Council of the Dons' Diplomatic Channel

[pbrione]

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To our respected collegues, the Outcast Council of Dons,

As I am sure your Sirius-wide intelligence network will have reported to you, the Bretonian Government is currently in the final stages of negociation with Liberty, the Independent Miners Guild and Orbital Spa and Cruise regarding a comprehensive Treaty governing the Independent Worlds of Magellan and Cortez. Naturally, I am aware that you gentlemen do retain some....interests in this region, not least as one of your main routes into Liberty. I am sure, however, that you understand that we can hardly invite you openly to diplomatic conferences to discuss such things, not least because I am sorry to say your allies in the Liberty Rogues and Lane Hackers seem particularly keen to attack our diplomatic ships and personnel of late.

Still, as at least 2 of the other 3 signatories of this Treaty wish to see you all dead, I feel I must take it upon myself to open this highly secret communications channel with you, to try and clarify how this Treaty might affect our agreements.

When drawing up the terms, I attempted to covertly take every precaution to ensure that our pact with your people would not be compromised in any way. I have deliberately avoided entering any laws restricting cardamine trade through Magellan and Cortez, to ensure that our ships will not be required to hunt outcasts smuggling down the barrier pass into Liberty, though I must reaffirm our previous agreement that no cardamine go through Bretonia itself.

Similarly the regulations for joint operations in Article IV have been made to specify that no attacks can be made against partisan enemies of one House by combined NATO fleets, ruling out the possibility of BAF ships being ordered to attack outcasts by a ranking Liberty Navy officer. This does not, of course, eliminate the possibility of Liberty Navy ships continuing to attack outcasts in Magellan or Cortez of their own individual accord, but there is little that I can do about that.

In short, the only way that our forces could be obliged to engage outcast vessels in the Independent Worlds would be if they were found to be engaged in acts of piracy or terrorism, and whilst I wish I could say the same for your unfortunate collegues the Lane Hackers, I am sure that official outcast vessels would not be stupid enough to attempt such foolhardy actions as disrupting Bretonian trade with Liberty.

I therefore trust that you will understand that this Treaty, whilst in some respects strengthening House control over the territories, should in no way disadvantage the Outcast Council in any way, and may even be to your advantage in clarifying and restricting the rules in place there. We would not wish to see your forces depleted unneccesarily at a time when we rely on your continued support against the Kusari Empire and Colonial Remnant, who I can satisfactorily confirm we are once again engaged in active military actions against.

Trusting that you understand this should in no way damage our agreements,
Yours respectfully,

Commodore Stanley Nelson
BAF Diplomatic Officer
5th Fleet - HMS Suffolk

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Sir Stanley Nelson




<span style="color:#000066">Charles Canning </span><span style="color:#000066"> Foreign Secretary</span>