President Kazys Grinys looked through the window of his office in Vilnius. The city was a mass of ruins, but already much was being restored or at least being returned to a workable order, a virtual army of workers and engineers seemed to be everywhere within the Vilnius city limits. President had come to review that work, and see just how much an effect that government and international efforts were having on the refugee and displaced persons problem, which had reached epic proportions - at least by Lithuanian standards - nothing this bad had been seen within Lithuania's borders for decades, certainly not since the Great War and the Wars of Independence.
President Grinys turned back to the two men seated before his desk, Field Marshal Pranas Tamassaulo, and General Klemes Papieliushko. Both men looked back at him grim faced and silent, the news from Vaskes or rather the lack of it was not good. The only piece of good news to come their way was that the League of Nations Wilno Task Force still had a working command structure, General Daufresne de la Chevaliere had managed to fight his way out and set up a headquarters at Ladyga. The Belgian general had begun issuing orders left right and center, getting in contact with the Lithuanian government, the League of Nations, and his own scattered troops as quickly as possible.
Both Tamassaulo and Papieliushko expected Daufresne de la Chevalerie to begin asking for more troops to put down the Letowska regime's Wilno National Self-Defense Battalion. Lithuanian popular opinion had exploded, there were increasing demands that the Government do something - anything to help the LoN troops trapped in Vaskes. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot the Lithuanian Government could do - at least not that would only stir up more trouble. The key issue was Lithuanians continued abidance of the Stockholm Ceasefire Agreement. The Lithuanian Government could not and would not break it if there was a chance to salvage this situation peacefully. Grinys for himself doubted that was possible, but the majority of his government clung to the idea, that was it. The result was a political impasse, within his own regime.
"Mr. President we have to do somthing soon, the League is offering more troops and refugee support, I know the government is leary of allowing still more foreign troops on to what is essentially Lithuanian soil but if we don't move to assist the LoN troops at Vaskes, we're going to have to let someone else do it." Tamassaulo remarked quietly.
Grinys nodded tiredly and sat down. General Papieliushko said nothing, there wasn't much for him to say, all he could do is watch the Antanas Line and stop the Wilno from crossing it if they were mad enough to try that. Which seemed likely at the moment, intelligence reports had placed the so-called Wilno National Self-Defense Battalion at a strength of about 8-10,000 armed troops. It looked like Marshal Aleksy Letowska had managed to cobble together another army to prop up his flagging regime at least for the present anyway.
"Pranas, I just don't see a viable way to break the ceasefire agreement, and deploy our military units to Vaskes, and the Stockholm Protocal doesnt help us much at the moment either." Grinys said, Tamassaulo made a face in shared recognition of their problem.
"Actually, Mr. President, I think the Stockholm does offer us a means of intervening." General Papieliushko suddenly remarked. Both Grinys and Tamassaulo stared at the general, Grinys made a gesture for him to continue.
"The Stockholm Protocal was accepted by both our and the Wilno Insurrectionists governments. Marshal Letowska may have tried to over rid it, but he failled to formally do so - he's just moved to ignore it, but the fact remains it was essentially ratified by both of governments." Papieliushko continued.
"Yes, but I fail to see how this helps." Grinys returned.
"The Protocal, places the Civil Watch Corps under the direction of the Lithuanian Ministry of Interior Affairs, and a designated commissioner from the League of Nations. By default, Lieutenant-General Raoul Daufresne de la Chevalerie is that commissioner, and I think it is time, that Lithuania asserted it's responsiblilites for helping maintain law and order in the Wilno region, along side the Civil Watch Corps."
Grinys and Tamassaulo blinked in surprise.
"Oh my God..." Grinys whispered to himself, not realizing he had spoken aloud. Tamassaulo strangled a curse at he turned the idea over in his mind, it could work - if the League of Nations accepted that interpretation of the Stockholm Protocal, which they might given the circumstances.
"I recommend we deploy, the XI Field Corps, as our main tactical unit, it's largely composed of Security or Security Auxiliary Troops at the moment, which fall under Interior Affairs."
"Yes, but the rest of the XI Field Corps, is made up of those foreign volunteers isn't?" Grinys said, thoughtfully. "The Dutch, Legion Oranje, isn't it?"
"Yes." Tamassaulo responded, but he could see where Papieliushko was heading with this conversation. "However, the Legion Oranje could revert to Dutch national control in light of the emergency situation at Vaskes. The XI Field Corps under Brigadier-Generaal Jakob Snellensoon could be then dispatched to join the LoN HQ at Ladyga, to join any relief effort."
"I hear hairs splitting, gentlemen." Grinys remarked wryly, his face serious. "That said it is a great better then doing nothing."
"I'd better alert the cabinet and the Seimas, to this--" Grinys began. Tamassaulo suddenly shook his head in the negative. Grinys stopped talking and waited to hear what his top military advisor had to say.
"Don't alert the government, tell the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister by all means - they need to know so they can act on their parts for this. Leave the rest of the government and the Seimas out of this for the time being, they will only slow things down by demanding to debate the merits of the issue, the League of Nations people in Vaskes, don't have that time. Just request a meeting with the Ambassadors for Bulgaria, Nordmark and Germany, they are offering the most immediate aid at the moment, and we need to co-ordinate with them. And of course the Dutch ambassador, we need his assistance where the Legion Oranje is concerned, as well as any reinforcements that they may send."
Grinys frowned deeply, the suggestion had merit but went against his political experience, but that said even though taking such action would quite possibly break up his coalition government, President Grinys knew he would act on Field Marshal Tamassaulo's advice, it was the right thing to do. It was as simple and as complex as that.
"Very well, Gentlemen, lets get things rolling. Let's hope that history, or at least the lives of the LoN troops in Vaskes, justify our actions." Grinys remarked with surprising calm.
This post has been edited 2 times, last edit by "Agent148" (Aug 28th 2008, 4:29am)