"You're all scum" because you (along with the rest of the inhabitants on ancient Earth) wanted to ditch the French. That's why the Gallics are so mad in the first place. The past deeds part.
The whole "I'm non-violent let me go and do what I feel like" works great in a computer game, but in reality you won't have that privilege - or at least other parties will have a rather big influence on your claim. And as a personal note having played this game a lot, I cringe in exactly the same way when I see a "But I'm a Zoner, I'm neutral" as when I see a "LOL" or "" in system chat. To re-phrase an alleged Göring quote: "When I hear the word(s) culture Zoner-neutrality, I reach for my revolver".
The Whale argument is also void - you could have hidden biological weapons on board, you could be smuggling rebels out of Gallia, you could be supplying rebels, you could be mapping Gallia for foreign militaries and so on - even though there's no guns on your actual ship.
I think you (and often Zoners in general) have got it wrong when you say there should have been some sort of specific explanation as to why Gallia is hostile to Zoners too. It's the other way round - if Gallia wasn't hostile to Zoners, there should be a background explanation for that. Besides in-rp Zoners are supposed to be such an insignificant tiny group that it wouldn't be worth the effort for any war-mongering King to waste time on investigating this so-called neutrality - "off with their heads" Marie Antoinette-style is a far faster, cheaper and convenient solution for any empire-building megalomaniac.
Also in-rp you can forget about protecting any freeports against Gallia if it came to all-out hostilities. In such a situation it would be wise for Zoners to withdraw from the Tau's altogether, unless of course said Zoners are suicidal or extreme idealists with no regard for their own safety.
" in system chat. To re-phrase an alleged Göring quote: "When I hear the word(s)