New Swiss Election Campaigning Begins

Campaigning for the 1912 New Swiss elections begins in the spring.  It becomes clear relatively early that this will not be a typical Swiss election.

On the presidential side, President Dooku makes clear his plans to seek election to the office (bear in mind he was elected as VP in 1908).  Dooku points to a thaw in relations with Japan as a major foreign policy victory - "the first step in containing the Dragon".  Dooku takes as his running mate an Australian, retired general Maximilian Veers.

Former President Valorum is advised against running in this election, as the Second Pacific War's outcome remains controversial and largely blamed on his decisions.  Still, Valorum is respected within the Confederation Party as an elder statesman of sorts, and ultimately is able to hand-pick the Party's candidate, Senator Duncan Clarke.  Clarke has been the Confederation Party's house leader in the Senate for the past six years, and is thought to be "bulletproof" so far as potential scandals are concerned - no small consideration given that Dooku's National Party is actively employing investigators to find skeletons in the Confederation Party's closet.  As Clarke is a Home Islander, he also opts for an Australian VP candidate, chosing a young war hero aviator by the name of Luke Skywalker.

The growing pacifist movement in New Switzerland decides to run a candidate as well. The Peace Coalition opts for an Australian candidate, Senator Timothy Haggerty, who has been an independent in the house for two terms.  Haggerty adds college professor Mary Albright, a Home Islander, as his running mate.

Finally, an unprecedented fourth candidate emerges, as Franklin Dougall, a Hawaiian plantation owner, decides to throw his hat in the ring.  With a decidely pro-business platform - less taxes, less government spending, less warfare - his message resonates strongly amongst much of the Swiss business world (besides the military-industrial complex, that is), and he adds Home Islander Ezekial Jeeves, a vice-president of finance of a mining company, as his running mate.

In the Senate campaign, these four factions - National Party, Confederation Party, Peace Coalition, and Enterprise Party - are also joined by several fringe parties, including both separatist and royalist parties in Australia, regional interest parties in Hawaii and Alaska, and the Blue Platypus Party, the latter being a joke party of sorts which includes a bridge between Australia and the Home Island as a key party policy.

The campaign is lively. 

The focus is initially on the National and Confederation candidates, as they are representing established parties that have dominated the Swiss political spectrum for decades.  In actual ideological terms, they are not very far apart, so their campaigns - both with quasi-militaristic "take back what is ours/what we lost" themes - concentrate on picking apart the credibility of each other's ticket as the means to make that goal come true.  Skywalker, for example, is a fine pilot and a war hero, but has no experience in government whatsoever; Dooku, of course, is accused of selling out to the Japanese, though the latter have not been any more involved in Swiss politics and society than in 1910.

The Peace Coalition has a populist appeal to some degree, but lacks major financial backers and has difficulty competing for publicity.  Occasional recognition from the other parties is strictly negative, though they do get some press when General Veers labels them "Surrender Monkeys".  The Enterprise Party has no difficulty finding funds from the Swiss business community, but struggles to articulate a coherent foreign policy platform.  Dougall does score an unexpected success when his response to a question about priorities - "It's the economy, silly" - makes a splash in the press.

The elections are to be held in November, 1912.

DKB Activity

On May 12, a DKB tramp freighter, accompanied by the schlactkreuzer Scharnhorst, drops anchor at Antonsburg, in the Pitcairn Islands.  Coming ashore at the settlement, a DKB bureaucrat announces that the Kaiser has ordered the eighty-six residents of Pitcairn relocated to Neue Pommern, effective immediately.  The bureaucrat is pelted with sticks, stones, and verbal abuse, prompting the landing of sturmtruppen from Scharnhorst.  Tempers remain hot, but the officer in charge of the sturmtruppen is effective at deterring any resumption of stick/stone throwing, particularly after he makes it clear that the Pitcairners are to be allowed to take most of their possessions with them.

It takes eight days for the islanders, with the assistance of the sturmtruppen and the freighter's crew, to load a variety of canoes, furniture, livestock, and other belongings on to the freighter.  On May 20, however, the work is done, and the DKB flag is lowered from the settlement's flag pole by its last governor.  An hour later, the Pitcairners are aboard the tramp freighter, weeping as their former home disappears from view astern. 

Scharnhorst remains at anchor a few hours longer; once the freighter is well over the horizon, her sturmtruppen go ashore again and burn the settlement and its pier.  Scharnhorst then raises anchor and catches up with the freighter the next day, accompanying the rest of the way to Neue Pommern.

With the two ships safely away from the area, the DKB government issues a brief statement to newspapers and diplomatic missions on May 25, stating that it has renounced its sovereignty and control over the Pitcairn Islands.

India

Word reaches the West of several attacks on Catholic and Protestant missionaries located in the interior of the subcontinent.  Most of these attacks see the victims stabbed or bludgeoned to death in their churches, after which the churches are vandalized and/or burned.  Cryptic painted messages are sometimes left behind on the ruined buildings, their meanings unclear to anybody willing to discuss them.

Noted Gran Colombian missionary Santiago Batista is a rare survivor of such attacks, though he is seriously injured and his chapel destroyed by an estimated fifteen to twenty hooded attackers.  Taken to the Baltic Confederation of Gujurat for hospitalization (and his own safety), he confirms that he had no prior warning of trouble - except that the graffiti had appeared on the doors of his chapel the night previous, and nobody had been by to see him that day.

