have been in constant communication.  Also unlike past rounds of negotiations the current set has last beyond the first set of exchanges. 

Adding fuel to the fire is word that senior members of the Iberian Government, such as the Foreign Minister and the Emperors Uncle will be leaving the country.

[miketr]

Future Government of Greece
October 10,

The Provisional Government has decided that the form of the Greece's Government is to be a Constitutional Monarchy.  The crown has been offered to the Duke of San Jaime, the Uncle of the Iberian Emperor.  The Duke has agreed to convert to Orthodoxy and so has his son, "Athen's is worth a divine liturgy..."

Title: King of the Hellenes
Family:
Alfonso Carlos de Bourbon y Austria-Este, Duke of San Jaime (born 12 September 1849)
Maria das Neves de Paula e de Assis Januário de Bragança, Duchess of San Jaime (born 5 august 1852)
(Married April 26, 1871)
Issue
Infante Miguel Carlos de Bourbon y Bragança, Infante of Spain (Born 1 April, 1880)

[miketr]

Official Iberian Losses in the Balkan War
December, 1912

Land Totals
2,000 in August "Montenegro" (1K I Corps & 1K XVIII Corps)
400 July - 6th August "Ottoman Chagos, Piri"(0.4K IX Corps)
2,000 on September 6th "Montenegro" (2K XVIII Corps)
1,500 on September 10th "Invasion of Crete" (1.5 K XII Corps)
8,000 on September 15th "Montenegro" (6K XVIII Corps, I K each I & II Corps)
2,000 on September 20th "Montenegro" (1K I Corps and IK II Corps)
3,000 on September 24th "Montenegro" (IK each I, II and XVIII Corps)
1,500 September 19th - 29th "Crete" (1.5K XII Corps)
2,000 October 1st - 5th Siege of "Irakleios, Crete" (2K XII Corps)

Total losses
22,400

Sea Totals

June 29th Ionian Sea (off Pylos)
Madrid, several 11" gun hits
Rio de Janiero, several light gun hits
TBD-73, light gun hit
TBD-74, several light gun hits, SUNK
TBD-75, two light gun hits
TBD-77, Three light gun hits

August 10th Eastern Med Raid
Balboa suffered a boiler explosion that causes heavy casualties amongst her engine room complement.

August 22nd: Battle of Ionian Sea (near Maina)
Manila,  Damage to superstructure and secondary battery
Lisbon,  Minor damage to superstructure

September 9th, Sea of Crete (Off N Coast of Crete)
Alfonso IV, main gun hit to engine room and other damage
Navas de Tolosa, various main gun hits
Cid Campeador, moderate main gun hits
Pelayo, minor main gun hits
Armored Cruisers, heavy damage, several turrets disabled
San Juan, one maingun hit and several light gun hits
Las Palmas, several light gun hits
TB-63, many light gun hits

Other
Will count up the lost civilian ships later

** I release this later as Iberia would want to be sure the peace was holding before releasing the info

[miketr]

Meeting of Council of State
November 1st,

Present:
Emperor, HIRH Jamie
Prime Minister of Iberia, Don Felipe González y Márquez
Head of the Army, General de Ejército Manuel Gutiérrez y Mellado
Head of the Navy, Almirante António Santos e da Silva
Foreign Minister, Diogo Freitas do Amaral

Plus

Finance Minister, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

The emperor stated, "Prime Minister I understand you have a problem with the upcoming budget."

"Yes the problem is he wants to gut my service, and the armies."  Almirante Santos said in a frosty voice."

"Your Majesty, Admiral its not that I want to... 'Gut' the militaries budget but I have to get the budget confirmed by the Cortes Generales... which I can't do with the current set of requests." Responded the Prime Minister.

Looking around the table the Emperor paused to consider for a moment, "Very well Don Felipe please explain the difficulties.

"If you would your majesty I had Mr. da Silva join us to address that issue."

The Emperor gave a brief nod of approval.

The short mousy man with thick glasses pulled out a set of notes but didn't look at them and began to speak, "Your Majesty, gentlemen let me review our expected situation for the coming year."

