To The Bretonian Government

[pbrione]

[Incoming Transmission]
[To: Council of Zoners]
[Source: Bretonian Foreign and Colonial Office]

Esteemed Ambassador Holiday, delegates of the Council of Zoners,

The recent actions of the group styling themselves "Queen Carina's Privateers" are utterly despicable and threaten the peace and stability of the region bordering Bretonia around Omega 49. On behalf of the Bretonian Government, I with to officially condemn these attacks and express my own private anger at such unprovoked terrorist actions by this group of Bretonian citizens.

Allow me to address the points raised one by one. Firstly I should point out that the Bowex Fringe Party of the Right Honourable Arthur Caithness, MP, is currently in opposition in both Houses of the Bretonian Parliament and, as such, his statements reflect his own views and those of his party, but are not representative of Her Majesty's Government.

Following on from this, I can confirm that, after legal consultation, the bounty on Zoners has indeed been declared illegal by the Bretonian Home Office and any individuals attempting to claim it inside Bretonian space shall find themselves under arrest for assault.

With regard to your second point, I am unsure of precisely what you are demanding. If you are asking for permission to arrest and engage the privateers within your space then, certainly, you may do so. If you wish to request the extradition of any privateers in Bretonian custody then, again, you may do so, though currently there are none. We would, naturally, inform the Council of Zoners upon the arrest of any privateer beleived to have committed offences against zoners. The group known as "Queen Carina's Privateers" have already been denied docking rights or supplies from any bases under the control of the Bretonian Armed Forces or the Bretonian Police Authority due to their piratical nature and are not granted safe haven in any of our space. I cannot see what more you request for us to do unless you are demanding that the BAF devote their limited resources to hunting down the QCP for you, which I regret to inform you is simply not a realistic option. The Bretonian Armed Forces are currently fighting a war for the very survival of our nation and their duties are to defend Bretonia, not to defend the Council of Zoners. If I might say so the Zoners are currently not fighting a war nor, indeed, do you have many enemies at all and therefore you are far more capable than we are at present of devoting resources to hunting down and dealing with these pirates. Rest assured we will not stand in the way of you doing so.

As for demands for compensation, however, I cannot accept, for the following reason: to compensate zoner vessels for their losses from QCP attacks would imply that the Bretonian Government accepted some measure of responsibility for these attacks. In fact, we are in no way responsible for them whatsoever - accusations from certain delegates that the QCP were SENT to Gran Canaria by the Bretonian Government are utterly outrageous; in fact we sent numerous messages in the direction of ex-Admiral Sir Andrew Stuart in the light of the most satisfactory Bowex-Treaty explicitly demanding of him not to jeapordise our efforts by doing so, which he has evidently ignored utterly. The sorry fact is that neither the Bretonian Crown, Ministry of Defence or Admiralty have any measure of control remaining over the QCP - they are unruly thugs with their own agenda that, I am sad to say, has been growing steadily more apart from our own over recent months. Your statements that they are "our pets" are simply untrue; if they were genuinely under our control, do you think we would allow them to cause us so many problems? We cannot take responsibilty for their actions by compensating you as to do so would set an obvious precedent that would lead to us becoming innundated with claims for compensation whilst, in practice, we could not possibly stop the QCP from continuing to wreak havoc however much we may wish to. I am sure you understand the impossibility of our situation.

Finally I should direct your attention to my response to the proposed Extradition Treaty here: http://discoverygc.com/forums/index.php?sh...id=690017&#

We are offering you all that we reasonably can. Kindly do not further jeapordise our relations by making offers of us which you know we cannot meet. This channel shall remain open for further negotiations and it is my express hope that we may reach some amicable settlement over this most unfortunate matter.

Yours sincerely,

Lord Charles Canning
9th Earl of Malmesbury
Foreign Secretary of Bretonia

[End Transmission]

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Sir Stanley Nelson




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