WesWorld

July 13th 1935- Thaddeus Mital stood up, finally responding to the discussions:

"AsI stated before, we will not accept League troops in our territory but we are more than willing to accept an inmediate ceasefire and the removal of our forces from Lithuania as soon as the Lithuanian government accepts a ceasefire with the lines of July 8th. We are not asking for the League to take over the control of that nation, only to sort out the mess in that country."

"As is know by public knowledge the arrival of heavy equipment and personnel from the Dutch nation, even as so-called volunteers, gave hope to the Lithuanian government to politely ignore the pleas of both Germany and Nordmark for a ceasefire. They are as guilty as the Lithuanian government for this crisis."

He sat down. He knew the discussion was pointless except if the complete Council agreed to action. The horsetrading will take so long that most likley the situation will resolve itself one way or the other before they can agree in a decision.

Thomas Krithia stood up.

"We continue to be amazed at the lack of remorse on the part of Poland for the large portion of the blame that lays at their feet for this crisis. They are all to eager to point the finger at others. Therefore we feel that mere reparations payment to Lithuania in addition to their removal of troops is not enough.

If they are unwilling to accept league troops then the only other option is to limit the size of their military by treaty to ensure they cannot continue to threaten their neighbours. The former solution is much shorter term, Atlantis will do its best to see the later is much longer in term."

Thaddeus Mital smiled at the Atlantean proposal. He knew the Council was powerless to do anything as he proposed. His thoughts were of the realities of geopolitics; "If Poland refuses to sign a treaty following the lines of armed reduction the only thing they can do is outright invasion, something not even Germany will tolerate. Germany needed a somewhat powerful speedbump in the worst case scenario of a conflict with Russia, regional politics being in reality more strong than the dreams of politicans on an island isolated in the Atlantic."

OOC: I saw that there were some discussion if the LoN ever deployed peace keepers. Swedish and Dutch LoN troops were deployed to Saar, observers were also sent to a number of hotspots

The Indian delegate stood.

"The Atlantean proposal we consider to be one biased against certain nations. We don't see then asking for reductions in the size of the Dutch military, nation that has being involved unofficially in two miltary conflicts in the last three years. Dutch military equipment still dots the Hedjaz landscape, as derelicts of course," he smiled for a second at his own private joke, "and Dutch weapons are now in Lithuania also."

He stopped for a second and took a sip of water, then he continued. "The job of the League is not to police the World. That task is impossible to achieve if nations first put their interests on front, I don't see Atlantis asking Russia to reduce their military everything time they announce activations of troops, like for example their overblown reaction to Chinese maneuvers in Manchuria that almost created an international problem in the region.

Poland has accepted all proposals so far, except for the ones asking then to renounce to their rights as a nation by being bullied to accept foreign troops on their soil. India for one will refuse to vote aye for any proposal that includes asking Poland to reduce their forces."

Kiosseivanoff resisted the urge to scoff at the Polish ambassador's statement. "Gentlemen, every hour we deliberate here without reaching a final solution makes the outcome of a larger war more inevitable. Russia is bound to fulfill its treaty obligations with Lithuania, and it does not tax my imagination now to see Russian troops fighting the Polish troops in the Vilnius region by the end of next week. Should this occur then the Polish-Romanian-Yugoslav alliance will doubtless go to war with Russia, and thus with the French-Atlantean-Russian alliance. Gentlemen, we must solve this crisis promptly to avoid further disastrous war in Europe.

"Bulgaria would like to place the following motion, as per the Persian proposal, before the council for an immediate vote:

"Firstly, that the League of Nations choose several third-party states, without alliances to either the PRJ or the FAR alliance, to enforce the ceasefire within the so-called Republic of Wilno, and the Wilno Republic forces to put their arms under League of Nations control for the duration of the talks.

"Secondly, that the Lithuanian government and the Wilno rebels make an immediate ceasefire along their current lines of control, to begin immediately.

"Thirdly, that the Polish army withdraw immediately to the prewar Polish-Lithuanian borders, the withdrawal to be completed within twenty-four hours.

"If Poland finds these points too odious and refuses to withdraw its military from Lithuania in twenty-four hours, then the Assembly, or the League Council, should vote to expel Poland from the League of Nations."

