Tailville, DR Anti-Slavery Summit (SEMI-OPEN, *PART I*...)

[Wagdog]

OOC: OOC/Setup/generally-helpful thread here -- viewtopic.php?f=5&t=81880 . Not really an "arrival" post so much as an opening bookend so people can catch up IC before I launch into the military parade and diplomatic festivities full-tilt lol.

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Palace of the Revolution Main Banquet Hall; Tailville DR, Revolutionary Commonwealth of Wagdog
Morning dawned heavily, oppressively this day in the Revolutionary Commonwealth; the clouds providing only residual ambient light to bathe the bronze statue of former Vetakan President Scarlet Rogers immortalized in the form of Lady Liberty Militant, sword of Justice held high defying invisible tyrants as she led equally-invisible people in righteous rebellion after so long (presumably) tolerating the intolerable and bearing the unbearable at last, which crowned the three-hundred meter tower that was the Palace of the Revolution with its own one-hundred meters' additional height. From "her eyes", if one would speak of a statue as having eyes that is, one could directly see to the east the city's island borough known as Ventralia; formerly part of the separate territory known as the Tails Islands before that region voted to merge with the original Tailville, DR district on the grounds of such economic interdependence with the capital as made no difference between them. Now completely surrounded, the original capital was simply known most often as the "Old Town" as might be surmised; and old it was, to be honest.

Whereas to Ventralia Borough in the East as-mentioned and Dorsalia Borough to West 'behind' the statue so-to-speak, or Clavicleia in the North and Prehensia southwards in the statue's "peripheral vision" if one really wished to abuse the anthropomorphisms, one could find modern suburbs and towering commercial spires of smoked glass and steel in any number of designs, but in the Old Town there was very much less of that. And what there was, was combined to the very outlying districts of the Old Town; unlike the heart, including the Palace complex. No, Tailville, DR was a city of several faces; but even inasmuch as the archipelagic megalopolis run amok in its own sprawling largesse reminded mapmakers of a heart, it's centermost buildings arguably belied that comparison. These almost to the one neo-Gothic, Socialist-Realist tokens of the nation's former Red regime that had simply been repurposed and redecorated (as could be, at least) by what more-pluralist government had followed and still ruled to this day, their structurally inherent contradictory hauteur mixed with plainness if one looked past the surface likely magnified the oppressive cloudy air to the day so far. And indeed made the old town look "Old"; positively geriatric, even, apart from the tastes of a proportion of architectural buffs and/or political partisans among the citizenry yet.

But despite the possible awkwardness provided by the setting, Her Excellency Stewardess of the Revolution Christine's Government had spared no reasonable expense to make sure the diplomats arriving at the Palace grounds for today's supremely important function would arrive in comfort and appreciation; and with a very liberal definition of what expenses were "reasonable," no less. The motorcades were done arriving, and no small part of the reason for this convocation breakfast was in fact to provide gentlemanly cover for the work of the employees hired, and paid quite handsomely, to lug the delegates' baggage up to their appointed quarters. With the logistical tasks seen to, but safely out of the public view so as to not give the impression of unpreparedness, all that was left was the speaking and eating before the true "formalities" began.

And all too soon, after this albeit formal-enough opening repast to the occasion so many had gathered in the capital from so many foreign lands, it would be high-noon; in more ways than just the temporal sense. Many recent events had brought something back to the forefront of the Commonwealth's political consciousness; an old irritant, always lurking beneath the proverbial skin but only infrequently enough so to do overmuch about. Like a mosquito's bite at first, it had been imperceptible for some time since the last rash had happened; happened and been promptly shut down by both threat of Lyran force and opportunity for creative Yanitarian diplomacy to make the matter disappear as had to. But now, the number of mosquitoes feeding had grown too large to be ignored, and the old itch burned hot again...

Slavery.

It was said that one couldn't really kill an idea; and maybe it was true, even. However, when it came to this particular idea, Stewardess of the Revolution Christine Friedrich was of a mind with much of the rest of her people, not least among whom the entire rest of her government including her husband and Vice-, Charles Lind. She wanted that idea dead already! If it had a body, she'd slit its throat herself without tears or regret, take its head and hold it high to the world in triumph; if she had her way!

Hmph! Maybe she couldn't "kill" an idea; but, she damn sure intended to try as close as could in the realm of diplomacy and dead-men's-switches she called her job. Now, to see to the possible opinions and needs of others first before that decision were made half-cocked.

Surveying the massive circular dining table decked before her in orange-red-green pattern spread with gold trim after the fashion of the flag, and now choked with officials both her own and of foreign governments' delegations to the conference which this PR breakfast would kick off, Christine momentarily closed her eyes while standing up. Before she daintily used a spoon to ring a handy glass and thus politely call the table to attention, that is.

"Hail and welcome, honored delegates of your respective, proud nations. We gather here today and in the days to come, like the Free Peoples of the most ancient and storied past, yet again to discuss as civilized persons what to do in the face of a most baleful Shadow casting itself upon our world. A shadow each of us has before on our own and together, with heroic firmness, argued and legislated and fought and even died to force back into the maw of vanity from whence it came. Yet again from out of its lair of iniquity it stalks, seeking the weak and irresolute or ignorant to devour for its sustenance while our forbearance yet lasts.

I speak, friends, of the fell institution that is chattel slavery; the relegation of ethical and intelligent beings into base property for the satisfaction of a presumed master. Too many times past have gatherings like this been held before, I will admit; too often have they done nothing of any consequence. Too many alliances, now even as I speak, adopt policies indifferent to this systematized and/or institutionalized assault upon persons' fundamental rights that can at best be called negligent; at worst complicit. And so into the future yet becoming for the tyrants, the impression that the free world is deaf and dumb only spreads and urges on yet worse usurpations of prevailing custom and law among the world.

I will not promise what I cannot. I will not say that I categorically intend to call all of us to war here; though to war against this threat I suspect many of us shall go, all the same. I do not propose to question your various definitions of what exactly constitutes the slaver threat, and what does not; that also is a matter largely for sovereign policies to each their own. And a matter more-agreed upon than is often alleged, besides. I may not even necessarily see a common position adopted here, even if I aim to give what best of my own to match what best I know you all shall put in to arrive at something to give to those who follow in our work when we are done here.

Rather I am fully prepared this time to first ask the questions that must be asked before we decide what specific actions best befit each of our national policies after we leave here; our work done and our duty to kin and country discharged so say we all. It is said that they who make many calculations in their chambers before battle shall surely triumph; those who make middling calculation shall be at equal risk of success or disaster, and those who make none shall surely be ruined. However we characterize our efforts, battle or no, I will not see us ruined by any fault of effort on my own! Not when I can only benefit from the perspectives of each of you, all learned and able statesmen as you come to my but meager capital in the well-earned vestments of.

Instead if we share what we know of the Shadow as we see and hear of it, even merely its' approximate dimensions and blackness at present as told from our own and our nations' knowledge to date, the better all of us will but be to act as we will individually, or severally, when the time comes to act.What I can promise, friends, I do; in some hours' time you shall see what steps I have prepared with my government's help to speed that promise unto fruition. Again, we are all powerful and proud and patient nations. But even patience has its end; my own, and that of my government's, was expired long ago. I suspect ours will only last but enough to eat, drink and set to our work; for conference is hungry and thirsty enough work on its own. And we have much more to do quite probably, beyond that; all blessings be upon us and see us to these things safely..."

So she sat, and allowed the guests to began as she watched and breathed. Now here was to hoping once enough were engorged, she could quietly slip to her own selected eggs Benedict and mixed fruits unnoticed. Already this gathering seemed too massive by half, and she knew she hadn't caught eye with everyone even...

[New Chalcedon]

Leaning forwards in his chair, the elderly Prince of Novoa Ancyra gave the rest of the delegates a moment to answer. When none did, he decided to start the ball rolling. "Thank you for that most gracious welcome, Stewardess, as well as for your msot cogent statement of intent as to this conference. With the permission of those present, I will start the ball rolling, and state that the first step to utterly extirpating slavery is to make it no longer profitable, so that none will engage in it." Clearing his throat slightly, he continued, "Oftentimes, when we have seen slavers offer their vile 'wares' on the international market, we have also seen well-intentioned, noble but foolish nations purchasing those slaves in order to free them."

"While I, as any right-minded person, applaud the nobility of this action - to remove these people from the grip of slavery and to grant them a new start to life - the fact remains that it merely addresses the symptom at best, and in fact exacerbates the underlying cause, by increasing demand for the slaves. Therefore, I propose for consideration the following possible choking methods for slavery."

"First, to make the taking of slaves more expensive. Very few slavers have the time, patience or resources to breed their slaves; instead, they seize innocent people from vulnerable areas. Therefore, I propose that all nations present should consider the extension of protections - unofficially, if needs be - to vulnerable areas, in order to increase the costs of slavery."

"Second, to make the transport of the slaves more expensive and problematic. In this regard, the Oceanic Defence Coalition, of which the Empire of New Chalcedon is a proud member, is a leading proponent of anti-slavery cooperation, in order to bring a halt to the cross-border trafficking of slaves."

"Third, to harass and disrupt the attempts at sale, whether by covert or overt means, thereby forcing would-be slavers to spend large amounts of money on personal security."

"Fourth, to disrupt the markets from the buyers' perspective, by encouraging the outlawry of slavery, as well as the enforcement of anti-slaving laws, again by overt means such as calling matters to relevant authorities' attentions, and covert methods such as arranging for incriminating evidence to be found. This, ultimately, will have a chilling effect on the buyers' end of the markets, decreasing demand and prices and leading to lower profits."

"Fifth and finally, by the judicious application of outright military force to suppresssmaller actors in the trade outright, while relying upon the other steps to chill the profits of larger actors."

"I thank the assembled Delegates for their attention, and open the floor for replies.

[Lamoni]

Lamonian delegate Alberte Bieito listened politely while their host, and the delegate from New Chalcedon spoke. They had both made valid points, and the meeting hadn't even lasted for ten minutes, as yet. Alberte was the Lamonian Foreign Ministry's "Under-Minister for the Abolition of Slavery," and it always sickened him when he saw the results of that inhumane practice, which had been done away with, in what he considered to be civilized nations.

