WesWorld

January 18th 1935: Hyderabad

Samraja Brashkar II, entered the room and asked, "Gentlemen? Update me on the international situation, if you will."

"Certainly, Sire", Foreign Minister Jal Kadharni replied. "As you'll be aware from the briefing notes, our friends the Afrikaners are involved in a shooting war and by private channels they have asked for our help."

"So what our friends need?”

"Their initial concern seems to be the relocation of resources from the Indian Ocean to the War Theater could cause some problems to their regular patrolling of the trade routes."

Brashkar responded, "That is all? Assure our African friends that our fleet will take all missions needed necessary by then to ensure they could achieve their projected objectives. Anything to add from your part, Minister Chidambaram?"

The Defense Minister began, "Samraja, the Bharatiya Nau Sena could offer to deploy a Field Force to the conflict if requested but is doubtful the Afrikaners accept this offer.”

"Why not?", Brashkar asked.

"The War so far has not being more than a large border dispute, without any large scale fighting so far. I pretty much doubt the Afrikaners‘ General Staff would want to have logistical problems by trying to plug into their order of battle our troops, at least so early in this conflict."

"Still make the offer. Offering to fight alongside then will go a long way into further cementing our friendship, even if they politely decline. This will show then our willingness to spill our blood for then as they did for us during the Filipino Civil War."

"Will do, Sire", responded the Defense Minister

Brashkar turned around to face again his Foreign Minister and asked, “What is the situation in China? Seems to be that they have taken a belligerent stance of lately.” (1)

“Well Sire, they have started an aggressive naval construction program and it seems they are accelerating their modernization program of their land forces. Of course both things are being eyed suspiciously by the European Powers so far.”

Brashkar sighted and asked, “What is the opinion of the Japanese? Could you meet with then to try to gauge their feelings in regard to the Chinese’s actions?

“Yes, Sire. I will convey our concerns to the Japanese and try to gauge their feelings in the matter.”

Brashkar stood, “My apologies but it seems we will have to continue this meeting at a later date, I promised the Rana to accompany her for lunch today. You’re all excused.”

(1) This is before the actions in the Paracels.

May 2nd 1935- Foreign Minister Kadharni finished his letter to his Chinese counterpart, put the letter into an envelope and sealed it. The letter expressed the reaction of the Indian nation in regard to the latest Chinese actions with Kadharni consulting the Japanese beforehand and he was expecting the Japanese to sent a similar letter to the Chinese. "I only hope they hear our concerns." was his thought before calling one of his aides to his office.

April 22nd 1935- Foreign Minister Kadharni was furious. "We tell that hotheads in Java to keep their heads down for a while. The progress being made by the sharing of responsabilities in the patrolling of the Indian Ocean (1) is going to be for naught." he yelled to his aide who only nodded in agreement, knowing full well his superior's temper sometimes gets the best of him.

"Sir, it seems they understood our intentions correctly. I guess they figure out the reduction in funding to their cause as our intentions to slowly improve relations with the Dutch for the South Africans sake." was the response of the aide.

Kadharni rubbed his temple and then spoke. "This is what we will do. We will denounce in the news the attacks in Batavia as the attacks of radicals and that Bharat, while disputing the the Dutch claimed rights of ownership to the Indies, understand the only way to end the colonial rule is by peaceful means."

"But how the Japanese and the other members of the Alliance will respond to our actions?" asked the aide."Is a big step for us to actually say that we want peaceful and gradual change in the region."

"I know but the alliance with the South Africans is very important to us plus we are receiving our oil from Persia anyway(2). Having some pull with the Persians could help in making the other members see the light of at least accepting the Dutch for a while. The Italians on the other hand..." he stopped allowing the small joke to set in and his aide smiled also after understanding the jest.

(1) both nations have taken over the South African patrol routes in the Indian Ocean and at least some kind of communication must exist to try not to get involved in "accidents."

(2) IIRC at the time IOTL a large chunk of the oil production in the world was coming from Persia, with more production that even the Dutch Indies.

April 29th 1935- Short from Bharat News

An invitation was send today by our nation to the nations of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey for membership in Satsuma. After consultations with the other powers of the alliance it was considered that indeed time for expansion of our trade association is a hand.

Quoted

Originally posted by perdedor99
(1) both nations have taken over the South African patrol routes in the Indian Ocean and at least some kind of communication must exist to try not to get involved in "accidents."

Agreed, there will be circumstances where warships of both Navies are sharing a port and meeting at sea. There are even some scenarios where they might have to... gasp...cooperate....Probably the easiest for both the conservatives in both Navies is establish a common channel for emergency communications to work through the RSAN for other matters.

Admiral Pienaar on the other hand, must be thrilled that this obscene thing has not come to pass while he was Admiral of the Fleet. Well, actually he's probably furious it happened just weeks after he retired.

The Mutual Assistance Pact we signed with the Russian Federation in 1924 will suffice for our defense requirements, and we find more than adequate markets for our exports to Russia, Turkey, Iran, and other countries vicinity the Black Sea.

