WesWorld

The Hague Herald, March 21st
The Queen signed into law a bill striking VAT and export taxes on military exports to allied nations, whether that be the AEGIS, or SAER.

There has been no resolution over the impasse over the Education Bill. The DMZSBD is adamant that Dutch culture and militancy needs to be aggressively reinforced through proper education and the Education minister has made several speeches castigating the Queen on this matter.

The Queens only statement has been to the effect that she does not believe the bill is in the best long term interest of the country as it would encourage division and elitism.

The Hague Herald, March 23rd
This morning saw a flurry of activity in the Staats-Generaal. The long debated TIDE amendment to allow provincial representation in the Estates Generaal was passed, with the surprise backing of much of the DMZSBD. Then, shortly before making Prince William Regent, the Queen buckled to pressure and signed the Education Bill. The Queen was heard to say ‘I still think it’s a damn fool concept’.

After the short Regency ceremony, the Queen departed for Ireland today at Noon with little fanfare. The Nassau is expected to take the Queen to the United States after she visits the Galway area. The Queen is expected to be absent for nearly three months.

Prince William will serve as Regent and fill the advisory role on the Raad van Staat of the Netherlands, as well as the Belgian advisory council. Prince Consort Hendrik will continue to serve as Queens advisor to the Government of Kongo, in addition to his Duchy of Ubangi-Shari.



The Amsterdam Advocate, April 2nd
King Edward VIII opened the Naval parade across the channel today. A dazzling display of naval might and the technical prowess of man adorned the waters. The Netherlands is represented by Prince William and Admiraal Pienaar, as well as samples of the homefleet.

The Kinshasha Klarion, April 3rd
Chaos ruled the Kongo Senate today as a coalition of Counts representing smaller tribes upended the plans for a mass militia army. There were two primary objections, the first was the planned organization would have centralized command at the Duchy level under the Dukes, which some claimed would be unwise. The second was that the Governments plan abandoned cross-tribal integration of units, such as is practiced in the National military, and would have raised units on a strictly tribal level, giving the Dukes large well armed homogeneous forces of their own tribesmen, a fact many of the Counts representing smaller tribes have grown increasingly unhappy with.

The Paramaribo Perimecium April 5th
De Hollandia and her attending vessels left harbor today for Panama. The ships intend to transit the canal and pay a courtesy call on Peru. Once completed, they will return to the Caribbean and sail to Texas City, then Louisiana. The squadron will serve as escort to the Queens yacht Nassau when it departs New Orleans.

The Hague Herald, April 19th
The Netherlands announced the acceptance into service of the SRA LT-35B. The LT-35B is the support version, armed with a 75mm howitzer.

The War Ministery has announced the LT-35 would henceforce dispense with the “liechte” part of the title and simply be referred to as the T-35A and T-35B. The liechte designation had been used by the Ministry in an effort to make procuring development funds easier, but the final tank is easily the heaviest in the Dutch inventory.

Trails continued today with the new Light Tank Amphibious, the LTA-36A. This amphibious tank was designed to use an efficiently built cast
hull and turret which serve as a unitized structural frame. The cast structure is not sufficient to stop rounds alone, so appliqué armor is then added. Brackets are then welded to the hull and rolled armor plates riveted to the brackets. The void spaces between hull and plates are expected to add sealed floatation and as stabilizers in water.

11.5 tonnes
5m long, 2.7m wide, 2.9m high
2 hull positions (Driver, MG/Radio), 1 turret positions (Commander/Gunner)
1x 23L52 MG, 2x 7.92mm MG (hull/coax)

190hp diesel engine
Max spd : 30mph
Range : 200miles
0.3m ground clearance, 8.5 psi
Transiting freeboard : 0.9m, transiting speed : 4.5mph
Dropped in freeboard : 0.4


0.5tons of cargo represent extra seals, small schnorkel air intake for >.6m waves

Armor front/side/rear/top/bottom
Turret: 38 / 16 / 16 / 8 / na
Hull : 30 / 20 / 20 / 20 / 8



The Rotterdam Rotwieler, April 28th
Phillips was the beneficiary of a large contract for the construction of dedicated communication towers to be located near all large cities and military facilities.