For his breakfast, Alberte had chosen three scrambled eggs, toast, sausage, hashbrowns, and Orange Juice. If his wife knew what he was eating, she'd kill him faster than the cholesterol would. Fortunately, his wife was back in Lamoni. As far as Alberte knew, his wife had chosen to take a vacation, rather than accompany him on this official trip, despite her official title as his aide. While this would not normally be allowed under Lamonian law, they had met (and later married) on the job, and no one seemed keen to separate the couple. Still, Alberte wondered who was the second member of the Lamonian delegation to this conference. The security staff swore that the other member of the delegation was present, but he didn't even know who the other member was, at present. Alberte figured that this was probably just some bureaucratic snafu, and that things would sort themselves out, eventually.

As the man from New Chalcedon finished speaking his piece, Alberte noted that no one else looked ready to speak. Figuring to get some actual work done in this conference, Alberte spoke.

"We thank the most honored Stewardess of the Revolutionary Commonwealth for hosting this conference, and the delegate from New Chalcedon for his honest, and accurate summation of courses available to us in order to end the vile institution that brought all of us to this conference. However, I do have some points to raise.

Firstly, while any diplomatic expression of will from this conference will be impressive indeed, even our nations combined lack sufficient resources to cover nearly all of the trouble spots in our world that the slavers get their "wares" from. This means that we must protect what areas that we can.

Secondly, to outside eyes, it looks like IASEN in particular has made WASO look weak and ineffective. While we applaud their efforts to gain the freedom of slaves, we feel that the practice of manumission really just funnels money into the military machine of the slaver nations. This allows the IASEN, and other slaver nations to capture more slaves. It is a vicious cycle, and gives slaver nations more diplomatic and military means to bend the anti-slaver community to their will. Thus, we agree with the delegate from New Chalcedon that we must make slavery a wastefully inefficient enterprise, economically speaking. Only when the slavers find themselves on the wrong end of the economic equation, will they voluntarily give up the practice of slavery.

Until such a time, the slavers will do what they can to keep their "enterprise" alive. We are reminded that it is not just the sellers of sentient beings that we are dealing with here, but the buyers, as well. We must not underestimate our enemies, as the IASEN manipulation of WASO shows us.

One of the major problems of the anti-slaver movement today, is just how much of the rest of the world is... ambivalent at best about the entire practice. One major addition that should be made to the list provided by the delegate from New Chalcedon is to start an international awareness campaign against slavery. If we are to engage in even the most minimal of military or diplomatic action against the slaver states, then we must provide logical, and moral reasons for why we fight to the rest of the world. Our credibility as nations working together is going to be just as important as any military or diplomatic efforts that we may use against the slavers. To that end, I suggest that the nations assembled today agree to start a joint international anti-slavery organization of our own, to be hosted by the Revolutionary Commonwealth, with the permission of our honorable host. We do not seek to overturn WASO, but if WASO is not capable of handling the job that they themselves have set out to do, then as avowedly anti-slaver nations in our own right, we must make sure that the slavers cannot win the diplomatic, military, or Public Relations battles."

With that, Alberte waited for any possible questions or comments made in response to the statement that he had just made.

[Katonazag]

Dr. Kázmér rose to his feet. Nearer to 70 than 60, his physical presence was beginning to wane. Time had created the lines on his face, but wisdom had accented and detailed them. Still, when the Ambassador to the Fegosian Union and former President of St. Istvan University began to speak, one could tell that he was completely in his element speaking to such a prestigious audience.

"Thank you, Under-Minister Bieito, and Your Imperial Highness," he said steadily, nodding to the two men that had spoken before him. "And also, thank you, Your Excellency, Stewardess of the Revolution, for hosting us here today.

Though the HCSK is a relatively young nation, slavery hasn't really been a part of our history. Traces of the practice were long gone from the Lehengolt Empire before the Revolt in 1917 ever happened. However, one can essentially be a slave within certain abusive systems, even though they are nominally free. As such, I do not see slavery in the sense of one person owning another as being much different from the other types I was referring to, as they all can be used equally to sever one's human rights.

Many men are blessed to be born free. Some are born slaves. Just as with every other plight of humanity, one has no choice to what conditions they are born into. One does have a choice on what ends to pursue in life; for a slave, it may often be freedom. However, some slavers seek to enslave more people for their own gain. It is this aspect that the HCSK officially has a problem with. Though slavery is treated as a national sovereignty issue for each nation to decide by it's own right," his volume and tone increased, "it ceases to be a matter of their national sovereignty when they cross into foreign territories to invade and raid to impress otherwise free people into slavery!" The bottom of his fist struck the desk for emotional emphasis. "This is the most abhorrent part of the slave trade, and the one that needs to be targeted first.

But before there can be any action pursued, we need to be unified, both operationally and in creed. I second Mr. Under-Minister's suggestion for an organization to progressively combat the international slave trade diplomatically, economically, and militarily, as it is necessary to prevent free peoples of the world from being enslaved. Though I can appreciate the desire to fully end slavery world-wide, and that slavery is most certainly a moral issue, the largest opposition even from non-slavers will be the ones who claim it to be a national sovereignty issue. There are nations who if completely abolished slavery would collapse, causing a chaotic situation in which all would suffer, to include the non-slaving international community. By focusing on ending the most heinous aspect of the international slave trade, we can much more feasibly do the most good for the most people, and without alienating the 'national sovereignty non-slavers'. Though this goal is less lofty and less ideal than those presented so far, we are more likely to successfully attain this goal. And such a victory could give us the diplomatic and economic momentum to one day realize your ultimate ideal, and in a way that is both economically beneficial and respectful of national sovereignty."

[United States of PA]

As Cordell Bidstrup, a man of 76 years and an incredibly long and eventful life listened to the host of the meeting, the great Her Excellency Stewardess of the Revolution Christine's Government Christine Friedrich spoke, than the delegate from New Chalcedon, than the Free Republic of Lamoni, and finally, most recently, the Delegate from Katonazag.

As a man of his age, posture and attitude one might not even come close to guessing his history. One might guess he had been a Man who had grown up to a Lower Class Working Family built around basic ideals and the 10 Commandants. To date, not one had guessed from just talking to him that he had once been a malnourished, scarred and frightened little boy with whip marks from the slaver that had kidnapped him and his family.

To date, not one person had guessed that. He got lucky however, and was able to escape one day from the “Plantation” where he and many other slaves had been gathered, herded, and housed for over a year by a abusive owner who forced them to work for most of the day without any food and little water. In fact, Bidstrup had suffered so much during this time that he could not even remember that name of the Nation that this had taken place of, nor his Father and Mothers names.

Almost no one would guess that the “old man” had once been an illiterate, starved slave. In fact, most thought that the limp he had which forced him to use a cane, had been due to the car crash or other such injury, not due to the crack of a whip.

As the representative from Katonazag finished speaking, Cordell applauded, as he had done for the other three speakers, and slowly, painfully, began to stand up, his kneecap cracking slightly as he did so.

“I must applaud all of our speakers so far, their speeches were quite well thought out, and all were very informative and morally correct, given their nations stances on the issue at hand.

However, I must thoughtfully disagree with part of Dr. Kazmers statement. Slavery and Indentured Servitude, no matter its form, use, location or how the persons in question are obtained, is immoral, wrong, and must be dealt with immediately, by force if so required.

I’m sure a good deal of you noticed my limp on my way into the chamber here. Probably a lot of you thought it was due to some sort of accident or genetics. It was neither, instead, it came from the crack of whip when I was a young boy, during a short tenure of mine as a “piece of property”, as a slave, owned by the most brutal, uncaring and bastardly man I have ever heard of, let alone met. Under his control I suffered so greatly I can barely recall most of my life before the age of five, and I cannot even remember my Mother and Fathers names, and am only able to remember my sisters First Name.

That requires a lot of torture and effort, to make a person forget 5 years of their life and the names of their closest family members.

Stuff like this is what slavery and Indentured Servitude allows, for the matter however, whenever someone is degraded to the point of being considered equal to a Toilet, or a Bed, or a Chair. When you are a slave that is all you are, another piece of property. You are no longer a human, you no longer get to enjoy things that Free humans do, such as Freedom, the main one, and happiness, and I don’t mean enjoying what you have, I mean true happiness. You don’t have the ability to own a house, own property, or, in many cases, choose a spouse yourself. All things that people that have never experienced slavery take for granted.

The nation that I now call home, the Federal Republic of Pennsylvania, is quite lucky in that it has never experienced Slavery or Indentured Servitude in any form in its nearly 1,600 year history, if you go back to the first recorded history of this nation, around the year of 400 A.D. We are graced in this fact, but we don’t ignore the issue at hand because of it either.

While the Federal Republic of Pennsylvania has until recently never taken hostile action to degrade the ability of Slavers to obtain, sell or transport slaves, we had hoped that the institution would kill itself eventually. This apparently will not happen, since most slavers are apparently more at home with killing people wanting nothing more than the Ability to vote, own a house, marry a woman of your choice, and have kids who will be able to experience the same things as you, without any worries of having them taken away.

This is the only way that nations can claim to have “Slavery without violence”, while hiding the facts. Slaves naturally want freedom, and to naturally prevent the rebellions that are bound to result because of this, the instigators naturally need to be contained, or eliminated.

The killing of people that want nothing more than freedom is among the most immoral things on the planet, in addition to the Institution itself.

We agree with the idea of creating a unified organization for the abolishment of slavery, whether through diplomacy or by force of Arms. I will not go fully militarist and say that we must shoot first, ask questions later in regards to Slaver Nations, but that we should instead attempt to convince them first through Political Willpower to abandon slavery, withdraw from all agreements or Organizations that promotes slavery, and free all slaves within their territory immediately. Such actions have already proven to be usable in the case of the nation of Serpensa, which the Lyran Protectorate managed to convince through Diplomacy to drop all Slave related actions.

However, it is of my opinion that such actions will prove to be futile most of the time, and that, any nation that commits itself to the organization that will undoubtedly be formed following this meeting, be willing and able to take up arms against any and all Slavers, for the name of freedom, for the name of Liberty, and for the name of Moral Righteousness.”

