International News 1916

[Korpen]

Siam is out to start a war I see.
Or have they forgotten that the Netherlands do consider re-starting the canal building an act of war (as they were informed in 1908)?

[Guinness]

I don't think they've forgotten, but I do think that the Dutch outlook might just be a big reason they chose France to approach with the idea.

[Korpen]

I don't think they've forgotten, but I do think that the Dutch outlook might just be a big reason they chose France to approach with the idea.

Rigth, got to pre-empt then.
1916 will be a very slow year indeed.

[Desertfox]

The Siamese HATE the French, why would they go to them of all people? Also the Kra Canal was well on its way (>50%) in 1908. I understood it to be completed sometime in 1910 with Iberian assistance.

[Guinness]

The Siamese HATE the French, why would they go to them of all people? Also the Kra Canal was well on its way (>50%) in 1908. I understood it to be completed sometime in 1910 with Iberian assistance.

Hrm. If it's completed, I'm not sure the Dutch have a reason to rattle their sabers.

I, not being around at the time, checked with the other mods to make sure though, and our understanding is that it is incomplete. How incomplete is a question still to be answered.

As to why they'd approach the French, I think the answer is simple: who else might they approach knowing that the Dutch threaten war over the idea? The dynamics of the Southeast Asian Region of have changed, encouraging the Siamese to explore new (or old) avenues of opportunity.

[Korpen]

Hrm. If it's completed, I'm not sure the Dutch have a reason to rattle their sabers.

I, not being around at the time, checked with the other mods to make sure though, and our understanding is that it is incomplete. How incomplete is a question still to be answered.

As to why they'd approach the French, I think the answer is simple: who else might they approach knowing that the Dutch threaten war over the idea? The dynamics of the Southeast Asian Region of have changed, encouraging the Siamese to explore new (or old) avenues of opportunity.

The fact that they have not approached the Netherlands is a good sign that they seek a conflict.

[miketr]

The Siamese HATE the French, why would they go to them of all people? Also the Kra Canal was well on its way (>50%) in 1908. I understood it to be completed sometime in 1910 with Iberian assistance.

Foxy I addressed this before...  I was never given details as to costs, etc and Iberia never followed up on it.

Michael

[miketr]

The above is not to say that Iberia wouldn't like the canal to occur but Mike the player can only do so much and Iberia right now is rather distracted.

[maddox]

OOC

Mike, thank you for the effort in the Siam/French diplomatical dance.


People, all what happened is that the Siamese ambassador gave a lot of documents, most of New Swiss origine to the French bureaucrats.
The only known result atm, is that the Siamese ambassador gets more invitations to "parties".

[Desertfox]

Found the actual numbers. The canal was 40% ($280 of $700) completed in 1907. The Torres Peace (ending 2nd Pacific War) makes no mention of the Kra Canal nor does it forbid NS from assisting Siam in its construction. Also Siam at the time had a strong economy and could have continued construction on its own. NS would have had plenty of reasons to continue the assistance ESPECIALLY after the 2nd Pacific War. Based on those numbers, the Canal would have opened in 1914. The only assistance required from the Iberians would have been a show of support to keep the Neatherlands out of SIam.

Who would have Siam approached? Most certainly NOT the French, there's plenty of others in the Pacific to ask for help. New Switzerland, Iberia, DKB, either China, and Japan. Moving further away, CSA, Rohan, GC, or the OR. I just can't see them going to the country they hate the most for help, especially when France is looking weak and is embroiled in a losing war in Baharat.

[Walter]

No doubt that the Siamese ambassador is a French lover and all the people of Siam will hate him for allowing the French in to work on the Canal. :D

[Guinness]

The most Siam could spend on the canal a half would be about $14 (nearly the entirety of their budget). If they were working on their own, that would mean it would take 15 years to finish it. Not an unlikely length of time, but that would be 1922, not 1916.

As to who they'd approach, the natural party is the Swiss, but they're effectively an NPC now, so we've decided they would have approached them, but either gotten no response, a non-comital response, or a no.

After that, Iberia, it seems, is already out. DKB and Japan: I'll give you a firm yeah probably under ideal conditions. China: which one? Siam's got to be worried about the RRC. Not really sure that Siam would believe the MK would be interested.

Still in all these figurings, we haven't considered one thing: the Dutch guarantee that should work restart on the canal there would be war. That's got to be at the top of the list of Siam's calculations, no?

At least that's the thinking on the subject so far. I'll leave speculation on the rest of Siam's motivations to the reader.

Or it might all be exactly as in Walter's analysis...

[Walter]

Well, IIRC I told DF during the Mithlond Conference that if NS was not allowed to continue to help building the Kra Canal, Japan would be right there to pick things up and finish the Canal. :)
... and place a few big canons there as well. :D

... so if the Swiss had said no, then they should have ended up with the Japanese... but they ended up with the French so that is why I believe that the Siamese ambassador loves the French.

[P3D]

By the existing NS reports there was not a $ spent on the Kra Canal since the peace treaty.

[Walter]

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