The Amsterdam Advocate May 2nd
The wings of mankinds aspirations were in evidence yesterday at the opening of the Hendon Air Display. This grand exhibition features combat aircraft from around the world in all their glittering glory.

In addition to the ground displays there are aerial shows scheduled in honor of his Majesty King Edward VIII. The massive air show is scheduled to run until the 10th of this month.

The Amsterdam Advocate May 10th
This paper has learned that the Netherlands leading female pilot, Ms. Rijker has taken leave of her position as a Fokker test pilot. While Ms. Rijker acquitted herself well when pressed into service at Talons over Cordoba, the Air Force has denied her applications to attend the Fighter school opened last year. Ms. Rijker reportedly plans to join the famed Hiryuu Dasanteki Sentai as a combat pilot.

The Amsterdam Advocate, May 12th
Foreign Minister van Grootveld departed for the Middle East today. The Minister is flying in a KLM F.37 and will be first traveling to Brno in Czechoslovakia, and then to Sofia in Bulgaria. Once his business there is done, his schedule takes him to Ankara, Riyadh, and Sanaa. Minister van Grootveld is then expected to visit EAS, Kongo, and SAE.



The Harlingen Harbringer, May 15th
An unusual cargo, the hull of the new Design 122 flying boat, arrived at Fokker’s plant today. Germany’s Dornier was entrusted with developing the lines of the new hull, while Fokker is concentrating on the aviation aspects. We are reliably informed that models of the joint design has been subjected to extensive wind tunnel testing at Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium, and passed with flying colors.

In related news, the Nationaal Lucht- en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium is expected to open a new wind tunnel facility in October, to allow for more advanced studies than the old tunnel can provide, despite its updates.

Interlude – June 1st, F.XXXVII airliner on the Jakarta-Banda Aceh run
Brigade-Generaal van Gogh wondered why Herr Schuyt was on the plane. Van Gogh knew that he and his Marines were headed to Siam at the request of the Siamese. Some of his best marines, like Majoor De Wit of the Bijzondere Bijstand Eenheid (BBE) had been pulled from base in Palau, training in Dongalla and even some from the mock raid force on Nicobar. That still did not explain why Herr Shuyt, known to a select few as reputedly with Royal Intelligence, was staring so intently out the window, or why he would be on his way to Siam.

Gerrit Schuyt of course was watching the strange assemblage of planes keeping station around the caldera to the east. The fugly T.IVs made a strange contrast to the T.VIIIs, but it was hard to tell if the others were T.Vs or T.VIIs. Motion above caught his eye, and he gazed through the window the high flying forms of G.1s were visible. Then, it was moot, as assembled squadrons formed up and flew down the slopes of the ancient volcano, heading en masse for the Straits of Malacca.

Turning his attention back to the file he was working on, Gerrit scowled. He had not liked the information his section chief had assembled, or what the Royal Dutch security people had reported, or any of the others, but mostly he greatly disliked the information from his RikjesPolice moles suggesting Herr Loeder had influenced the Sons of India investigation, but lacking any specifics. It was only slightly less upsetting than some of the rumors his people in Siam were relaying. Gerrit also wondered why General van Gogh was eyeing him… did he have food in his mustache?

The Amsterdam Advocate, June 3rd
Foreign Minister continued his trip to the Middle East today, arriving in Ankara, Turkey. The Foreign Minister reportedly wishes to visit the ancient Hittite ruins at Hattusa and then visit the east of the country, to view mount Ararat.

Kinshasha Klarion June 6th
The Queen was in attendance at the graduation ceremonies for South Afrikas Naval Academy. Prince Consort Hendrik joined the Queen for the event. The reason of course was Prince Alexander's completion of his course of studies at that august institution.