With that, Bidstrup sat back down somewhat hard, as he knee began to give out on him. The old man had managed to keep his voice even and steady throughout the entire thing, even when talking about his early days, not shedding a tear.

Though, all of those built up tears were now starting to flow, as the Former Slave, former Illiterate, and currently major diplomat within the Federal Republic of Pennsylvania, pulled out a handkerchief, and began to silently wipe tears away from his eyes.


OOC: Turned out a lot more wordy than in intended, my bad.

[Animarnia]

Molly DeLéan walked down the stairs, she was in her usual bussiness suit affair, essentially a white blouse, with dark pants and jacket affair, her hair combed up into a Pixycut style which flicked out just at the edges in its delicate aurbon-orange with slightly blonder yellow tips. she still had sleep in her eyes, and deffinetly looked better than she felt. Molly was not a morning person, and everyone that knew her knew not to talk to her before she's had at least 2 cups of coffee and had its glorious brown fluid flowing in her veins.

Sitting down at her seat, the cook has so very nicely placed her name care on near Christine and pouring herself a cup of brown goodness and eyed her breakfast without talking to anyone, two Eggs, lashings of Bacon, Sausages, mushrooms, Fried Toast, Black Pudding, Beans and some fried tomatos. the cooks by now had her tastes down pat, and this was what she would call her "Colestorol feast" she quiety dug in, stopping between mouthfuls to chew and swallow. She made sure not to get any on her shirt, afterall though i may be breakfast and she was no stranger to these walls but it was an official visit and she could not go around in her PJ's all day. She watched as her lover, Christine dinnged her glass to get attention and start speaking.

Molly listened carefully. she sighed and almost face palmed at one point, trying to stem the anger that was rising in her, Animarnians were still furious over the 'Blackhelm Clusterfuck' as it was being called. the reprocusions still going into the political circles of the fortress state. the league had taken a beating in public opinion, the expensive of the incident in both lives and in mobleising for the conflict only to pay no dividends at all. she wated for Christine to finish, a little wordy for her taste and she hated to do this to her lover but, things had to be said.

"Christine, are you serious?" You're here now Christine calling for -another- campaign. Granted we hate Slavers and we all know that this will likely lead to a slaver culling and quite right but the league had utterly failed in Blackhelm if not for the saving grace they are now total glass", Molly said; "Thanks to Katonazag" she added the acknowledgment with a slight nod to the deligate from said nation.

"Command and control had collapsed, half the paticipents failed to show, and those that did lacked co-ordination", Molly Began; "The Damirians started it then disapeared and I remember your own forces never even showed up for a war you were a large part in calling for am I wrong?"

"The Blackhelm incident is an embarasment. Period never should a force of the size the league comited, even taking into account the nations who did not live up to their ends.." Molly said; "Never should a force of that size failed in its objective so badly"

"So I ask you, Why should any one of us send our sons and daughters off to die, in another campaign or series of them against slavers given how epically the league failed last time it tried to get out of its stable? why should we follow the Damirians into war again"

Molly took another sip of her coffee. she may have been overly harsh but it was still hurting a lot that most Animarnians felt that the league had, pulled the rug out from under them at Blackhelm.

[Draft Post, expect spelling Errors its late but I wanted to get this up]

[The State of Monavia]

Four days ago

Office of Frank Carter, Minister of Foreign Affairs
Chalcedon, Monavia

Footsteps resounded through the previously silent hallway outside Minister Carter’s office. Their source was the minister himself, walking towards its doors for the last time in what would likely be two weeks. Travel to Tailville was a logistically taxing affair, and Carter’s plane would have to stop on a Damirian airfield to refuel after leaving Chalcedon. Even then, a second flight to Neo-Ixania would have to be made before a final flight to Tailville could take place. Such were the consequences of making a one-way trip in excess of 20,000 kilometers. Carter did not even wish to go about calculating how many air miles he could accrue if he was using commercial services, but the credits resulting from such a decision would certainly do him well.

These issues were not on Carter’s mind as he unlocked his office and spent the next half hour removing a few documents and packing some items in his gray leather briefcase. After retrieving a few dossiers, a laptop, ₮20,000 in cash, a letter opener, some pens, and paperclips, he locked his desk and put in place some security measures. Leaving the room, he shut the doors behind him and proceeded to his secretary’s office, where he left some instructions in writing, as was his style. Said instructions would explain the nature of his absence and detail plans for notifying Chairman Farrington to assume command of the Ministry while he was away.

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Present day

Palace of the Revolution
Tailville, DR
Revolutionary Commonwealth of Wagdog

Minister Carter’s plane took two days to reach the Revolutionary Commonwealth by the aforesaid route. Commencing the final portion of this journey the previous night, the plane had reached Wagdian airspace by dawn of the present morning. Descending through banks of moist clouds which obscured any clear image of the ground below, the plane, accompanied by a transport craft which carried elements of Carter’s motorcade and security vehicles, approached Tailville sometime after eight o’clock. Landing shortly thereafter, it took but twenty minutes to moor the planes near a designated point of disembarkation and deploy a majority of the security measures needed to protect the mooring site. Carter’s motorcade was assembled, soon making its transit of the streets of Tailville towards the Palace of the Revolution.

Seated in the secluded interior space of a Monavian diplomatic limousine, the Foreign Minister was accompanied by six others. Seated in the rear row were two other Ministry officials. Flanking him on his right was Ministry Press Secretary Karl Golikov. To the left of Carter sat Foreign Ministry Legal Counselor Laura Garmash. In the next row sat Carter’s two valets. Ahead of them were a stenographer and a photographer, sent to record the verbatim and a narrative of the proceedings in both text and images. Such was the composition of the delegation proper.

The security detail was also impressive; it was a diplomatic meeting in an allied country with sufficient security as is, but Carter was accorded the honor of a full guard consisting of a whole section of Royal Guardsmen and their commanding officer. Ten such guardsmen were present at the airport, providing security for the planes and hangars, led by Second Lieutenant Charles Palatnik. Carter’s only escort to the conference itself came in the form of two of his personal bodyguards who drove behind the limousine in their own vehicle.

Arriving roughly a quarter hour before the convocation ceremonies, the officials within the delegation, accompanied by the minister’s bodyguards, approached the entrance while the valets arranged for the vehicles to be parked in a secure location. Obtaining a means of ingress among the heavy security which was all too likely to be in place was not difficult for a group which clearly appeared to be composed of diplomats.

Few other delegates appeared to be present at the Main Banquet Hall at this hour. Minister Carter was the first to enter the elegantly decorated room, espying the presence of the Wagdian leader and her staff. The Minister was only forty-eight years old, yet his demeanor was that of someone who was at least fifty, and possibly older. In spite of the nature of his work and the intense degree of strain it had historically caused as it exerted its burden on those who carried it out, Carter’s physical appearance was that of a supple individual, perhaps even someone who was but thirty-five. Trimmed out in a charcoal gray swallowtail coat and a matching vest, he projected a patrician image towards the other delegates. In addition to this, a beaver hat sat atop a thick layer of golden brown hair which crowned his visage.

The minister carried a briefcase in his right hand, allowing it to appear as it floated above the floor, for he did not permit it to swing while he held it aloft. As if to complete this aristocratic costume, he walked with an ornamental cane, carved on a lathe from walnut root and richly lacquered over many times. On its end was an austere metal knob, overlaid with gold to appear purely decorative in its function.

Striding through the room, he greeted his host in a merry yet stiff fashion. “Your Excellency, I bid you greetings and a most pleasant day. How are you this morning?”

Following Carter into the room was the Ministry’s press secretary. Golikov was a thinner man than Carter, weighing all of 165 pounds and yet standing nearly six feet tall. Dressed in a jet black suit, he projected a more modern and uncompromising image. Nonetheless, he chose a bowler cap over a sharp-edged top hat, the reasoning being that he would appear more magnanimous and appear softer towards the other delegations. He had no need for an ornamental cane like Carter, who had assured the security staff outside that he would not be using the concealed sword within to impale any rambunctious delegates if they became disagreeable in their conduct. As a press secretary, Golikov was not accustomed to doing much conference work, but his experience within the diplomatic corps had done him and his career well.

Golikov offered similar greetings to the Stewardess of the Revolution before taking his seat. The stenographer and photographer, who parted ways with the delegates, took seats away from the table.

Laura Garmash followed the Golikov and Carter. Like most Monavian women from the northern cities, located in colder regions of Nova, she was a commanding figure, even Amazonian in comparison to her more southerly counterparts, for she stood an inch taller than Golikov. As if this alone did not suffice to make the fashionable attorney impose an image of dominance upon those present, she had donned a black pencil dress, the lower hem of which lay flush with her knees. Adding to this was a gold necklace set with onyx stones and three-inch heeled shoes. On every account, some would have thought she was actually the Foreign Minister, and certainly the thirty-seven-year-old legal counselor may as well have been qualified in every way for playing such a part. After tendering her pleasantries with Her Excellency, she took up a seat with the other two delegates, setting her briefcase underneath the table.

At nine o’clock, when the appointed time had finally come, it was the Stewardess who delivered the opening remarks. While there was no ceremony in the traditional sense of the word, for the present moment was devoid of any pageantry, the words which she intoned were certainly fitting for the occasion. Once finished, her final words appearing to trail off, it appeared that it was time for delegates to make remarks of their own. The Monavians were decidedly against being the very first to speak in the presence of so many; Wagdog was an ally, but others had preceded the Monavian Empire in entering into alliances with the Wagdians, and it was believed that they should be afforded a moment to take advantage of their position of precedence.

Seated at one point along the edge of the table was an eminent man who was obviously of noble or perhaps even royal blood. He stated his recommendation to employ economic means of destroying abominable institutions of materialistic tyranny, sentiments with which the Monavians were in agreement. After disseminating a series of five proposals aimed at weakening and ultimately suffocating the economic institution of chattel slavery, he yielded the floor. The Monavians were pleased to have some concrete ideas promulgated this early in the conference.

Following the Prince of Novoa Ancyra, Lamonian delegate Alberte Bieito spoke. The Monavians were not familiar with Bieito, having only met with President Stinson and several of his advisors in the past. He reiterated the need to use economic means to dismantle slavery, but more importantly, he mentioned the World Antislavery Organization. The Ministry was aware of this international body and some of its more public operations, but Minister Carter had seen no reason to become involved. Its member states had habits of acting haphazardly, disregarding any restrictions of national sovereignty which existed.