"The treasury expects to receive in taxes just over 58 million peseta.  Of that total 6 million is to go to Austria and Gran Columbia for their interests in the Brazilian and Pilipino industrial projects.  Another 5 million each is to go to the Russian Empire and Republic of Orange to pay for long term purchases for the navy; a battleship and submarines respectively.  Research and Development is expected to also require 5 million peseta to fully fund.  Then there is the emergency contract to buy 5,500 tons of high quality steel from Mitsubishi Steel of Japan for 13.85 million peseta.  A total of 34,850,000 sterling pesetas.  Leaving a total of 23.15 million peseta's to cover all other expenses of the military."  Mr. da Silva paused to be sure that he hadn't lost anyone and noted the look of worry on the Generals face and the one of passive disinterest on the admirals.

Resuming after taking a moment to glance at his notes the Finance Minister resumed, "The navy wishes to have repaired in Italian yards several of the damaged heavy warships.  The Battleship Cid Campeador and Armored Cruiser Francisco Pizarro; plus the battleship is to receive a midlife refit.  Projected cost, 4 million peseta for dry dock time, 2.4 million peseta for the refit of Cid Campeador and the repair of the battle damage itself is projected to cost 4.8 million peseta's; for a grand total of 11.2 million peseta's." 

Looking right at the admiral, "Any particular reason you insist on going with a foreign firm?  Its adding nearly 5 million peseta to the cost.  Arsenal Naval de Cartagena or anyone of several Iberian firms could do the job just as easily and far cheaper."

"We need to reserve our own capacity for our new construction and the Italians are sitting on mounds of steel plate."

Nodding, "Ah... Yes... Besides the repair of Navas de Tolosa and Alfonso IV with refits you also want to laid down four new protected cruisers and speed up the construction of the 3 large ships slowed because of the war.  This to cost a projected 12 million Peseta's.  I could be wrong but I believe that just about exhausts the budget."

The admiral shrugged, "So?"

"What it means António is there is nothing left for my own bills, nearly half a corps worth of equipment has to be replaced, we emptied our armories in Europe to supply the Greek rebels, the upgrade of Castillo de San Juan, plus the upgrade of the various light infantry formations to the newest standard and I want to buy some aircraft the Turks made good use of the ones they had."  The head of the army said.

"Its worse than that Gentlemen..." The Prime Minister spoke up once again...  The two military men looked at him as he continued, "We haven't allocated a single Peseta towards regular upkeep and military personnel salaries.  Which was it this time last year, 20 million Pesetas if I recall correctly?"

The finance minister corrected, "22.36 million Peseta's Prime Minister and that doesn't include the additional naval units that have entered service since then.  Or any economic damage we might have received because of war disruption, lost ships, etc.  Plus do Amaral and his majesty want to provide some aid to the Greeks."

The admiral looking very annoyed said, "I don't understand the Problem Minister, when we first talked about these three months ago you said it could be done."

Shaking his head as he answered the finance minister said, "Admiral that was before the navy got shot up off of Crete and far more importantly we assumed we would still be at war with war taxation still in place."

The admiral said in a clearly frustrated tone, "It's a national emergency just keep the taxes in place till midyear."

"Only if you want my government thrown out onto the street; the Cortes will never approve such a thing or we will have our own revolt right here."

The Emperor looked at his Prime Minister, "Don Felipe your government's popularity is sky-high you had been considering asking for new elections to capitalize on that popularity.   What's changed?"

The Prime Minister said, "As of yet?  Nothing, the socialists are making some noise but I can ignore them for now; the problem is so far the public hasn't scene the real cost of this war.  The two tax increases to raise the extra 32 million Peseta the people went along with because we were at war AND we were clearly winning.  People are still drunk with the success we lost only one warship sunk, a torpedo boat destroyer, and just over 20,000 soldiers.  We got off very lightly compared to just about everyone else.  None of that will matter if we have to extend those taxes to next year."

The General ask, "Just how bad is it Prime Minister?"

"Bad enough that I don't dare ask for new elections, bad enough that I am not sure my coalition would survive the budget fight even if I could pass the budget."

