WesWorld

I believe there's 15 or so ocean going sweepers. However since what I wanted was a vessel to serve more on a port security mission, I figured I'd tow a little wooden coastal one over.

On convoys, the reason the Dutch navy is offering the service is primarily domestic pressure. The Navy is well aware that it's inefficient and annoying, but merchants are demanding a naval presence and escort. That there are many nations with warships already present has been pointed out, but as merchant ships keep exiting the red sea with holes in them, the Dutch merchant community is not convinced that relying on incidental foreign protection is adequate.

Ships of many nations have come under attack from light vessels. When the Indians lost a cruiser to pirates, shipping concerns went from alarmed to irate that the navy had no presence.

Secondarily, it's a show the flag exercise, demonstrating that the Dutch can establish and support vessels away from home, can deal with the light combatant issue, all without use of major fleet units or a major commitment. Groningen and the gunboats can accomplish the mission as well as some Frieslands or light cruisers, but do not require main fleet elements to be diverted.

Lastly, it was felt the best way to prevent accidental conflicts with SATSUMA. A "mistake" regarding a single ships ID is far easier than mistaking 4-5 escorting a group of ships.

Grrr. Won't let me edit the little squares again. Odd, I can do it from the work computer.... Aha, it's a Firefox vs. Explorer thing. Explorer (oddly) can.

February 10th, The Batavia Bugle
The high dignitaries of the provincial government turned out in force to honor the departing TIDE commission. The Commission departs on the Royal Yacht Nassau and is expected to return to the Netherlands after stops in Cape Town and Matadi.

February 15th, Lake Blommestien testing facility, Dutch Guiana.
General Quaeckernaeck surveyed the test range

"You know Colonel, I can not decide if I am thrilled the government saw fit to finally give us a couple thousand square kilometers for weapons testing, or annoyed it could not be somewhere closer to home, or at least a beach. Those Paramaribo resorts are quite nice. So, I am looking forward to your demonstrations."

"Thank you sir, well the past couple of days you have seen variants of our standard equipment being tested under field conditions. Today, as you know, we have some prototypes to demonstrate. <checks his watch> the first should be arriving in 10 minutes."

<time passes>

"Now, , if you look over there with the glasses, youll see a trench and bunker complex on the front of that hill, with some facilities behind. From over there should come the flight of Fokker VIIIm3 bombers. As briefed, we are exploring area effecting munitions rather than just a couple big bombs. We tried adapting handgrenades to drop from rails mounted on the wings, but they did terrible things to the airflow and severely stressed the structures. We also blew the wings off of two aircraft, b"

"Good God! were the pilots ok !?"

"Oh, no worries sir, the aircraft were still on the ground. As I was saying we had difficulties with fuzing mechanisms. So we have taken fairly conventional mortar bombs, added spinner nose fuses and hung them in vertical racks in the bomb bays. In this test the two outer rack are curves to lob the bombs to the side of the aircra...here they come!"

<four aircraft fly in at 300' and as they approach the defensive works, a shower of small dark objects commences from each one, blanketing the area with explosions and dust. >

" We can stack the bombs 3 high in the racks, arrayed 5 across and 8 length wise. There are of course problems- the aircraft have to fly at certain speeds and altitudes for proper dispersion, the inner three racks land quite close together and the overall course is narrow, and the entire rack setup is not easily removable, limiting the planes to this role."

"I see. Intriguing, and with some merit, but I am concerned that the negatives outweigh the positives. Particularly as a skilled mortar battery can deliver 120 bombs in a couple minutes with much less investment. The small munitions area saturation concept is fine, but this approach will not be adequate.

"Ahh, but Sir, that brings us to our last prototype, the Cluster-chucker, "

"THE WHAT?"

"Sorry sir, Cluster-chucker is a pet name, the official name is 'Sonic' "

"Aha, that I have heard of, but no one could give me any details, but- a sound weapon I presume?"

"No Sir, somebody used the wrong encryption on the cable to HQ, and that is now on all the paper work. The weapon is a cluster mortar. See, over there sir, those eight trucks coming this way?"

"Yes"

"Well each truck is towing one of those new four wheel gun carriages. These have the same split tail, firing pedestal arrangement as we demonstrated with the 10cm guns. As they pull up, the crew hops out the back, the range is quickly determined by the passenger in the cab <points> while as the crew ensures the carriage is properly prepared and lowered on the firing baseplate. You can see that the passengers from the other cabs are determining bearing and distance to the other trucks.