While sovereignty had its limits, boundaries within which nations could reasonably, even if irrationally operate, there were advocates who extended and enlarged these boundaries to form a universal license to allow governments the absolute freedom to operate as they pleased, resulting in severe abuses of the principles of raison d’état. Perhaps as a counter to this, many antislavery governments had chosen an opposing approach, declaring the sovereignty of nations null and void if their policies were found distasteful by the former, no exceptions being afforded to the latter party. Carter wished to avoid either of these extremes whenever he could.

Additional discussion followed from the Katonazagi and Pennsylvanian delegates, and then the President of Animarnia herself made mention of her government’s position. Indeed, there was no shortage to what this conference had to offer, at least, that was how it appeared.

Once the previously mentioned parties had delivered their remarks on the deplorable subject to be addressed and rectified by those seated within the august hall, it was finally time for a Monavian statement.

The Foreign Minister had remained seated throughout the initial remarks, applauding with Ministry Press Secretary Golikov and Ministry Legal Counselor Garmash. He arose from his seat in a fluid motion, drawing himself up to his full height and stepping aside. Pushing his seat back towards the table, he eyed the position of his gracious host, the Stewardess of the Revolution, and began speaking.

“Your Excellency, it is most proper and fitting that I heartily thank you and your staff for arranging this conference. You have done much to facilitate an effective meeting of those who would stand to finally deliver justice to the oppressed. It is this act of wise temerity for which I thank you, and further, I commend you.

“It was long ago that Monavians eliminated slavery within their own borders. Though it was ended in 1858, it had been in decline for more than a century, rife with corruption and controlled by demagogues for the longest of times. While having served an economic function that was necessary, for a time, to ensure the prosperity of the populace, or at least segments thereof, no longer was it a useful institution; indeed it had become an evil unto itself greater and any other that the Empire had to face in those times. The decisive choice to abolish it is a moral victory for my people and their nation, and now another battle in this war is set to commence.

“We possess an arsenal of weapons, diplomatic, economic, and even military in nature; such things which we may employ as needed to execute the task of delivering liberty and security to the oppressed. I must thank His Royal Highness for offering up his proposals, particularly for the reason that they appear immediately workable and thus may provide us with decisive solutions. The economic destruction of those who disregard the sovereignty of their neighbors in search of plunder and captives is ultimately the end which is most fitting for them. Let the slaver wallow in squalor unfit for even a corpse.

“Your Royal Highness, you have spoken about ‘utterly extirpating slavery’ as if it was some sort of disease, describing supposed symptoms and underlying causes. Slavery is an institution, even an economic system unto itself; much like the Marxian systems of Bolshevism and its descendents, corporatism, which is favored by the fascists and their associated tyrants; and communism. It is something more than a mere disease, for though it spreads throughout its host environment and eventually brings about its demise, it kills far too slowly to be a disease. No, slavery is a cancer, slowly growing, consuming its victims and killing them off in the same prolonged way as the cancerous systems I have mentioned.

“It is because of this that I do not share the honored Pennsylvanian delegate’s zeal for employment of force. Such an insidious thing as a cancer must be delicately removed, piece by piece, and dismantled by the use of the most favorable means possible. This cure may be as painful as the affliction it seeks to treat; however, it is the most effective. To go about this, process, I must first thank the Katonazagi Ambassador, Dr. Kázmér, for his dissemination of the limits of national sovereignty. If the governments of sovereign nations make decisions which trespass upon the sovereignty and free self-determination of their neighbors, they can no longer justify their actions under the aegis of sovereignty.

“Ambassador Bidstrup, you are most certainly correct about the immorality of slavery wherever it exists. Even if it is protected under international law and national sovereignty, I must agree that it is disgusting to the extreme. My concern regarding an unrestricted license to intervene in the internal affairs of neighbors, cultural differences notwithstanding, is that once we claim to have the right to do so, the peoples and governments of countries which possess different values and ascribe to different moral tenants from our own will then be entitled to do likewise unto us and force us to accept their rules. The reasoning behind this logic is that we will be setting a precedent by choosing to intervene, and we would be neglecting, even endangering the interests of our own people, who we are obligated to protect, if we thus set such a precedent without a traditional causus belli.

“I finally wish to thank Under-Minister Bieito and President DeLéan of Animarnia for their remarks on this subject. Your Excellency, I hereby yield the floor.”

With these final words, Frank Carter, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial Federation of the Monavian Empire, finally retook his seat.

---

OOC: A typographical error was corrected on December 2.

[Katonazag]

The Duke of Geer rose next. "I must agree with President DeLéan in the realm of operations. Many of Her Majesty's loyal Sailors perished in the assault on Neptune Bay, which will not be forgotten. The Czarina came to the realization that the Blackhelm Confederacy government, being a puppet of the most insidious Griffincrest Corporation, wouldn't be brought to the negotiations table even in the face of certain defeat. The unfortunate rest is, as we say, history.

We have to be prepared for the eventuality that some slaver nations will not be swayed from the slave trade even after being brought to their knees in military defeat. What of them? Is this group of nations gathered here prepared to take such extreme measures in the name of world-wide abolition, if it came down to it? What about when one of the nations decides to use their slaves as human shields, or worse yet, kill them all off rather than free them? The practice of slavery is evil, as evil as you're likely to find on this fell world. Mr. Bidstrup can attest to it first hand. It is a deadly disease that must be removed and eradicated, once and for all. However, as can be inferred from President DeLéan and Dr. Kázmér, we have to operate within our means, and also within the limits of what sort of evils we're willing to wield in order to bring about the end of this one. While the Kingdom of Krommindy and the HCSK are not perfectly eye-to-eye on the issue of slavery, I must concur that we have to be calculated and systematic about the destruction of slavery, or we may find ourselves falling down the slope of any number of evil practices ourselves in the process.

It is true that this must happen as soon as possible, but not at the price of turning our own fervor and zeal into haste, self-destruction, and damnation. It is a moral imperative from God, incumbent upon us as free men and women to end slavery as this world knows it; if we don't, then who will? But if we fail because we are quick to answer evil with more evil, who is left to take on the mantle of this cause? Let us take the time to fully explore all the possible courses of action, and pray that we have the wisdom to select the right one."

Princess Allison shifted nervously in her seat next to her uncle, rather uncomfortable that he had brought his theological guns to bear in front of such an audience. Though she felt as strongly about the issue of slavery, if not stronger, but her reasons were more steeped in humanistic philosophy and social egalitarianism rather than the teachings of the Church.

[Osea 767]

Nikolai Stolypin, the Soviet ambassador present at the meeting, had been there for a while now. He had listened to the arguments of the the delegates, while taking bites from the breakfast he had ordered. It was significantly less calorie intensive and smaller than some of the meals that delegates were eating. Because of this, he finished his own breakfast fairly quickly, though he continued to take sips from from cup of tea he had ordered. As he did this, he listened carefully, though he did not join in the discussion until the Duke of Geer said his piece.

"A nice speech. Yet it is not God who will liberate the slaves from their oppression, but instead humans". He then shrugged his shoulders. "Hmmm, I think I will avoid pushing into the tangent point of religion. It would seem reasonable to expect that those states that genuinely are ready to fight to the death for their right to own slaves will almost likely be amongst those who will be the hardest to persuade, correct? It would seem to be that aiding ourselves and our chances of success through the creation of an effective anti-slavery organisation would be a prudent action. After all, slavers will be more willing to listen to us if we are carrying a big stick with us. A part of making use of such an organisation though must be a willingness for it to take action.

The WASO has been mentioned already. It is what we must avoid becoming. It has done much work, yet it is not an entity that has much respect for it. If the Soviet Union were to be put under the threat of slaver, I must admit that there are many places we would go first before we would turn to WASO, if we were even to do so at all. If we are to stand up to slavery, we must ensure that the slavers take us seriously. With that in mind, I must concur with much of what Foreign Minister Carter has said. Slavery is not a conventional foe. We are not dealing with a united entity, like some sort of grand alliance or a empire. The slavers are not the same, and some can be dealt with far more easily with subtle means than they could with the use of tanks and bombers. If we were to attack every slaver, we would surely be seen by many as a ravaging mongol horde rather than as fair minded liberators.

The strategy therefore, at least as I see things, should be isolate the slaving community economically and make them realise that normal relations with the rest of the international community are only harmed by the practise of slavery. Awareness of the problem should be promoted, while an effort should be made to show slaving nations that the practice is not economically rewarding. After all, many who abandoned slavery in the past did so for economic reasons and not moral ones. We should also ensure that military action can be taken by us as a group against the worst offenders: nations that have no interest in ever abandoning slavery and instead act to spread the practise and shield other slavers from negative side effects of practising the trade".

Upon that he returned to sipping his drink and waited for responses from the other delegates.

[United States of PA]

After sitting down, Cordell Bidstrup had listened to the honorable Mr. Frank Carter bring forth his own opinions, followed by the Duke of Greer and the Osean Delegate, Nikolai Stolypin speak their piece. All of them were extremely good speakers, and Cordell could tell already that much would be accomplished in a short amount of time during this Summit.

When Stolypin had finished speaking, Bidstrup leaned forward in his chair, careful not to aggravate his knee further than he already had.

“Before I go on to say what I am going to say next, I must say that, without doubt, this is likely to become the most productive Summit between nations of differing political and economic systems that I have ever seen in the 40 odd years I have been doing work of this sort. I must therefore applaud all present, for If we can continue work like this where it matters after this summit is finished, we will by far and wide, most likely succeed in whatever goal we set out towards.

That said, I will first respond to some of the comments made by the Honorable Frank Carter, of Monavia.

I feel that I must first clarify something: I am not advocating immediate response of force to disband slavery in the nations of which it exists. I was attempting to say that while Diplomacy is of course a preferable first course, I have a feeling that the majority of slaving nations, especially the ones for whom Slavery is a major export, no matter how immoral it is, will downright refuse to surrender the institution, which they will undoubtedly claim as a “National Right” that is an equal of “The right to live life”. It is than that we must be willing, and capable, of military action to bring the nation to its knees, and to see the light and give up slavery, or risk be torn apart piece by piece forcibly to end it, for lack of a better analogy.