The Royals are expected to stay in South Afrika for several days prior to returning to Kongo by train.

The Amsterdam Advocate, June 10th
The War Ministry announced today that tests of gun barrel and armor castings made at the new plants in Liege have proven most satisfactory.

The Ministry released a statement to the Press(1).

Modern casting techniques do not result in the brittle cast iron we are all familiar with, but rather a quality steel product of consistent qualities. Our metallurgists office is equipped with powerful imaging machines to ensure these quality targets are met.

Using centrifugally cast barrels can be used for engines, landing gears, and gun barrels among other things.

For engines, making an airplane cylinder barrel as a centrifugal casting instead of a forging, will help break all four of the main bottlenecks in production: materials, time, skilled manpower and machine tools. This is expected to be a significant advance for

Tests indicate that while conventionally forged barrels burst at 7,000psi, centrifugally cast barrels burst at 10,000psi. This advantage is important when it is realized that a single casting machine can produce several gun tubes in the same time, and for 25 to 40% less machining time, as well as less weight, as one forged gun tube. This is expected to allow substantial reductions in material, time and cost.

The advantages of cast armor are that there are no rivets, which have liabilities, and it allows a goodly weight saving by eliminating angle-pieces and overlapping necessary for riveting plates together. Welding of armor plate is expensive and weakens the plate, and unlike welded armor, cast armor has no seams of uncertain toughness. And, unlike both riveted and all-welded armor, cast armor can have rounded corners to deflect glancing shells. Castings do not cure as well, particularly when thicker, so the military is looking at using cheap and effective castings for the structural hulls of lighter vehicles, but attaching rolled plates via welding or riveting for heavier vehicles.

(1) much of this is accredited to a 1942 TIME article.
(2) same article, quote by Ford's chief metallurgist, Russell H. McCarroll

The Amsterdam Advocate, June 14th
Foreign Minister continued his trip to the Middle East today, flying to Riyadh for a two day meeting prior to continuing to Sanaa.

The Amsterdam Advocate July 14th
Staatssecretaris of Foreign Affairs, Frank Reuter was asked today of the Netherlands position regarding Bahrats invasion of Afghanistan .

"It is a shame really, once again India is spilling the blood of its neighbors. First the incident in Azerbaijan(1), now an invasion of Afgahnistan. One can certainly understand Indias need to forcefully respond to villainous Afgahni raiders in their new colony, after all if they fail to protect the Pakistani addition to their empire, what next? However a full fledged invasion is another thing. To top it off with they are bombing defenseless cities full of civilians. That is a violation of Article 25 of the Laws of War.

Sadly, after the responsible way India dealt with Asir, and our mutual actions on South Afrikas behalf, we had dared hope for better, perhaps even a new understanding, but obviously the veneer of civilized behavior was thin and Indias true face shows again. "

Our reporter asked : Is there any plans to appeal to the League?

"Afghanistan is a member of the League and can appeal on their own behalf, but only Russia is in a position to be of material aid. "



(1) Reflecting the belief of some Dutch that Persia is but a client state at best, and thus its actions can be pinned on Bahrat.

Quoted

Originally posted by Kaiser Kirk
The Amsterdam Advocate July 14th
Staatssecretaris of Foreign Affairs, Frank Reuter was asked today of the Netherlands position regarding Bahrats invasion of Afghanistan .

"It is a shame really, once again India is spilling the blood of its neighbors. First the incident in Azerbaijan(1), now an invasion of Afgahnistan. One can certainly understand Indias need to forcefully respond to villainous Afgahni raiders in their new colony, after all if they fail to protect the Pakistani addition to their empire, what next? However a full fledged invasion is another thing. To top it off with they are bombing defenseless cities full of civilians. That is a violation of Article 25 of the Laws of War.