Now, as you know, infantry tends to take cover after the first rounds come in, or airplanes approach, so we wanted a weapon system more likely to catch the enemy in the open on the first salvo, as well as something flexible and not overly exposed to counter battery fire.

As you can see, those clusters on the top of the carriages are a five by five array of spigot mortars, arrayed to land in a grid. As they adjust each rack of five, they vary the aim, each truck is assigned a different portion of a battery sized grid- ears Sir"

< spigot mortars ripple fire, explosions cover defensive works>

"now Sir, watch how quickly they can pack up and depart, should be under two minutes."

"Much more impressive than the planes, 200 bombs to the 120 per plane, but much less hazard to our crews and likely overall a cheaper investment in training and material. Excellent pattern from what I can see in the glasses. What is the range?"

"Range is variable by the design of the bomb. That is why we are experimenting with spigot mortars, we can very the dimensions of the round far easier to achieve desired results. That said, the range is generally shorter compared to conventional mortars, and the weight of the round higher.

However, we can have extraordinary variants. We already have a three by three variant with up to nine 200mm spigot bombs with an 800m range, as well as silenced mortars which may be better suited to assaults and resistant to counter battery location.

We feel that the range is possibly an acceptable tradeoff for the ability to saturate a target area with the first volley from a single battery."

"You may well be right. Good work and continue development of this one, I want some cross country capability if we plan on this being a assault weapon with a fairly short range though.. "

February 23rd,
Captain Bakema stood on the bunker, looking out over the Gulf of Mallacuer, watching the water lap the shoreline in the sunset.

"Boss, we have problems with the rails" he heard....again. The Captain passionately wished he could strap the damn admiral to these damn roller coaster rails and then run the coaster at the rated 100 knots.

"What is the problem?"

"More soft mud, the footings have offset again and the rails warped, the trolley will jump the tracks, you better come look"

The Captain dropped his head and trudged back to the mock airbase with the crazy birds nests of roller coasters webbing the skies. He had liked the first airbase without the roller coasters much better, and really could npt wait for the weekend so he could get back to Inanwaten...on second thought perhaps that could wait.

In which we see how many little squares pop up.....

March

The Amsterdam Advocate, March 5th
The War Ministry made a series of announcements today.

War Minister Snellenson shall be traveling to the Kingdom of the Kongo, where he shall review the nasceant Army of the Kongo, inspect the Dutch troops present and lend his wisdom to the Kongo Defense Ministry.

The Army has announced that the heavy tank contract let to Skoda and FN has been modified. The development of a self-propelled gun carriage portion of the contract shall be awarded to an Italian firm, while Skoda and FNs efforts are to be focused on a large tank mounting an infantry gun in the hull and an anti-tank gun in the turret. Progress on the Skoda Filipino-Dutch tank is reported to be quite satisfactory.

The Navys testing of the modernized 240mm gun has proven satisfactory. The new liner material being tested in these guns has not proved superior to the old liners and shall be replaced in production.

The Marines shall be conducting a small arms comparison in imitation of the German rifle competition. Full companies are to be outfitted with the rifles submitted in the German competition and shall use the weapons over the course of the next year.

The Brussels Sprout March 18th
Continuing problems roil the Belgian Merchant marine. In addition to the bankruptcy warnings of two stalwart companies, the old shipping firm of Pêcheries à Vapeur, of Ostende, announced today that been subject to an unsolicited takeover, as the small firm Unie van Redding has acquired a majority of the shares. This move by a small salvage and waste control company sent a shock through the shipping community and spurred furious speculation as to the financial backers of Unie van Redding. The Management of Pêcheries à Vapeur has been informed only some will be retained. The Management of Unie van Redding was not available for comment.

The troubles of the Belgian shipping companies is traced by many to the high tariffs on imports put in place by the current government to protect local industry. While ensuring local industrial jobs in the short run, economists warn that the tariffs reward inefficiency and cost shipping jobs. Recent studies indicate that the coast of landers is certainly experiencing a deeper economic impact than the rest of the nation. The combination of the recession reducing demand and the impact of the tariffs appear to have severely depressed exports while allowing domestic corporations to keep prices high. High prices further depress domestic buying power and make domestic goods uncompetitive overseas. The last factor is that goods transiting the Nederlend or Luxembourg borders pay no duties and trade with those countries has soared.

March 31st, The Hauge Herald
A small crowd gathered to witness the departure of the battleship Oceaan for the East Indies. The government has announced plans to refit the Zeven Provincien class, and the Oceaan will replace the Zeven Provincien in the Indies.