I say this since recently, a pair of nations attempted to peacefully, without force, coerce a slaver nation into abandoning slavery. What happen was nothing more than a Gangbang, so to speak, against the two aforementioned nations for their ideals, for their peaceful efforts.

During this situation, such threats were made as to “Colonizethe lands of the two nations, the Soviet Socialist State of Osea and the Commonwealth of Concordeia , and to “execute their leaders, as we did the nation of Kandoa”. This event went to such a point that we were concerned enough not too far into the event, that we felt it needed to inform the nations that were threatening to invade and Colonize or Enslave the nations of Osea and Concordeia that we would, without prejudice, use Thermonuclear Weapons in the defense of those two nations. Thermonuclear Weapons. That was how bad the situation was as judged by our Joint Chiefs of Staff. Luckily however, shortly after we made that statement that situation died down.

My nation has only once ever felt the need to use Thermonuclear Weapons, and that was after an attack upon our region with a weapon with a scale in excess of 100 Megatons.

The fact that nearly a dozen nations, many of whom had never been associated with Slavery before, felt the need to Gangbang on two well meaning nations, simply because they wished to remove just one small branch of slavery. This is nothing more than disgusting, and it makes me sick to my stomach every time I think of it or it is brought to my attention.

This is what Slavery does, it feeds off of people’s fears, their inability, it responds with force to peace. With violence to Pacifism. We cannot afford to become another WASO. Regardless of the work that the WASO has been able to accomplish, their policy of Pacifism, no more, no less, has made it the laughing stock of the Slave Nations. While we should applaud the WASO for its intentions and well meaning, it is behind the times. Slavers are getting braver and braver, striking militaristically at the WASO more and more, whether through words or direct actions.

While diplomacy with these barbarians, when it works, is a great thing, I just doubt that Diplomacy will work most of the time, short of making inhumane threats and appearing to be ready to follow through on them. THAT is when we must be willing to follow through with immense ability to force them to comply, if they will not willing do so. As our esteemed Colleague from the Soviet Socialist States of Osea has said, we cannot afford to become another WASO in the eyes of the Slavers, but instead one that is willing to talk them into abandoning peace, but that is capable of, and willing to, strike them down in a heartbeat if they will not do so willingly.


I Yield the floor your Excellency”

With that, Cordell Bidstrup sat back in his chair, and took a sip of the cup of Water he had in front of him, attempting to quench the small thirst he had worked up during his talk.

[New Chalcedon]

Upon hearing the Pennsylvanian delegate speak, Doukas knew that the time had come to start pushing the conference into a slightly different direction - the situation was developing the hallmarks of a circular argument, which would be disastrous to the anti-slaving cause, especially as the delegates were already agreing on so very much.

"While I'd like to thank Mr. Bistrup for his insight - which is by no means inaccurate - it apears to be slightly off-base on focus. We know that many slaving nations will insist on the 'right' to enslave human beings, and that they will frequently - as with anti-slaving forces - band together for mutual military strength, and I am fully on board with some form of military co-operation to prevent the deplorable situation Mr. Bidstrup described as regards Osea and Concordeia. However, this conference, to my mind, is about what we can do differently to previous attempts, and more effectively, to rid the world of slavery as efficiently and strongly as possible. This in mind, I would like to propose a few concrete ideas as to what we can do, only one of which will be military."

"First, I'd like to suggest that all nations present can maintain standing liaisons from a law enforcement perspective. It would in no way resemble Interpol, since the liaisons would in no way make arrests, nor would they involve themselves in anything but slavery cases. However, they would allow all participating nations to more effectively eliminate slavery within their own borders by drawing the eyes of local law enforcement to international connections more readily and conveniently. This co-ordination would extend to policing efforts regarding trafficking in all its forms, and would extend to the high seas specifically - all nations present would grant the right to board their merchant shipping to any nation agreeing to these terms, in order to pre-empt the legal niceties which slavers so often hide behind, as one example."

"Second, I would suggest that those nations with the wherewithal to do so should begin extending the strength of their protection to particularly vulnerable populations, which tend to attract slavers' greed, and that we keep each other up to date on such efforts. Each nation wil ldo this in its own way, but the simple fact remains that there are many prime areas, areas which suffer for lack of effective protection, which slavers delight in raiding for their "stock"."

"Third, I would suggest that wealthy nations - such as my own - could spend their wealth better than by manumission of slaves, in the form of instead encouraging would-be slave purchasers to instead utilise technology and free labour via international aid, loan programs, development grants and the like. As with each of the other ideas, co-operation and co-ordination are the key to making this idea work and reduce the markets for the human misery peddled by slavers."

"Fourth, I suggest that nations present should consider initialling a mutual defense agreement, possbily through a simple treaty or possibly through a more substantial organisation, one which would only activate under very specific circumstances: if a slaving nation attacked one of us for the promotion of anti-slavery efforts. This would provide the nations present with the security guarantee necessary to encourage efforts, without being a statement of belligerence which slaving nations can use to their diplomatic advantage."

"Fifth, as the honourable delegate from Lamoni suggested, to begin worldwide re-education programs in order to encourage other nations to get off the proverbial fence regarding slavery, coupled with judicious applications of aid programs as leverage."

"Sixth, and most importantly, to commit to this. All too often, nations have spoken kind and true words, yet gone straight back to diplomatic business-as-usual. We must commit, not just for today, but until the job is done. And, yes, a part of that commitment will be to abide in peace with other nations holding highly different economic, political and social systems - a mutual nonaggression pact, so that the forces of slavery cannot divide us one against another. We have our differences - let us postpone them, while we deal with issues we can readily agree on."

"While I am not unaware of the complete shambles that many international military operations seem to become, one of which Ms. DeLéan alluded to, I submit to those present that this is not inherent to antislaving operations; I have seen incidents where tyrants and slavers didn't know who was doing what. The best way this can be prevented, in my opinion, is via a standing co-ordination body - the defensive alliance I mentioned a moment ago would suffice if it were to include some form of peacetime co-operation. With this prevented, this anti-slaving league of nations can become an effective military force as and when it is necessary to defend its own goals and members."

His ideas delivered, Doukas sat once again, to gauge the reactinos of those present.

[Animarnia]

Molly sat eating her breakfast, she was going to regret this huge breakfast for sure when she stood on the scales for sure but that was then, this was now, and now she was hungry but she always did have a fast metabolism, burning off energy very quickly because she kept active more than just sitting on her butt in her office, as nice as her butt and office was. her fury dulled now somewhat as she took notes, writing on a note pad some of the things the other delegates were saying, sumerised into keynotes.

"I feel I should Clarify my earlier remake, to the honoured deligates, Animarnia is fully prepared to comit to this anti-slaver campain using all weapons at our disposal, be that economic, diplomatic or as the USPA has pointed out already most likely military force, Animarnians do not back away from their responsabilites", Molly Said, "But make no mistakes, if we do this, this will be a long and hard road it is easy to puff out our chest and beat on them here in the comfort of the Palace of The Revolution thanks to our kind hosts, with full bellys, but will all of us be so comited when our sons and daughters are coming home in boxes?"

"and make no mistakes ladies and gentlemen we will all have to bleed for this, as our Soviet Counterparts pointed out WASO has done much however they have limits inpose on themselves on what they can do. Slavery is like a cancer, and cancer is a fat little lump that needs to be beaten into the ground and purge. We, have to be willing to risk everything because if we don't that cancer will try to take everything", Molly said looking up.

"I fully agree with the USPA Deligate, while force should not be the prefered method of dealing with these monsters and I fully use that term we should be willing to back up our policy with force, because our ideals mean nothing if we are not willing to defend them amd sometimes you have to wield power against power, meet force with force"

"While In Principle, I agree with Mr Doukas or New Chalcedon, I would like to say that my comments about the previous military shambles was not meant to blanket Anti-Slavery Operations as a whole, just raise the point of public opinion after that disaster is low with regard to league backed operations, that said we have worked with both Wagdog, and Vetaka before providing intelegence against Strator, and Peacekeepers after the Vetakans pulled out for a time, only for Startor to go right back to slaving several years later and have to be invaded by Lyras, where we again providing Intelegence and sea lift for Lyran units into battle along with our Wagdogian allies so we have had success and failures"

"however with the aformentioned Blackhelm incident, command and control disintergrated when many of those largest proponents in this case the Damirians who were supposed to be leading the campain, dropped out and others never turned up or were vastly late and never fired a shot while Alfregan Animarnian and Krommindy sailors and pilots were dying" Molly said, looking over at Christine Accusingly.

"Secondly, while many of your proposals offer some merit, a large majority are coverd by the Theeb Acords, of which Animarnia is already a signitory and as such we already enforce a strict no slavery enviorment inside our borders and instruct any slaver cargoships to stay out of our national waters or face boarding and inspection. we also pass on UAV Drone information to other nations so that these ships can be tracked through Nova", Molly said, she neglected to mention some of the other things done also as this was an open meeting and national security took precidence; "We however failed to see why ourships or any of our allies, or those assembled here should be called for boarding or inspection by third parties when slavery has not been practiced in Animarnia for over 900 years and we here are all agreed on a policy to stop slavery - Probable Cause. This needs it, and does not have it."

"Thirdly, while we agree that, we should enforce protectorate and defence treatys with potential states who could be, for lack of a better term farmed for slavers we should not overly protect them, or they may over componsate and expect any of us to bail them out of hot water they get themselves into or use us as a shield to be imperialist and bullies without facing the concequences of their actions"

"Forthly while we agree in theory to mutual defence with any anti-slavery signitory here, these agreements should only be inacted if that nation is being attacked for being anti-slavery not because that nation is being attacked in of itself. we take our comitments seriously but we also do not like it when people take advantage of our good faith, trust is earned afterall"

"But Yes, we completely agree that whatever agreement we are able to reach here, we must all comit to this for the long term"

"I Yield the Floor", Molly said, feeling somewhat more human and in her stride, truth be told she hated these things, not because she had anything against any of the deligates but just, it was far too much attention and the media attention made it even more nuts, she much prefered to work in the shadows, in the background, never a born public speaker. oddly she wondred where George Black had gotten too...