Two bodies pulled from the rubble of his chapel are confirmed by Batista to be from the group of attackers, but are too badly burned to be of any practical help in the investigation - not that the Bharat government seems especially interested in pursuing the matter.

QuoteHaggerty adds college professor Mary Albright, a Home Islander, as his running mate.

ROFLMAO  :D I guess the Swiss should be thankful that it is not Dick Solomon who is running for president!

He might be on the candidacy list for the Blue Platypus Party...

Might concerned Intelligence Service ears know the reason for the withdrawal from Pitcairn? Just generally not 'cost effective'?

DKB is rather tight-lipped about it all, but your speculation is probably not far off.

...and in doing my pre-claim research, I turn up the interesting fact that the Pitcairns are located just inside the round-trip range of Maoria's current battleships.

Funny,  that. ^_^

Maoria issues their claim on the islands on May 27th, and dispatches a fleet wing to take possession of the territory the same day. Included are the battleships Reinforce and Asclepius, the point cruisers Spear Heron and Haast's Eagle, and the escort cruisers Hammerhead, Mako, Orca, Battlenose, and Thresher. On their arrival around June 7th, Reinforce will put ashore a party of about twenty surveyors with a long-ranged radio, two of her large steam launches, spare parts for same and fuel, food, and supplies for a year. The fleet will linger for a few days to confirm that the party is settled in properly, then turn around and head home while they start in on surveying for the air base and fueling station planned for the outpost... as well as the eventual reconstruction to original standards or better of every structure the DKB destroyed while leaving.

Now we'll have to see if anybody else claims them.

That could be entertaining. A good chance to learn things, establish patterns... Yuuno I and his court are doubtless hoping that nothing of the sort will happen, of course, but I wouldn't mind, I think. ^_^

In March and April the Habsburg Battle Squadron, consisting of the three newest Schlachtschiffe  - SMS Juan de Austria, SMS Tegetthoff SMS Siligia - with an escort of also brand new SMS Herzogin Bathroy and SMS Koenigin eldvig - made an Atlantic cruise.

The flotilla visited several South American ports - in Gra Colombia, Iberian Brasil, Paranguia and Desterro in Parana, the Porto Allegre in Brandenburger Rio Grande, and Buenos Aires and Puerto Militar in NUSA. The cruisers made a brief run to Sandessptiz to show the flag at the newest Habsburg possesion, also stopping at Rio Gallegos.

At all stops local military and civilian officials were given tours of those mighty vessels

The Habsburg Court expresses its concern over the pogroms to the Bharat Gov't.
Habsburg offices on the Sub-Continent (Bharat, Goa, Bengal, Mughals, the Russian base, etc.) directly, and through friendly traders and religious concerns - indirectly, offer refuge and adobe to all persecuted or threatened Christians, regardless of denomination.
Transport to Parana is offered.
Offer applies to Converts upon Baptism.

DKB Activity

The colony of Rio Grande do Sol is handed over to the DKB's Hapsburger cousins, while the DKB takes over the former Hapsburger enclave at Aden. 

The exchange does not come as a huge shock to residents of RGdS.  It and Parana have a shared history and culture pre-dating the arrival of the DKB and Hapsburgers in 1903/04, and even the newcomers, arriving in the same anti-Anahuac context, share some common culture between themselves.  Business interests have certainly been keen to expand their markets, and the prospect of an integrated market appeals to them.  Still, several thousand diehard Brandenburger loyalists express enough concern that the Kaiser grudgingly offers to repatriate them to the Vaterland if they are still upset after a year has elapsed.

For Adenites, the writing has been on the wall since the Hapsburgers' post-war withdrawal from the Pacific.  While a few Adenites choose to retain their Hapsburger citizenship and return home (or to Parana), most of the Mediterranean immigrants are content to accept DKB citizenship and look for an improvement in economic opportunities.  They see themselves as Germans, whether subject to a distant Hapsburg or Hohenzollern.   Interestingly, among the Levantine segment of the population (Syrian Christians), the community leaders lobby to preserve their status as Habsburg subjects, but with the right to remain at Aden for the time being.  After some internal policy debates, the DKB allows this, issuing "Special Category" visas to the individuals in question.

For DKB strategists, Aden adds security to a "northern" Indian Ocean route between Afrika and the rest of the Reich.  It is also seen as a useful place from which to interdict Italian or Zionese shipping if the occasion calls for it.  Although the loss of Rio Grande do Sol does have an impact on the national economy, the pruning of DKB geography is generally - if quietly - considered to be an improvement on affairs from the military perspective.  Isolated colonies - the defence of which cost the DKB several warships in the last war - have now been erased, and the position in the Indian Ocean is stronger.

DKB units begin transferring out of South America within days; the ground troops are mostly bound for Afrika, where the build-up of Italian ground forces has not gone unnoticed.    It will, however, be months before the entire DKB military garrison has been removed.  A regiment of I Dragoons, however, is gradually moved to Aden itself.  They, along with a regiment of sturmtruppen, will form the initial garrison as the Hapsburger forces are withdrawn.

Atlantikflotte warships not involved in escorting troop convoys remain on station, though indications are that in the longer term, they will take up station at Aden.  In the interim, Afrikaflotte naval forces extend their operating region to include the new enclave.

As an aside - the Maorian fleet arrives at the Pitcairns to find it unclaimed by any other power.  No claims subsequently are reported, so the Maorians are able to establish themselves without having to worry about imminent conflict.

Rats! Now New Zion can't go after Aden!

Sure it can - there'll just be a different set of people there to greet you.