"If it were the Atlantean dream to see Poland completely emasculated and subjegated we would not be here discussing this issue Mr. Mital. There are other avenues to explore in reguards to punitive actions that do not require Poland's co-operation, unanimous league support nor outright military force.

Poland can simply choose the short term indignation of foriegn troops on its soil or it can persue a long and arduous road and reduce itself to a political outcast by refusing entry of League troops while an investigative commitee sets out to prove Polands support for a heavily armed insurection in a peacefull and soverign nation.

This kind of action cannot be tolerated and must be punished accordingly, Poland can now choose between pride or prudence."

(OOC: I'm about 3-4 days behind in news reading, which I hope to fix later this weekend, so this will be general)

Staatssecretaris of Foreign Affairs, Frank Reuter :

The rebirth of the Polish nation was one of the grand achievement of the Great War. The attitude of the current generation of Poles regarding their neighbors rights to peaceful borders and national integrity is just as disheartening.

Throughout Europe, and even the rest of the world, you find peoples of one ancestral nationality living within the borders of another nation. Using this as a foundation to foment unrest or justify invasion is a recipe for unrelenting warfare and the mass expulsion of peoples. This can not be accepted.

"Poland as stated their point. We will refuse today, tomorrow and ever that foreign troops stand in Polish soil. We can see the steem Atlantean ambassador having the same reservations if he was surrounded by former masters dreaming of any oportunity to reduce you again to former servitude one way or another, but alas he can dream of good intentions while his family and collegues sit in their island protected by the Ocean and their large fleet.

Poland finds the proposal by Bulgaria agreeable but our worries are that Lithuania will refuse to accept this same proposal. We have no quarrel with Lithuania and if they accept this terms put forward we will abide by then."

OOC: It must be around the 14th to the 15th of July in WW terms by now. Putting together proposals is not a couple of hours thing to do.

Thomas Krithia stood once again, egnoring the Indian ambassdors factually pourous statement....

"Mr. Mital your compairison falls far short of a compelling arguement. First and foremost Atlantis has not invaded a foreign country since the great war, we are not the agressors here and as such our actions would not merit foreign intervention to prevent us from threatening other neighbours.

Like the Dutch, and surely others as well, we are deeply disapointed in the nation of Poland who once held proud and noble ideals based on peacefull co-existance with their neighbours. They have turned their back on these ideals and covet them only when it suits their selfish needs.

To claim that Poland has no quarrel with Lithuania is simply a plee to passify the world and a smoke screen to cover up Polish distain for the principles of this very league.

I'm afraid Poland has chosen Pride over prudence, very well then sir, as a result we will not object to a full and lengthy investigation as to the events leading up to this Insurrection to which end we fully expect the true nature of Polands involvement in these affairs to be explained in detail, no doubt to the denilals of the Polish government."

Foreign Minister Nicolae Titulescu stands

Romania says it also stands in agreement with Bulgaria's proposal, and agrees to withdraw recognition should this proposal go through. It urges Atlantis to refrain from its current line of demanding that Poland be punished and instead concentrate on the matter at hand that the fighting should stop. Should Atlantis continue in its determination to punish Poland at the current time, it could be seen as wishing to continue the violence in the Balkan area because Poland has already agreed to withdraw if Bulgarias proposal is agreed upon. It also notes that it believes that either a restriction on Polish armaments or on its occupation by League troops should not be restricted to the Security Council, but be instead voted on by the Grand Assembly, which in this case Romania would most certainly vote against such a motion.

"We simply cannot let Polish actions go unpunished, if they refuse to have league troops ensure they are in no possition to continue hostility's then we must persue other options.

They have unilaterally acted outside league approval and placed the region on the brink of war. At best expulsion of Poland from the league is nessassary since they hold utter contempt against its very principles."

Quoted

Originally posted by perdedor99
The Indian delegate stood.

"The Atlantean proposal we consider to be one biased against certain nations. We don't see then asking for reductions in the size of the Dutch military, nation that has being involved unofficially in two miltary conflicts in the last three years. Dutch military equipment still dots the Hedjaz landscape, as derelicts of course," he smiled for a second at his own private joke, "and Dutch weapons are now in Lithuania also."
"

Missed this in a posting overlap

Staatssecretaris of Foreign Affairs, Frank Reuter :
In regards to the observation of our esteemed delegate from Bharat, the Netherlands finds no dishonor in it's equipment being used by small nations in defense of their national territory.