[Lamoni]

The Lamonian delegate had listened to the others speak after he himself had spoken, and now felt that he needed to speak again, if only to keep some of the more... inflammatory opinions present from slowing or stopping the progress that had been made thus far.

"Honorable delegates," the Under Minister began. "I agree with many of the proposals put forward by all of the delegates present, especially those of the delegate from New Chalcedon. However, I would like to make one adjustment to the proposals that he has put forward. Instead of placing law enforcement officials on the merchant shipping of member nations, it is my thought that member nations can instead escort the shipping of other member nations when they ply trade routes near known pro-slavery nations. In this way, we do not have a presumption of guilt before innocence. We do not believe that the honorable delegate from New Chalcedon wished to imply a state of guilt before innocence, and therefore feel that this would provide a more acceptable alternative.

After all, we are committed anti-slaver nations, or none of us would be here at this fine conference, with it's fine hosts. As a signatory of the Theeb Accords, the Free Republic itself simply reaffirmed that which was standard practice in our nation. As a nation that was founded by refugees in the early 1800's, slavery has never been practiced on our soil. However, Lamoni as it was back then, would have been a very attractive target for slavers. A state that had had economic troubles due to two revolutions - one communist, and one to free us from the Communists, was small enough that larger nations would have no problems getting by the defenses that might have been brought to bear. The fact that the Free Republic is now large, wealthy, and militarily powerful enough to give pause to most nations, is in large part due to relationships of trust developed between Lamoni, and other nations. That trust had to be earned, on both sides.

What we need do with those easy targets for slavers is simply to help them grow, and defend them against slavers, if need be. Of course, I still stand by my earlier statement about a global re-education campaign about the evils of slavery. We need to earn the trust of such places, and resist the attempts of the slavers to divide us from them. We all know what they would do with such places, do we not? This is all part of the practice of making slavery a massively expensive enterprise for those states who use it."

[Independent Hitmen]

At thirty eight Thomas Adler was a young man to hold such an important position, to many around the world he was the face of the country. He was rarely in his own nation, he spent much of his time in other nations and even more on his jet travelling between them. His visit to the anti-slavery conference had been shoehorned into his proposed visit to the Khalif where he would oversee the latest round of negotiation for the vital oil that kept the Hitmano economy going. Whilst he complained to some of his friends it wasn’t a bad life, he mixed with the rich and powerful across the world and had developed a contact book that would see him well when he retired from the diplomatic service, private companies would pay a lot to get access to the people he knew.

Back to business he thought. Slavery was an interesting topic. The moral nature of the Hitmano citizen meant that their stance was automatically against such a barbarian practice, conveniently forgetting that barely 500 years before there had still been examples of slavery on the mainland. Economically it didn’t seem to make sense either, machines were significantly more efficient than humans and were ultimately cheaper he assumed....how much does it cost to buy a slave...he noted the point down to get somebody to research, no doubt it would amaze him how cheaply a human life was valued. He tried to clear his mind as his host stood and began the introductions. There seemed no order to the initial statements and so he allowed the more established anti-slavers to speak and absorb their points. It seemed that there was a consensus among those represented here, but fixing the exact details would probably prove to be an issue, it usually did especially with so many powerful nations present. Though the Hitmen were a large, militarily powerful nation that was long established they were not well known throughout the world and he suspected that many of those delegates in this room hadn’t known of their existence until very recently. He knew that because he didn’t know some of the countries represented here until reading his briefing documents on the plane. Slavery was a massive problem and he wasn’t arrogant enough to think that the presence of the Hitmen would noticeably change the course of world events, but perhaps they could help to shape the direction that they took in future.
Adler listened to the delegates and allowed Bietio to finish before he himself stood. The members turned towards him and so he began speaking.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, our gracious host, let me first say what an honour it is to be here with so many likeminded nations. I would like to thank our generous host for the sumptuous surroundings, I feel that there is a real air of progress and accomplishment around these talks already and that must be applauded.”

He paused for a second and bowed slightly in the direction of the Stewardess of the Revolution before continuing.

“As many of my esteemed fellow delegates have said, slavery is at its heart an economic business. I do not believe that everybody involved in the slave trade is fundamentally an evil person. Many are brought up to believe that slaving is the only way of providing a living for their family and I suspect that yet more are simply brought up in that system and do not question it anymore than we question why we drive on the side of the road that we do. Therefore is it not the mindset of the slaver that must be changed?”

“This in itself would present a sizeable issue, both morally and economically. From a moral standpoint is it acceptable to fundamentally change the culture of a fellow nation, can it be done? Can we economically support the actions to do so? Are we morally right to even attempt such actions? I do not claim to know the answers to such questions but I believe that they must be examined in some detail for us to be successful in our efforts against and the hopeful eradication of international slavery.”

“I say international slavery very carefully because the notion of eradicating the use of slaves entirely is a very big proposition and it seems correct for us to focus our attention on this international trade as our first priority. For the record both myself and my country wholeheartedly agree that we must try, but ultimately we may not be able to succeed and so it is our belief that we must take the course of action that will help the greatest number of innocent victims. I agree with my fellow speakers that the root cause is economic, but I believe that we should also use the carrot as well as the stick. If I may use economic terms for a moment, if we were to develop supply side policies, that is to say remove the demand for slaves through a positive campaign of educating slave-using nations and providing incentives for those nations to then move away from the use of slaves. That said, such incentives and education programmes will not always be successful and that brings me to the military issue that has been discussed by all of us before and I am sure will be discussed again. The fact remains that it is currently beyond us to act militarily against every nation that trades in slaves or uses them. Of course we can attack or threaten them one by one and they may combine to defend themselves but ultimately there can be no lasting resolution through conflict. Armed conflict may be part of the solution but by itself it will not solve anything, indeed the displaced peoples from conflict will be more vulnerable to other slavers and so we must be careful not to increase the problem we seek to solve.”

“We would agree in principle to some form of treaty whereby friendly navies would escort merchant shipping of other anti-slavery nations through waters known to be used by slavers and those near to their bases. It also seems wise to help to protect vulnerable populations from the attention of slavers through a combination of economic, diplomatic and military means but this should be done on a carefully researched and implemented basis. It would also seem wise to set up a more streamlined conduit through which like minded nations can share intelligence about slaver movements and possible targets. Whilst we are not signatories of the Theeb Accords but we will be signing the treaty soon to enable us to increase our anti-slavery actions and interact more with likeminded nations such as yourselves.”

Whilst he spoke he looked around, getting eye contact with many of his fellow delegates and feeling encouraged about his country’s position. His speech wasn’t the best he’d ever made but he felt that it was a suitable introduction for his country.

“Thank you all, I yield the floor.”

[The State of Monavia]

Present day

Palace of the Revolution
Tailville, DR
Revolutionary Commonwealth of Wagdog

Five delegates had spoken prior to Minister Carter, thus he was the sixth to have become engaged in the discussion. It took him all of five or six minutes to deliver his statement, of which the majority was a series of replies to those made by the other delegates. In his mind there was no reason for President DeLéan to have reopened the old psychological wound caused by the war with the Corporate Alliance, for it had since healed and did not appear to be an item that was germane to the dialogue. Whereas the delegates might have troubled themselves with determining what information was relevant, the stenographer did not. A written record would be ready by that evening.

While the Duke of Geer spoke, appearing to build upon Minister Carter’s warning to avoid haste and to be calculating in the implementation of antislavery measures, the minister glanced at the assortment of delicacies being enjoyed by the delegates seated around the table. His decision to make theological references was not the first example of using a religious justification to uphold the rightness of a foreign policy decision. Carter, being a religious man himself, would certainly have agreed, and if it had not been for the Osean delegate’s reply, he would have voiced such an agreement as soon as he decided to speak again.

Carter had no knowledge of the Oseans, having never heard of them or their country prior to this meeting. Ambassador Stolypin seemed to indicate that there was a need for the creation for an antislavery organization which did not resemble the now frequently mentioned WASO. This WASO began to look more and more flimsy with every criticism leveled against it, especially because there was not one word of praise for their efforts. Carter whispered a request to Golikov to have some research conducted on the World Antislavery Organization so that the Monavian government was more knowledgeable about it in preparation for future action. At this point, Stolypin referred to Osea as the “Soviet Union.” Only minutes before, Carter had equivocated the moral value of slavery with the moral value of communism when describing both as being economic cancers. Offending a foreign delegate who represented a power with which the Monavians had not even had relations seemed repugnant and out of character for the minister. When Stolypin finished his comments the minister was much relieved; he had not appeared to have taken any offense at any part of the minister’s statement.

Following the Osean delegate was Pennsylvanian Ambassador Cordell Bidstrup. Carter expected some of Bidstrup’s remarks to be intended as a reply to his own words. He was soon proven correct; nearly all of them addressed what Carter and Stolypin had said. While Carter wanted to know why the WASO was being so roundly criticized and yet no reasoning was being presented, Ambassador Bidstrup did provide a possible avenue for discussion. He blamed the WASO’s pacifist policies for its failure and political impotence, and this was lkely what lay at the foundation of his conviction to be more forceful, aside from his personal fight for freedom.

When Doukas said that the conference was intended to be used to help the delegates determine what could be done differently from the failed antislavery fronts of the past, attempting to define new avenues without first locating and marking off the old ones was a game of trial and error which the Monavians did not wish to play. His proposals were valid, and all the more improved when the Animarnian President and the Lamonian Under Minister had added their respective suggestions. Then, the Hitmano Secretary of State appeared and made an introductory statement that would have to be addressed. It was finally time for a second Monavian statement.

Rising from his seat for the second time in less than an hour, Minister Carter began speaking in a way which was similar to the last time. “Your Excellency, I ask to be allowed to speak again,” he began. After being recognized by the chair, he continued.

“There is a need, which I believe is obvious to all of us, to avoid the pitfalls of previous antislavery organizations. A military adage common among Monavians is that the gravest error a commander can commit is planning for the previous war instead of the next one. If we are to plan for the proverbial next war, we need to know why the previous wars were lost.

