International News 1916

[Korpen]

That would be quite obvious since Siam has not approached anyone up to this point for the continuation of the Canal.

That is called sanity, as there is no economic reason for the canal it would be quite stupid of Siam to seek a war just for the fun.

[maddox]

The canal is one of the possibilities to entice the French to pour in shitloads of money into the Siamese economy.

[Korpen]

The canal is one of the possibilities to entice the French to pour in shitloads of money into the Siamese economy.

Question would be why Siam would seek a war to try for those money.

[Logi]

Maybe because it thinks the Republic of China would help defend Siam from invaders? You know, because of that little declaration.

[P3D]

 ???

So RRC not only wants to free Burma from White Devil influence, but use yet nonexistent supply lines  to support Siam at the same time?

[Logi]

Hey! I never said I would, just that Siam might think so.

[Korpen]

The canal is one of the possibilities to entice the French to pour in shitloads of money into the Siamese economy.

And hope that the war do not destroy those investments...

[RAM]

And hope that the war do not destroy those investments...

...which is mostly wishful thinking...

[ctwaterman]

Port of Kolkata July 1916

The lines from the temporary camps in Kolkata to the Ships taking Refugee to the more permanent camps in Ceylon were long and an attempt was being made to streamline and organize the operation of unloading the food laden ships and then loading them with refugee.

An Italian Official working with a French Interpreters was briefing the Green Cross Aid workers who would be interviewing those refugees who wished to immigrate. 

Please ask the applicants the following questions.  Their Occupation, what language skills they have, and if they have any special religious or dietary needs.   We need to get the people sorted and then we need to get them to food and shelter as fast as we can and we don't want to accidently start a riot by feeding Beef to any of the Hindu or Pork to any of the Muslims.  In addition we need to find out where they want to immigrate to we have ships lining up from Patagonia, and Firanj and who knows where else.

Now those who have construction or engineering skills can work with machine tools anything that we can use to help set up the camps in Ceylon.  We need to take those people and their families first and get them to Ceylon it will aid and speed the set up of sanitation and housing in those camps and generally save lives.   We need to work quickly because with this mass of people we are facing a serious threat of an epidemic if we are even a little bit unlucky.

Now move it people I have 10 Ships schedule in the next 5 days to unload foodstuffs, and light construction materials for the camps here and to remove at least 10,000 refugee's to Ceylon.

[Guinness]

The Siamese reply to the Dutch Declaration of War:

Siam has become the target of blatant and unwarranted aggression on the part of its neighbor to the south. Even before Siam had the opportunity to read the Kingdom of the Netherlands' Declaration of War and formulate a reply,  their forces had invaded our country from the South, and their naval forces had imposed a blockade on Siam's harbors. These actions, perpetrated by a nation that claims to love peace, are totally unacceptable and should be condemned by the rest of the world community.

Siam chooses not to address the many groundless, fallacious, and ludicrous accusations authored recently by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but will simply convey that we believe that the Dutch have little care for any of those supposed reasons, and are rather invading our country to force us to become a colony of the Netherlands.

Siam rejects all of the Kingdom of the Netherlands' demands, and refutes the right of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to try to impose them on our peaceful and sovereign nation. We will fight to the end if need be to preserve our territory and our sovereignty.

We hope that the international community, much as it rallied to resolve the conflict between Burma and the Reformist Republic of China, will rally here to put a quick end to this incident, and call on all of the world's peace-loving nations to stand together and turn back this blatant aggression.

[Sachmle]

DEUTSCHES KAISERREICH BRANDENBURG

With war once again in a neighboring nation we feel we must make a stance. While we previously assisted the Kingdom of the Netherlands in their endeavor to prevent the New Swiss and their ally Siam from altering the balance of power in the Pacific region, we can not and do not condone this latest endeavor of the Dutch. With the dust just beginning to settle in Kolkatta and Burma, we feel that while the Kra Canal still presents an opportunity for making provocative military maneuvers against both the Kingdom of Netherlands holding as well as the DKB itself, we do not see it as such with the current political climate in the region. Instead we prefer to see it as a potential economic asset to the region as a whole. Therefore our stated stance in this action is decidedly pro Siam. We are very concerned with the Dutch mining off the Siam coast and Brandenburg shipping will avoid this area at extreme protest. As to shipping inspections, we offer our word that at this time no war materials are being shipped to Siam via DKB vessels. We expect the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as a fellow monarchy, to respect our word as our bond. Therefore any attempt to seize a vessel of the Brandenburg Merchant marine will be taken as an act of war on the part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and be responded to in kind.

Reich Foreign Minister
Erich Hermann von Lindenhoff

[Korpen]

While we previously assisted the Kingdom of the Netherlands in their endeavor to prevent the New Swiss and their ally Siam from altering the balance of power in the Pacific region, we can not and do not condone this latest endeavor of the Dutch. With the dust just beginning to settle in Kolkatta and Burma, we feel that while the Kra Canal still presents an opportunity for making provocative military maneuvers against both the Kingdom of Netherlands holding as well as the DKB itself, we do not see it as such with the current political climate in the region. Instead we prefer to see it as a potential economic asset to the region as a whole.

If Siam had intend the canal to be a peaceful economic project the natural thing would have been to address the Netherlands with talks, like a civilised nation, about the matter so that Dutch fears and concerns as well as Siam's wishes and hopes could have been addressed  to mutual benefit. Instead Siam tried to keep it a secret together with its dire accomplish, France, and tried to sneak it up on the Netherlands like a sheep bugger on a lamb. This clearly show that Siam was out for no good, but seeking to create a situation were then could continue their hostile expansionism at the cost of the peace-seeking Kingdom of the Netherlands like they have done so many time in the past.

[P3D]

So Siam asked the French to finish the Canal. Were these talks secret?
Then the Dutch learned about these talks somehow (how?) and decided the Siamese has less survival instinct than the Swiss or the Anahuac, did not bother with any warning or reasonable ultimatum at all but declared war right away?

[Korpen]

So Siam asked the French to finish the Canal. Were these talks secret?
Then the Dutch learned about these talks somehow (how?) and decided the Siamese has less survival instinct than the Swiss or the Anahuac, did not bother with any warning or reasonable ultimatum at all but declared war right away?

The French connection made any such thing impossible unfortunately. If it had been any other country talks in the conventional way would have been the Dutch choice. However as it was France backing Siam that was not an option, as it seems very likely that Siam would secure public French assurances before or during such talks at which point the Netherlands would have no leverage or ability to affect the situation and would be forced to eat shit for the rest of eternity.
In way one can said that had the Netherlands raised the issue with either of the two conspirators; it would likely trigger that manoeuvre-killing move, so it was really a case of act now or bath in crap forever. :(

[Guinness]

Desertfox's post in this thread has been moved here: http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=3890.msg42554#msg42554