Bretonian Armed Forces Defense Intelligence Staff (DIS) (iRP) (AO)

[Colonial Remnant]

On the 9th of Jnauary 817AS, the civilian transport Mercury, with a non-military cargo on board was destroyed while crossing the Kyushu system.

The Mercury had never been used for military purposes, as a vessel known to be habitually used only for the conveyance of minerals from IMG bases; and was not following the route taken by troop ships or supply ships. About eighteen of her crew, non-combatants, all Colonial citizens, were killed or injured.

A careful, detailed, and scrupulously impartial investigation by Colonial Fleet officers has conclusively, that the weaponry by which she was destroyed was of Bretonian manufacture.

In the view of the Colonial Government these facts from the first made the conclusion that the shots were fired by a Bretonian Armed Forces warship unavoidable.

The Colonial Government, after having given careful consideration to the note of the Royal Government of the 10th of January, regrets to state that the impression made upon it by the statements and proposals contained in that note is that the Royal Government has failed to appreciate the gravity of the situation which has resulted, not alone from the attack on the Mercury, but from the whole method and character of warfare as disclosed by the unrestrained practice of the commanders of Bretonian privateers during the past month and more in the indiscriminate destruction of merchant vessels of all sorts, nationalities, and destinations.

If the destruction of the Mercury had been an isolated case the Colonial Government might find it possible to hope that the officer who was responsible for that act had wilfully violated his orders or had been criminally negligent in taking none of the precautions they prescribed, and that the ends of justice might be satisfied by imposing upon him an adequate punishment, coupled with a formal disavowal of the act and payment of a suitable indemnity by the Royal Government.

But, though the attack upon the Mercury was manifestly indefensible and caused a loss of life so tragical as to make it stand forth as one of the most terrible examples of the inhumanity of space warfare as the commanders of Bretonian vessels are conducting it, it unhappily does not stand alone.

On the contrary, the Colonial Government is forced by recent events to conclude that it is only one instance, even though one of the most extreme and most distressing instances, of the deliberate method and spirit of indiscriminate destruction of merchant vessels of all sorts, nationalities, and destinations which have become more and more unmistakable as the activity of Bretonian spacecraft of war has in recent months been quickened and extended.

What is more, this attack openly violates the cease-fire agreement between the Colonials and Bretonia. As an immediate response to this outrageous act, a detachment of fighter spacecraft was dispatched to Kyushu with the goal of apprehending those directly responsible and succeeded. As it turned out upon the unit's arrival and can be proved, the belligerents were indeed Bretonian military officers, openly siding with a Kusari Golden Chrysantemum terrorist in what appeared as an act of piracy. Bearing in mind the mutual diplomatic relations between Bretonia and the Colonials, the officer in charge warned the said Bretonians three times to cease fire, to no avail. As a result of the subsequent battle, the Bretonian craft were destroyed. Neither of their pilots ejected.

The Colonial Governemnt has been very patient. At every stage of this distressing experience of tragedy after tragedy it has sought to be governed by the most thoughtful consideration of the extraordinary circumstances of an unprecedented war and to be guided by sentiments of very genuine friendship for the people and Government of Bretonia.

It has accepted the successive explanations and assurances of the Royal Government as, of course, given in entire sincerity and good faith, and has hoped, even against hope, that it would prove to be possible for the Royal Government so to order and control the acts of its military commanders as to square its policy with the recognized principles of humanity as embodied in the law of nations. It has made every allowance for unprecedented conditions and has been willing to wait until the facts became unmistakable and were susceptible of only one interpretation.

It now owes it to a just regard for its own rights to say to the Royal Government that that time has come. It has become painfully evident to it that the position which it took at the very outset is inevitable, namely, the use of privateers for the destruction of an enemy's commerce, is, of necessity, because of the very character of the vessels employed and the very methods of attack which their employment of course involves, utterly incompatible with the principles of humanity, the long-established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred immunities of non-combatants.

If it is still the purpose of the Royal Government to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of privateers, without regard to what the Colonial Government must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Colonial Government is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue.

Unless the Royal Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels, the Colonial Government can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of Bretonia altogether.

This action the Colonial Government contemplates with the greatest reluctance, but feels constrained to take in behalf of humanity and the rights of neutral nations.


Alexander Wingates

President of the Colonial Remnant in Sirius

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The Vanguard