Sadly, after the responsible way India dealt with Asir, and our mutual actions on South Afrikas behalf, we had dared hope for better, perhaps even a new understanding, but obviously the veneer of civilized behavior was thin and Indias true face shows again. "

Our reporter asked : Is there any plans to appeal to the League?

"Afghanistan is a member of the League and can appeal on their own behalf, but only Russia is in a position to be of material aid. "



(1) Reflecting the belief of some Dutch that Persia is but a client state at best, and thus its actions can be pinned on Bahrat.

Hey, another thing the Dutch and Atlanteans agree on...well whadayaknow!

The Antwerp Advocate July 2, 1936
Foreign Minister Pieter van Grootvelds office released a statement today.
An amendment, called the Halifax-Sanaa accord to the Saudi-Yemeni border treaty of Taif has been signed yesterday by the Great Britains Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax, the Saudi Foreign Minister and the Yemeni Foreign Minister and witnessed by the Foreign Minister Pieter van Grootveld. The revised borders affect the Hinterland of Aden territory. A strip on the western side has been given to Yemen and a large portion of the inland area to Saudi Arabia but both coasts and a large coastal strip remain in British hands to ensure the coastal security of the Arabian peninsular.

The Antwerp Advocate July 5, 1936
Foreign Minister Pieter van Grootveld left Sanaa today for the Arabian nation of Hedjaz. The Foreign minister has expressed the desire to upgrade the Netherlands presence in that nation from a makeshift conciliate to a full Embassy.

Van Grootveld stated : Regular passenger liner service resumed after the war and Hedjaz, as the holder of the Muslim Holy City of Mecca, is the recipient of many pilgrims from the Netherlands East Indies and Dutch Guiana. The persistent presence of so many Dutch civilians, as well as the business interests, argue strongly for the expansion of our diplomatic facilities.

Minister van Grootveld is scheduled to depart Hedjaz next week, to travel to Afrika.

The Amsterdam Advocate August 10th
Several shifts were announced today by the War Minister.

The 14th Division, formed in the Kongo in 1907, will be transferred to the Malay Archipelago. The 14th Division has been nicknamed the “Latte” division, with the highest number of colored troops in the Army. The division has nearly 40% of its troops born in the Kongo, and a further 10% drawn from the Malay Archipelago, nearly twice the rate of most divisions. Brigader-Generaal J. Kasavubu, commander of the 14ths second Brigade, is the highest ranking colored officer in the regular army.

The Romsfell armored cars have been declared surplus and will be disposed of. The Kongo will examine the surplus vehicles for serviceability, and many may be transferred to the Kongo’s army. The Kongo has indicated they intend, to allocate one company of armored cars per standing brigade. The Kongo also has a need for three companies of armored cars for the North Eastern Frontier. The PA-IV is the leading candidate, but the Kongo is examining foreign armored cars, and is said to be very interested in the Landsverk 180 and Steyr ADGZ. DAF Trucks NV of Eindhoven is rumored to be interested in developing an armored vehicle, and may win a development contract.

The 3rd Bomber wing is to be split into it’s constituent squadrons. Three squadrons of T.VII strike bombers are to be transferred to the Malay Archipelago, while the 4th shall be reassigned to Dutch Guiana. The 4th shall receive FA-10A aircraft to replace their elderly C.X biplanes.

The 14ths Division presence in the Kongo has become increasingly unnecessary. The Kongos nationalization of the Dutch-Kongo battalions in that Kingdom allowed the formation of 5 combat brigades, a number which has now increased to include two expeditionary Brigades.

The transfer of the 14th is consistent with this administrations efforts to bolster the strength there. Most notably was the additional budgetary commitment made last September.

The War ministry has used the additional funds voted for the army then to replace the battalions lost to the Kongo and to Engineer and Coast Defense by forming new provincial regiments in conjunction with raising new divisions from the Perakan Chinese and Moluccan peoples. The administration is expected to ask for further monies in the budget presentation on Prinsdejag.