“Ambassador Bidstrup, you stated that the World Antislavery Organization has been a failure. I further agree with Ambassador Stolypin and President DeLéan when they say that we need not become ‘another WASO,’ and it is for this reason that I will have some questions for you to answer, so that as His Imperial Highness had said earlier, we can do things differently.

“If it has not been made apparent by the current political engagements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I will make it obvious to all of you that the Ministry mostly concerns itself with events happening within Nova, southern Greater Dienstad, southeastern Tarquinia, the Zacheri Sea, and a select few other locations in which we have interests. Much of the WASO’s operations and member states lie outside these regions, and as a result, the Ministry’s ignorance of their failings is the result of the ordering of our priorities. It is for this reason that I ask you, and any others who can answer me, what are the failings of the WASO and why did such a noble organization fail?”

These first few points finally addressed the concerns of Ambassadors Stolypin and Bidstrup, President DeLéan, and His Imperial Highness Prince Doukas about the failure of previous organizations. If their accounts could shed light upon the causes of these failings, the conference could have some ideas about where the pitfalls lay and how to pass by them unscathed.

Turning his attention to Ambassador Bidstrup once more, Carter continued, “Before all of you answer this question, I will focus on Ambassador Bidstrup’s account of how threats came to be leveled at Osea and Concordeia. I know naught about why they chose to go about coercing a neighbor of theirs into abandoning slavery, and until this time I had never heard about what it means to ‘peaceably, without force, coerce a nation into abandoning slavery.’ Coercion is, by definition, reliant upon force or the threat to employ it. Some clarification of this point is in order.

“I mentioned a dangerous precedent which has been established by the actions of free nations in deciding to go to war with their neighbors over said neighbors internal policies without a proper causus belli, to wit, Concordeia and Osean’s governments chose to enter this other country and force its leaders to change how they went about conducting its domestic affairs. My warning was not meant as a way of castigating you for advocating the deliverance of liberty into slaver states, but rather as a means of expressing concerns over its possible consequences.

“Allow me a moment to illustrate what I mean. There is a tyrannical government in control of a Havenic empire known as Doomingsland, a terrifying state if there was one. To my knowledge, they practice a multiplicity of atrocities; slavery in numerous forms is among them. While I am aware that they have a history of aggression and hostility towards their neighbors, I will ask this body to consider a scenario in which such actions were nonexistent. Let us suppose that in this scenario, the Doomanis avoid conflict with the outside world and manage to keep their barbarities contained within their own borders so as not to harm the interests of other states.

“Let us say that the Doomani government was merrily going about its usual business of persecution and spreading desolation. For no reason other than its desire to bring freedom to Doomani slaves, the well-meaning government of the Protectorate of Lyras issues an unprovoked declaration of war with the intent of coercing the Doomanis to free all of their slaves under penalty of total military destruction. The Doomanis, under international law, may then call upon their allies, claiming that they have been subjected to an unprovoked attack, and legally they would be justified in doing so. The precedent is set. The Lyrans, acting under moral authority, claim to be correct in their actions.

“Now suppose that the Lyran government’s decision to use their moral authority, a noble but still subjective argument, is the sole basis for their invasion. They have, in effect, claimed the right to impose their principles and values upon another sovereign state without its consent, something not much better than slavery on a national scale as opposed to a personal scale. Suppose that as a result, the IASEN invades the Lyran Protectorate with the intention of doing to the Lyrans what they did unto the Doomanis. Who is right? Should the IASEN, in line with the Lyran precedent, assume that it is proper to impose their principles and values upon the sovereign state of Lyras without its consent? Should the free people of Lyras, sovereign and independent, be trod upon by the boots of slavers because they ground under their own boots the sovereign people of a foreign state with a different culture?

“Forbid it!” he shouted as he smacked his hands together. “I shall not stand by while international law devolves into a system in which policies are determined by whichever government happens to have the largest and strongest military forces! Such is the nature of thugs! Free nations have seen it as their duty to use force to eradicate slavery where its practitioners refuse to abandon it after providing them with fair and magnanimous incentives. Likewise, the oppressors have chosen to force free people into bondage through violence. It is this battle of principles, fought on fields and seas of blood and bones and ashes that lies at the root of this conflict.

“I am of the mind that it is this haste to execute justice upon the slaver, without precondition or regard for the slaver’s vengeance, is the cause of their aggression and the reason why they establish these cartels. They are afraid, needing to appear powerful and strike where they may as their shipping is sunk and their slaves seized. They hide in waiting for one of us to act upon conviction and disregard sovereignty in our quest to bring their people freedom, so that they may then spring their malicious trap and use it to exact revenge upon us, disregarding our sovereignty and destroying more free nations.

“It may then seem that we cannot fight them as long as they play by some set of rules and do not violate their neighbors, thus being able to justify whatever actions they take in the interests of their sick visions. But we still have a justification in our arsenal with which we may strike down the unrepentant slavers who do not go to war against us. This weapon of which I speak is the same one used to justify Monavian involvement in the destruction of the Blackhelm Confederacy. It was the reasoning of the Monavian government that Blackhelm represented a threat to any and all nations in the form of the Griffincrest Corporation, and that if they were willing to attack one any target of convenience in order to plunder its supply of oil, then any nation, including ours, was liable to be attacked. It is by this logic that my government declared Blackhelm a threat and sought to neutralize it in order to preserve our own sovereignty.

“This time, free nations set a precedent which they may use with impunity with no legal peril to themselves. As long as we can say that a slaver state has been plundering its neighbors for slaves, then we can say that for all we are aware, we could be one of their targets, and as such, we shall defend ourselves by destroying the slaver states and their accomplices. I believe that in doing this, we have a much more solid legal reason for intervention in foreign affairs which otherwise would not concern us, because we can now prove that the slavers have real hostility to anyone who they can attack, thus rendering them hosti humani generis, enemies of all mankind, equal to pirates.”

Having dealt with the concerns of the Pennsylvanian Ambassador as thoroughly as he could at the time, Carter turned his attention to the points raised by Prince Doukas. He would have to meet with him after the discussion had ended and apologize for confusing the man’s title when he referred to him as “his royal highness.” Not that it mattered much, given the respect that the incorrect title still denoted, as it was still that of a prince.

“Your Imperial Highness is correct about a number of things. I believe that we can agree on the need to create a law enforcement body to carry out the will of this conference, but President DeLéan is correct about needing to station them on ships other than our own. Such a deployment would otherwise be a waste of manpower.

“In response to your second point, the vulnerable populations to be protected can include those recently freed from slavery, as Secretary of State Adler has just mentioned. Depriving slavers of their ability to secure an adequate supply of slaves will cause price increases. In addition, decreasing the demand for slaves by using the wealth of our nations to improve the economies of our neighbors will also be useful. I think that it would be wisest if we avoided the appearance of belligerence and tried to appear as fair-minded liberators by utilizing economic tools in this fight.

“If we constricted the demand for slaves at the same rate we constricted its supply, thus shrinking the volume of the market over time, the shrinkage will appear natural, driven by market forces, rather than contrived. The slavers will not suspect that they are being deliberately undermined. They will be as helpless as their victims when they finally become aware of what has happened.” The Minister flashed a wicked grin. If the slavers wish to play the game of duplicity, he thought, so can us.

“We can still apply manumission on a small scale in certain incidents. While the Monavian Constitution prohibits slavery and the slave trade within Monavian territory and its waters, there is no provision which prevents a Monavian from going abroad to buy a slave in another country, pursuant to its laws. Thus, Monavian citizens can legally travel to an IASEN country, buy some slaves, and then bring them back to Monavia to have papers filed so that they may be granted refugee status and thus make it possible for them to attain citizenship.

“I am further in favor of a mutual defense agreement and this education program, but we will need to formulate some specifications for both if they are to mean anything.”

Addressing the Hitmano delegate would be Carter’s last task before he yielded the floor. “Mr. Secretary, the mindset of a slaver, a citizen of a country in which slavery is legal, or someone belonging to a slaver culture is not something which I can address at length. It is a subject lying beyond the boundaries of my competence, having never dealt with such individuals myself.

“I do have concerns about the Theeb Accords, which you have said your government will be ratifying. I think that a reexamination of them at this conference may be in order, but not immediately. I have this feeling that they have not been as successful as they were intended to be.

“I will offer my thanks to all who have spoken that I have not yet mentioned, and with this I ask that Her Excellency considers the floor yielded.”

[Lyras]

For the first time, Senior-Marshal George Wallins, delegate of the Warmarshal, and representative of the Lyran Protectorate to the summit, spoke.

"On behalf of Warmarshal Krell, I thank the Revolutionary Commonwealth for hosting and chairing this gathering, and wish honour to all who here attend. In particular, I thank Minister Carter of Monavia for raising some excellent points, which I here intend to address, albeit in brief, as is our way."

Wallins paused. He was a big man, and though he spoke softly, had no doubts about his being heard.

"National sovereignty and culture are no excuses for perpetuation of a condition that runs roughshod over the intrinsic rights of all mankind. No excuse at all. They never have been, and never shall be, though strength of arms and impracticality of enacting change may well stay our hands. Do not mistake awareness of inherent difficulty of acting to be a conviction that the acting itself would be morally reprehensible."

His gaze traveled over the delegates before him.

"Also, please do not be under any misconceptions. While we may be direct in our intentions, and willing to use what measures are required to accomplish our objectives, that does not make us fools. Your example, Minister Carter, is flawed. We would not be so reckless as to unilaterally declare war on the Doomani, without, at the very least, having checked our intelligence as to the state of their alliances. We have, thus far, secured the successful conversion of a number of slave-states to free-, and we intend to continue doing so. Threat of force, while implicity or explicitly present, has thus far not spilled over into a requirement to use that force. While use it we will, if required, please do us the credit of not taking us as war mongering imbeciles with only a tenuous grasp of the finer points of diplomacy."

He cleared his throat. It had been playing up for a while, and it was starting to worry him.

"We will fight slavery with every means at our disposal. That includes all options. There is no 'last resort'. All options are on the table. That which is likely to secure our objective most effectively is selected for use. So far, that has been diplomatic and economic methodology. With prudence, that will continue to be the case. Few contend that actually engaging in hostilities would be productive, and thusly those we have discussed the matter with have come over to our way of thinking. If we remain united in this, that is likely to continue."