April

The Brussels Sprout, April 5th
-The King Albert suggests constitutional changes to allow direct voting for representatives, rather than the current system, where voting is by party and party bosses determine the order of the candidates on the party slate. As expected, this proposal was quickly rejected by Belgian government, leading to demonstrations both in the northern shipyards as well as unrest in Walloon areas, commencement of petition drive.

The Hauge Herald, April 10th
The Territorial Infrastructure and Development Evaluation Commission presented its report to the States-Generaal today. Crown Prince William, nominally the leader of the commission, demurred from presenting the report in favor of commission member and former advisor to the Queen, Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje of Leiden Universiteit.

The report focused on the current state of affairs in the Netherlands East Indies, evaluating the effects of the reforms of the Queens 1905 Ethical Policy and make proposals for the future governance of these provinces.

Introduction

The Netherlands East Indies was initially assimilated by Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie for mercantile reasons in the 1600s. Local feudal nobility was supplanted by Dutch administrators, while local elites have long been relied on to supply the bureaucracy. This has resulted in a government that is stiff, unresponsive and distant, even when the ablest of governors are appointed.

Mercantile laws established Batavia as the only port of exports, distorting trade routes, centralizing trade in the hands of larger merchants, and restricting the ability of raw material owners to strike advantageous deals.

The Dutch losses in the fourth war with England may have stemmed from Dutch trade with the Americans, but the results were devastating for the VOC and led to bankruptcy and transfer of company assets to the Batavian Republic. The 1800s saw a series of minor conflicts as Dutch governors more clearly established Dutch rule. The 1894 Lombok incident led to a reevaluation of methods and a different approach which successfully ended the thirty year old war with the Sultanate of Aceh.

The current government is a result of reforms started under the Queens Ethical Policy of 1905. Substantial advances in education, medical care, agriculture, and population dispersion had been achieved by time of the Great War in 1914. The blockade of the Netherlands led to an economic crisis and greater pressure placed on the treasury of the East Indies. This led to numerous projects being slowed. The seizure of the Andaman islands by the Empire of India in 1917 and the 1917-18 conflict led to a cancellation of the independence talks, passage of censorship laws, the suspension of most of the Ethical Policy projects, and the reallocation of monies to defense needs in the East Indies and the Netherlands. Fifteen years later, reform is still not finished, and the Ethical Policy projects remain uncompleted.

Political recommendation

The Netherlands East Indies needs to be reorganized, decentralized and administered as seven provinces, of Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Sulawesi, the Moluccas, New Guinea, and the Sunda Islands. Each province will retain the current district demarcations, such as Aceh.

Each province will be headed by a governor vested with executive powers and a legislative parliament. Each district legislature within the province will appoint members to serve on provincial legislature. District legislatures shall initially be drawn from prominent members of society. Commencing in 1936, half the seats, on an alternating basis, shall be filled by general elections to held every four years. Districts which are currently self governing, such as Aceh, Bali, and Ambon, should remain so.

The voting franchise should be expanded from individuals of European descen,t to all those owning a hectare or more of property, or having completed their primary education through Grade 12, and are 16 years of age or greater.

The commission hereby recommends that these seven provinces be recognized and receive seats in the Eerste Kamer. This will allow the provinces a forum to express their views of bills passed by the Tweede Kamer and an opportunity to vote against. These individuals should be appointed by the provincial governors and confirmed by the provincial parliaments.

As the recommended changes would appear to require revisions to the constitution to enact, the commission humbly recommends that consideration also be given of the future status of the territory of Dutch Guiana.

Economic recommendation

Provincial governments should be enabled to develop budgets, prioritize projects, and enact provincial taxes.

The system of requiring licensed merchants, a legacy of the East Indies Company, results in limited natural resource markets and low returns on investments, reducing incentive for small operators to produce supplemental products for export. The commission recommends license fees and paper work be reduced to minimal levels to cover administrative costs, and the restriction on number of licenses removed. This will create new middle man options, trade routes and encourage new individuals to become involved in trade.

The national government should sponsor a program to increase agricultural land. Exploitation of the agricultural tractor and the caterpillar tractor should increase farm production and allow new areas to brought under production. As most peasant fields are undersized for economic ownership of tractors, it is suggested that rent-a-tractor businesses be financed that can service a large number of peasant fields over the course of the season and can expand to suit demand. A similar program should be emplaced to establish construction companies to enact the infrastructure projects recommended.

The national government should invest in provincial infrastructure to improve communications, trade, and prosperity. A transportation backbone should be developed for each major island, linking larger towns by road and railroad. Strategic locations on these routes should be fortified at the time of development. Harbors should be developed to allow more options for seaborne trade.