Everyone was silent for a few moments and then the Emperor spoke up, "I see clearly we will have to make some changes then.  But from the numbers several of aspects of the budget we can't change unless we break a foreign contract.  Is there any room on those?"

The Admiral Looking uncomfortable said, "I haven't finalized things with the Italians yet."


Nodding as he spoke the Emperor said, "Good that's one thing tell the Italians the deal is off.  What else?"

"I might be able to do something with the Orange Order, we were paying in advance of delivery and the Russians haven't actually started construction as far as I know but we have paid them 10 million peseta's."

"Excellent, see what other cuts you can make gentlemen; anything none essential gets axed and hold off on the new construction if you have to.  At the same time Don Felipe the Cortes is going to have to accept a continuation of the wartime taxes, at least in part I think." The emperor announced.

The Prime Minister responded, "That will be difficult but depending on the amount I might be able to get it passed.  It will have to be small though.  Also the small cruisers should stay; many in the Cortes are complaining we need more of them and not more Battleships because of the bought of commerce raiders we had to deal with.  Even then it's going to cost me something of my majority."

"Can't be helped Don Felipe but you still have several years till I have to call elections again and can attempt to mend fences. We will meet next week to review where we are at."  The Emperor concluded.
 

[miketr]

Red Sea
22:00 hours, October 9th
The Iberian Armored Cruiser HIIMS Henrique o Navegador and HIIMS Cristobol Colon along with the Brandenburg Protected Cruisers SMS Arkona, SMS Undine, and SMS Agir enter the straight of Mandeb; using the deep western channel. 

After slipping into the Red Sea full military power is ordered on the armored cruisers, the turbines are pushed to 110% of maximum rated power.  Search lights flash into the night gloom and the small squadron steams northward at just over 21 knots.

Far South of Crete
October 10th
Allied Scouting Force
"We have been ordered to not just meet up with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron but we are going to turn it around and then follow it back into the Indian Ocean. Plus the odd pair of BB's are coming with us."

Red Sea
October 10th
"The message said what?!?  The war is over?  We are going back?"

Indian Ocean Force comming out of Med / Red Sea

Vicealmirante Antonio Bermejo, flag is on Pilipinas
Contraalmirante Picanco, flag is on Balboa

SMS Frankreich
HIIMS Pilipinas
HIIMS Vasco Núñez de Balboa "Balboa"
HIIMS Henrique o Navegador
HIIMS Cristobol Colon
HIIMS Rio de Janiero
HIIMS Lisbon
HIIMS Manila
HIIMS Porto
HIIMS São Paulo
Iberian 1st and 2nd Torpedo Divisions (8 TBD's of 1909 Class)

Along for the ride till Aden...
SMS Arkona
SMS Undine
SMS Agir

November 1st*


To: Indian Ocean Station
CC: Pacific Fleet
Subject: RAIDER T.A.G.

IF T.A.G. IS SPOTTED THE SHIP IS TO BE SEIZED AND SENT TO CADIZ TO FACE ADMIRALTY COURT ON CHARGES OF PIRACY.  SHIP MAY BE FLYING BRANDENBURG COLORS AND OR CLAIM TO BE OTTOMAN AUXILIARY.  IF T.A.G. REFUSES TO YIELD, SINK HER. REPEAT SINK T.A.G. IF SHE REFUSES TO YIELD.

*Date subject to retcon if I got the info later..

[The Rock Doctor]

That's a reasonable date.

[Sachmle]

November 1st*


To: Indian Ocean Station
CC: Pacific Fleet
Subject: RAIDER T.A.G.

IF T.A.G. IS SPOTTED THE SHIP IS TO BE SEIZED AND SENT TO CADIZ TO FACE ADMIRALTY COURT ON CHARGES OF PIRACY.  SHIP MAY BE FLYING BRANDENBURG COLORS AND OR CLAIM TO BE OTTOMAN AUXILIARY.  IF T.A.G. REFUSES TO YIELD, SINK HER. REPEAT SINK T.A.G. IF SHE REFUSES TO YIELD.

*Date subject to retcon if I got the info later..

Just sailed east from Philippines on the 31st, could turn around and help you box her in if you want.