On the Persian oil issue, historically Persian oil was developed and exported by the Brits. The Persian player we had was in pretty much just long enough to join SATSUMA, but never nationalized the industry. Presumably that means the timeline before and after is relatively the same as the Real World. So, is Persia still a major source of oil for the UK?

Quoted

Originally posted by AdmKuznetsov
The Mutual Assistance Pact we signed with the Russian Federation in 1924 will suffice for our defense requirements, and we find more than adequate markets for our exports to Russia, Turkey, Iran, and other countries vicinity the Black Sea.

translation of the above........

Russia to SATSUMA "Get back in your box!!!!"

Sounded more like a VERY tactfull "Kiss off".

Heh I am just bemused Atlantis has no qualms about Turkey joining SATSUMA

I haven't commented on that yet either from the Turkish perspective or the Atlantean perspective, but you'd be right to be bemused if Atlantis didn't comment on that.

In an OOC perspective Turkey already sences that should they join SATSUMA they could expect relations with Atlantis to sour quickly not to mention with Greece. Atlantis has been in the middle of Greeko-Turk sabre rattling for some time avoiding taking either side and its prevented Atlantis from obtaining good to excellent relations with either country, that would change with Turkey joining SATSUMA.

In the end joining SATSUMA really wouldn't benifit Turkey as much as it would hurt them, SATSUMA could do little to stop Turkey from taking a pounding from Greece and any ally they could find. Italy would probably begrudgingly side with Greece simply to spite the Indians, while Atlantis would abandon efforts to play peacemaker.

Simple trade relations with some of the freindlier SATSUMA nations like Persia and India would suffice. Militarily, Germany or Russia has more potential as a savior for Turkey. Maintaining the status quo between Greeko-Turkish-Atlantean relations is the safest option.

Azerbaijan also would seem loyal to Russia/Atlantis for lobbying for their independance post war and their efforts to keeping peace between the Armenians and the Azerbaijani's.

from the Russian perspective, are free to join SATSUMA, should their governments be so ill-advised. Russia firmly holds the oil of Baku, and the Azeri government are well-aware that any action there will provoke a vastly disproportionate response, and that distant waters will not put out a nearby fire.

The Russian Bear minces no words!

Now *that* is more what I was expecting Just did not seem like FAR would be happy with a SATSUMA expansion in that direction.

I keep reading the name of the Indian capital as Hyperbad , thats without trying !

W.W.P.D.?

What Would Putin Do?

Haha!

May 1st 1935- Foreign Minister Kadharni wasn't a very happy man at all. The decision to formally expand Satsuma to the West turned into a fiasco, with the Russian bear slapping the Armenians and Azbejanis into their line of thought while Turkey was open to an expansion of the trade relationship with Bharat and Persia but politely refusing formally entering the Satsuma alliance. Now with the hit the image of Bharat has taken in the World stage something needed to be done.

Kadharni knew one nation was opposed to what Satsuma stood for a long time but maybe it was time to try to improve the relationship with them. He began to write a small note, the basis of what could be the start of a working relationship in the long future.

Quoted

Originally posted by AdmKuznetsov
W.W.P.D.?

What Would Putin Do?

I was wondering what those ANT-20s were doing in the Canadian Arctic....

July 30th 1935- Colonel Gurbir Singh, commander of the 1st Jagganatta Battalion attached to the Eight Field Force, smiled while admiring the new mounts of his unit. Gurbir was accustomed to the boxy figure of the Shers and the seemingly obscene number of machineguns sticking out of the Gaadas but this new vehicles seemed closer to the pictures of new Russian and German tanks presented a little over a year ago. So the Pishachas (1) did their job after all, thinking of the Bharat's intelligence officers that gave the briefing at the time.

The engines of the 32 Arguns (2) began to rumble, their crews getting ready to move the vehicles to the proving grounds near Delhi. The vehicles slowly started to move in the direction of the train yard to load into the railcars taking them to their destination where they were going to meet with the 7th Motorized Cavalry Regiment and their Satyakis.(3) With his vehicles in the move already Gurbir started to walk to his Ajgar command car, mounted the vehicle and ordered his driver to take him in the direction of the yard. It depends of us to test this vehicles to the fullest of their capabilities. I only hope my counterpart on the 7th do the same to his vehicles. were his thoughts while moving there.

(1) evil ghosts in Hindu. maybe a proper nickname to te SPEARFISH operatives.

(2) two companies of 16 tanks. The only such vehicles in the Indian Army and production will stay low, the Satyakis having the lion share of production.

(3) A battalion needs around a 100. In reality the Regiment only have around 50 vehicles at this time and will not have their full complement until around the middle of next year. Tanks and other armored vehicles are not a a high priority at this time (read 1935-36).

Most tank battalion TO&Es I've seen have between 40-60 tanks, with a few above and below that. Of course, that's at full strength and doesn't really account for whether there are spares or not.