Economic incentives should be put in place for development of locally based industry and factories. New facilities and local majority ownership should be rewarded with lower taxes and low interest loans. As current machine shops, such as Brandt Steel of Soerabaja, are tied to major industry or the military, of particular concern is the need for small marine engine shops, machinery plants, tool and die plants and the other underpinnings of the modern industrial economy.

Two primary problems stem from current conditions. A prominent problem is lack of basic capital, and a lack of dispersion of capital. Most financial resources are restricted to small areas. The Bank of the Kongo loan practices establish a pattern that could be replicated, though additional incentives may be needed to make the rate of return attractive. A second problem is the current lack of infrastructure support to maintain and repair machinery, and the lack of knowledgeable operators.

This commission recommends that the military and civilian employees be presented with opportunities to return to their home region to establish businesses. This will have the negative effect of impairing the efficiency of the organizations they leave, but have the substantial benefit of using competent people familiar with both local populace and Dutch procedures to establish industries in widely dispersed areas. Current Pioneering, Engineering, and Logistics personnel and schools established by the military should be used to provide the necessary training to enrollees. Fundamental business models should be developed and basic fundamentals taught to enrollees in the programs.

Legal recommendations

While the class laws have not usually been enforced since 1905, they remain legally valid and a source of much resentment. These should be struck from the legal annals.

All legal documents should be presented in both Dutch and the dominant language of the province.

Judges should be appointed by the Provincial governor from pools of candidates nominated by provincial parliaments.

Trade laws in general, and Tax laws which place high tariffs between islands should be eliminated.

Educational recommendation

Expand primary education to complete Grade 1-8 coverage of the population. Curriculum to include basic math, locally appropriate trades, world and Dutch history, local history, the provincial language and Dutch. Familiarity with enlightenment philosophy should be included in the world history category.

At this time, entry tests for Grades 9-12 should be required. Grades 9-12 should expand on prior teachings, include a third language to give familiarity with French, English or Spanish, and produce students capable of managerial positions in industry, agriculture or government.

Students of exceptional talent should be identified and encouraged to attend a University or a Military academy. Financial systems should be established to ensure talented but impoverished students can succeed.

Dr. Hurgronje concluded to polite applause. The Tweede Kamer is certain to take the next several weeks to review the full body of the report, which runs over six hundred pages of evaluation and specific recommendations.


The Hauge Herald, April 23rd
Foreign Minster Grootveld was asked today about the SAINT situation We have confidence in our Italian friends to resolve these issues.

The Hauge Herald, May 7th

Foreign Minster Grootveld was again asked about the SAINT situation We expect that our Italian allies will provide a reasonable solution to the issues raised. When asked if he felt the Clieto Treaty was threatened and the Dutch position on this matter, he replied We have always upheld the treaty, and while we acknowledge that it has been damaged by numerous countries exploiting its flaws over the past several years, we intend to continue to do our part to uphold it.

Interesting and excellent news. I like the TIDE report

Also.. "Snellenson"? Wonderful names.

Quoted

Originally posted by Alikchi
Interesting and excellent news. I like the TIDE report

Also.. "Snellenson"? Wonderful names.

I'm partial to, The Brussels Sprout. Brilliant!!

Quoted

The Marines shall be conducting a small arms comparison in imitation of the German rifle competition. Full companies are to be outfitted with the rifles submitted in the German competition and shall use the weapons over the course of the next year.

Interesting. In what cartridge are the Dutch asking for these rifles? Historically, at this point in time the rifle used by the Dutch is the 6.5 x 53mmR Mannlicher, an older (first adopted in 1893 by Rumania) cartridge with a rimmed case.

The army and marines currently use the Mauser 1898 7.92x57. Unlike the Army, the Marines expect mobile operations in all terrain, distant from heavy support weapons. So they decided to explore the option in a field test.

Snellenson is named after Capt. Jan Snellensoon who commanded the frigate Utrecht in one of the Anglo-Dutch battles. However, the name conjures a certain weasel-like quality that I wanted in my war minister : )

Quoted

The army and marines currently use the Mauser 1898 7.92x57. Unlike the Army, the Marines expect mobile operations in all terrain, distant from heavy support weapons. So they decided to explore the option in a field test.

So, are the Marines looking for the rifles to be tested in 7.92x57mm? In the German tests, of course, the rifles were in 7x40mm, but most all of the rifles were historically available in 7.92x57 or could be converted (the Garand and Pedersen were not, yet, available in that size, though, and the Walther, Mauser, and Solothurn weapons would need to be scaled up).