We also note that the Bharat position is quite understandable. Despite their honorable call for 1936 vote in Asir, we must remember it was the Kingdom of Saud that called for League help on the Asir border, and was ignored, resulting in the loss of that kingdoms territory.

This is however quite different than the situation between Lithuania, a league member, being invaded by Poland, a nation reborn by international action and the aggressor in this matter.

Gaston François Marie, Viscount Eyskens, Belgian delegate :

The Belgian government holds Polish involvement in Lithuania in dim regard. The Belgian people certainly understand the problem of small states bordered by larger ones. We will support all reasonable league actions in support of a resolution respectful of Lithuania's territorial integrity.

Baron Édouard de Blochausen, Luxembourgian delegate :
We share the concerns of Belgium(1), and the people of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg feel that some form of League action is recommended.



(1) i.e. both were miffed by German occupation in WWI, and rather support the idea of large countries not being allowed to go around invading small ones without some really darn good reason.

Romania sees the matter in this way. Germany called for a cease-fire, and negotiation by a neutral country on July 8th. The Republic of Wilno agreed to these proposals, and wished to begin mediation in Nordmark. Nordmark agreed to hold a peace settlement there. Then Lithuania in response to the Wilno wish for a peace conference began a massive offensive to crush the rebellion before the cease-fire. Poland then invades to restore the July 8th lines. So as Romania has said before, it was Lithuania that provoked a Polish intervention by trying to forego a peaceful resolution to the crisis and instead relying on military means. Romania considers it hypocritical that all the blame should be laid at Polands door for intervening when clearly the Lithuanian government is at much fault for NOT agreeing to a peaceful resolution. Should ONLY Poland be punished in this matter, then Romania would go immediately withdraw from the LoN which it will consider an FAR puppet, and consider immediate cut off of oil to all LoN members.

Kiosseivanoff shook his head sadly. "I would like to ask the Romanian representatives if, for example, Russia supported an independence movement in Bessarabia, and then, when Romania attempted to end the rebellion, invaded Romanian territory to prevent the destruction of its puppet state. Would not Romania attempt to act just as Lithuania has done in the past few weeks?

"Gentlemen, we can blame each other all we wish, but at the end of the day Lithuanian and Polish troops will still be fighting and killing each other. If Poland and Lithuania both agree to the proposal we laid out earlier, then we can prevent more escalation and determine how to resolve these other issues once the fighting is ended. Now, if we can keep on the subject at hand, please?"

OOC: Ceasefire orders take time, we don't have high tech comunications equipment in 1935 so orders to stand down take time.

IC:

"As our esteemed Romanian coleague continues to forget, the ceasefire agreement was arranged for the 10th, not the 8th. We fail to see why Lithuania should be punished for attempting to re-establish law and order within its borders.

We also find it amusing that Romania is focusing on the objections from FAR nations and not those from the Dutch, Bulgarian, Belgian, Nordish and Luxembourgian ambassadors. I am unaware of their entry into the FAR treaty."

Persia wishes to state the following, we belive that an immediate ceasefire is the single most important thing to a chive, once the bloodshed stops the other matters can be dealt with. We would als like to see some honest desire by the Polish and Lithuanian governments for ending the fighting. We also belive that the Romanian threats of stopping oildeliveries is not only toothless but also contra productive to what we attempt to achive here

Romania wishes to point out that to its knowledge both Romania and Poland have already agreed to the proposals put forth by the Bulgarian representative, something that cannot be said of the Atlanteans. We are currently waiting for the acceptance of others, seeing as only India, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland seem to be wishing a peaceful end to this situation. The rest seem bent on annexing Poland to LoN.

In response to the allegations made by the Atlantean ambassador, Romania is aware of that the cease-fire was to take place on July 10th. However, the acceptance of the Wilno Republic of a peaceful resolution, and the aggression of the Lithuanians proves that no matter who started this, when it comes to a peaceful compromise, the Lithuanians are both aggressors and instigators in this matter and should be held in equal guilt with the Poles. Should you continue in this matter of Polish aggression, and try to force a League occupation of Poland you may be handed a declaration of WAR!!!

Quoted

...seeing as only India, Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland seem to be wishing a peaceful end to this situation.

OOC: What stirling company I'm in!