Yes, they are going to ask for the arms companies to deliver weapons modified to take the 7.92x57. I'm not sure how long that would take, but was figuring at least 6 months until everything was prepared. If a manufacturer was not ready at that time, they would probably accept 7x40 rifles if necessary.

Time wise, this will also allow wargaming against the new Kongo Army units as part of their training, which in turn will give experince in a wide variety of terrains.

Depends on the rifle, it took several years to get the Garand strong enough to use the .30-06 (7.62x63mm) when it was designed for the 7.62x51mm Pedersen. At least strong enough to pass acceptance tests, that is. The 7.92x57mm isn't much weaker than the .30-06 (in it's military loadings), so if the Marines want to play SOON, they'll probably want them in 7x40mm IF they want all the rifles to use the same cartridge. If they don't carry about having them all using the same cartridge, you could easily get the US rifles in 7.62x51mm Pedersen, the FN and ZH-29 in 7.92x57mm, the Solothurn, Walther and Mauser rifles in 7x40mm, etc pretty quickly.

Hmmm, in that case they will likely go with the 7x40 for all the rifles, as they would not want scaling difficulties to cause the "best" design to fail.

In that case, they can also benefit from the work that was done before and after the German tests on the various rifles to improve their behavior with the 7x40mm round. Some of the bugs that appeared in the German tests might not appear in these later tests, simply because the rifles have been updated in the year since then (that it will take to deliver company-sized quantities of the weapons).

True, I expect some of the problems to be remedied, and that effected the Marine's decision to invite those who participated in the German competition.

I would also expect that the equatorial and particularly the jungle conditions will be placing some new stresses on the designs. Designs like the Czech ZH-29may now sport a handguard or a redesigned heat disapater, but the tight machining may experience difficulty with the increased ambient heat and general grit.

Yep, the general ambient heat and humidity might produce somewhat different results than the German tests. The German tests did include tests in warm weather conditions, but it wasn't particularly a point of emphasis.

Still got that square problem, I see. I'm starting to wonder if it happens mainly when pasting in stuff from documents written in other applications.

Glad to see TIDE is out. I will be certain to post a reaction shortly.

Hmm guess I didn't go back and edit those out.
I have come to the conclusion that the ' symbol is always changed to a square when pasting from word or outlook. It looks like the " is also converted to a square.

Ahh well.

The following letter is hand-delivered to the Queen via the South African ambassador in the Netherlands, in early July.

Quoted

Your Highness,

It was with considerable interest that I read a copy of the Territorial Infrastructure and Development Evaluation Commissions report over the past week. My advisors had presented a variety of predictions about the reports content, and I was rather curious to see whether they would be proven generally overly-optimistic or overly pessimistic. I should like to express my thoughts on the report to you privately, monarch to monarch, in order that you may be informed while not unduly influencing your government.

The political recommendations are sensible. I am pleased that the need for local representation in both the district legislatures and the Eerste Kamer is recognized. Empowering local people through a gradually introduced democratic process is a laudable goal, if they can be convinced that the process is honest and effective. Our experience in the first round of civic elections in Bharat was that many potential voters had little confidence in the process - but that many more became involved in the second set of elections four years later.

The economic recommendations are generally also positive. Some of my advisors have expressed concern that development of agricultural lands should be carefully paced and implemented, as a rapid expansion would most likely come about through Slash and Burn techniques. Where this has been practiced on Ceylon and in our eastern states, there has been considerable trouble with subsequent soil erosion during monsoons, reducing the productivity of the land and degrading water quality. As an aside, where mechanized agriculture is practiced in Bharat, it is not uncommon for a Community Cooperative to own the machinery, with the farmers paying for memberships that support the acquisition and maintenance of the equipment.

The educational recommendations are broadly appropriate, though I am puzzled at the notion that French, English, or Spanish would be suitable choices for a third lanaguage for star students. I would think that the languages spoken by other nations in the area would be more useful in the long term. At the same time, I would have preferred to see a stronger commitment to incorporating the local peoples into the machinery of government than is stated.

On the whole, despite specific reservations here and there, I believe that the TIDE commission has produced a useful document. The real challenge to your nation now is in determining what to do with the report. It is my hope that your nation will act on most of the recommendations, as they will empower the people of Indonesia, improve their quality of life, and, perhaps, allow your nation and mine to begin to heal our wounded relationship. You will be aware of how Bharats relationship with France has progressed as a result of French initiatives in Indochina of late; I would view similar developments with respect to the Netherlands and Indonesia as something worth striving for.

Sincerely,

Brashkar II,
Bharat