[Holy Marsh]

Cardinal Superior Daniel Serenasita allowed the Lyran representative to finish. He nodded his approval and then stood up slowly, putting his pointer and middle finger on his heart and making a small gesture. His delegation did the same in silence. After this was finished, he looked up at those gathered.

"I shall be brief at this breakfast, for the issue is clear and the real work has not begun. Slavery is a crime against the soul, against the Holy Marsh, against humanity itself in all forms, corporal and material. It is a disease that must be cut out of the species like shrapnel. Some nations are redeemable, their actions misguided. Others are evil and will one day have to face their judgment. Until that day comes, the Holy Marsh and His Speaker on Earth, Her Holiness Janice Krycwenski, stands firm in their commitment to the destruction of slavery around the globe using any means necessary, peaceful or otherwise. May the Holy Marsh watch over us all."

And with that, he sat down as quickly as he had stood. His nation had done little globally to stop the slave trade due to internal concerns. Now that those had been solved, the Holy Marsh now considered slavery a threat to the continued expansion of the Faith. Yet, as had been the custom of his nation in all diplomatic affairs, they would not waste time with grandiose statements. The morals were clear- the issue was certain. The response was narrow.

[Katonazag]

Dr. Kázmér stood once more. "We have visited from several perspectives the moral, social, and economic issues, with only minor divergences between the positions. All have led back to one point: that slavery should end. I think we have roundly agreed on this. We have also all agreed in one fashion or another that the approach to meeting this end is multi-faceted; philosophical engagement of the peoples, diplomatic courses of action, economic policies and procedures, and force via law enforcement and/or military might. The remaining disagreements, I believe, are when to use which approach.

Might I suggest that such organization as is built here today consist of divisions addressing each, and be headed by a security council or similar chair to administer and direct the organization and it's divisions. By this method, an administration can effectively manage the resources we have, and assign the taskings to experts in each division, who can be brought to bear against the appropriate slavers, in the appropriate situations, at the appropriate times. Obviously, the nations represented here have different areas of strength and expertise. All we need is a means to direct this energy we have into a useful and repeatable process, whereby to affect a systematic destruction of slavery.

However, administration is useless without a framework document as guidelines for them to operate within. And, of course, the first step in that process is to define who we are and what we do. Your Excellency, Stewardess Christine, unless there are objections, I would like to open the floor to suggestions on an official purpose statement of what we're trying to accomplish." With that, he ceded his idea to the conference.

[Osea 767]

Stolypin was quite interested by how things had gone so far. The delegates present had said much and each of them had presented solid arguments for their particular view on the issues involved and the possible solutions that the assembled nations might employ. But misunderstandings of sorts were a danger, and Stolypin was of the opinion that he not not been fully understood by his fellow delegates. First though, he decided to remove discussion of the Concordeian affair. In his opinion, it was an irrelevant tangent. So the first person he turned to as he spoke up again was Bidstrup.

"Ambassador, Bidstrup, I wish to point out that the threats that the slavers made during the incident you have mentioned were really of no more seriousness to use than the threats of any other tinpot dictatorship. Also, the situation has been correctly understood by my fellow delegates. We chose to get involved, and it was Concordeia that initially chose to use force. When you conduct such action, it is to be expected that other side will respond in a similar manner. I'd say the only relevance of the incident to this meeting is that it shows how some slavers will respond to us when we ask for them to abandon the institution. I do not think it has much of a place in our present discussions".

He then turned to face Carter. "Minister Carter, I certainly was not advocating that we launch attacks on nations in the way you put forward in your Lyras example, nor do I think anyone else was. War, at least in my opinion, is an option that should be used when it is the most appropriate out of what we have available. Let us imagine a situation where we are dealing with a slaving nation. This nation does not want to give up the practice. We would first use diplomacy to seek a satisfactory solution. Our armed forces would act as a deterrent against rash action by the slaver. Yet, suppose that the slaver decides to act against us for some reason. If such were to occur, surely we should react properly to aggression. The WASO has proven to be incapable of effectively responding to threats from slavers, which is why no slaver these days is scared of them.

You have asked for reasoning behind why many of us consider WASO to be a failure. I shall provide that reasoning. First is the weakness of WASO. It has been shown through a good number of incidents that it is easy for slavers to push WASO into doing what they want. An example of this would be the disputes between WASO and the IASEN. The IASEN is regularly the one who get to decide terms when WASO tries to use their peaceful methods of freeing slaves. Secondly, there is the problem of what WASO has done for slaves. Their main action is to buy slaves off slavers. While this is good for the slaves, it only serves to encourage the slavers. This is because, by buying the slaves, they are providing slavers with profit and therefore a reason to seize more slaves. In essence, by choosing to have their main contribution to the struggle against slavery be them buying slaves and setting them free, WASO is subsidising the very trade that they are meant to be stopping.

There are two lessons than can be drawn from them. First, the slave nations will readily take advantage of weakness. If they think that you will not stand your ground, they will walk over you. The second lesson is that buyng slaves from slavers is only good in the short term and actually makes things worse in the long term.

Ambassador Doukas has already mentioned the idea of providing slave nations with financial incentives for slaver nations to abandon the trade, in the form of investment in their non-slavery based industries. Given that we need to deal with the problem permanently, I would agree completely with him. If a nation depends on slavery, they are not going to be happy about abandoning the trade. Unless alternative and better ways of generating wealth are made available to them, then it would be hard to guarantee that even nations that we might convince to give up the trade will not return to it. We must drive the slavers away from the trade. I would personally recommend that we set up a body for that job. We would create agreements with slave nations, giving them financial support in exchange for them moving against the slavers in their nations. Combined with interdiction of slave transportation, we can do a lot to make many slavers decide to give up the enterprise and move into a field of work that they can actually earn a profit from".

He then turned to Kázmér. "Dr Kázmér, you have asked for suggestions on an official purpose statement. Mine would be that our aim is to create conditions worldwide that will make slaving completely in-viable economically and ensure the complete and total collapse of the global slave trade".

[The Ctan]

Luinthelë’s participation had so far consisted of silent observation, thoughtful and introspective. She and her party had arrived in an entire fleet of light jets, landing one by one and disembarking all the pomp and paraphernalia of a full governmental mission. She’d been quite content to eat whatever was provided by her hosts, the appeal of having a breakfast meeting was after all to try different cuisine. Her table manners were simply impeccable, but in a low key way that made nothing special of such things.

Every time someone mentioned the word sovereignty, several members of her party imperceptibly winced. They had scant respect for such a notion when used by slavers and the like. Their conception of it was an emergent characteristic of a group of people, and one easily abrogated by oppression. States that permitted slavery and oppression, in the eyes of C’tani political theory, did not have a meaningful right to defend their way of life from external change, such breaches counterbalanced any concerns utterly.

However, they were also wise enough to know that their own perspective on rights and international relations was alien to the norms of the international community. For this reason, they were happy to take the commonly accepted notions of sovereignty as read, to a degree. It would do no one any good to raise any issue of their own variant interpretation (even if theirs was the correct one and foreigners’ ideas of such things were laughably hodge-podge) in a forum intended to produce a workable result.

Nonetheless, their polite nods and mild applause was elicited by those who argued against such a notion, more for the sake of form than anything else.

After a polite pause at the end of Stolypin’s speech, Luinthelë rose, her sleek Imperial Antiquarian business attire in slate grey rustling slightly as she moved, “Thank you Ambassador Stolypin, I must say that we share some of your concerns, and agree with your proposals. While we think that buying-for-manumission is a valid practice at times, it is something I myself have done for many thousands of people, it can indeed serve to validate a business model, and should be seen as a sub-optimal tool.

“Equally, though, from a state’s point of view, the notion of aid packages and inducements at a state level is also a reward of sorts. The slave state gets investment, which may indeed help it move past slavery, but we cannot allow ourselves to imagine these slave states are Ancient cultures, without the technology to eliminate slavery themselves. I have yet to see the slave state that does not also have the means to produce efficient weapons and therefore other technologies, save perhaps New Nicksyllvania, and frankly, it amazes me that they have mastered fire. We must look beyond an inability to progress as the motive for this abhorrence.

“Slavey is about sex and sadism, inflicted on the helpless. You need only look at the sales record of any slave-dealership, young women and children are sold for sex, and men, more often than not as punishment for some heterodox view, or to underline some farcical notion of racial superiority.

“A conventional capitalist system - which I suspect you may not regard highly, but let us pre-emptively agree not to discuss which economic system is best and agree that chattel slavery is the worst – is far more efficient. Efficient from the perspective of an exploitative business too, allowing one to control one’s workforce to meet demand on an easy basis by hiring and firing, as opposed to investing in slaves. A heartless magnate can simply eject his workers onto the street to starve and hire more.

“Only in very specific roles, such as plantation economies, with very predictable Labour requirements is it possible for chattel slavery to compete with this flexibility.”

“If these people were motivated by economic factors, they would not be slavers.

“We must take as read that any slave state will have either ideological or sexual reasons for holding chattel slaves. It is only in the rare cases where slavery is economically competitive that economic solutions alone can eradicate it. In which case, offering services more effectively from our own nations may be the best answer. And from that one could buy slaves from the profits of this as slave-holders go out of business to ensure they are manumitted and counselled in a safe way. This assumes the cooperation of industry, where it is privately owned, of course, though speaking for myself as an industrialist, that is not an issue.

“But those are rare cases, and I ask everyone to keep in mind, when imagining the reactions of slavers, that most slavery is about sadism and sex. The foul Scandinvan Aristocrat does not do a cost-benefit analysis on how he can get his house cleaned best, he buys a slave, because he wants a nubile young woman or man he can rape and beat as he pleases without consequence upon his own putrid self. The more mundane and businesslike slaver, he sells that same service to his fellows, in slave-brothels, legal or illegal.”

Luinthelë paused for a breath, before nodding her head, “The enemy may well take aid that we offer, but we cannot rely on them being so reasonable as to take reward or assistance. To them, it is not economics, much as they may like to say it is. To most modern slavers, slavery is for the gratification they get from of effortless, cruel dominance. That is what drives these violations of the human spirit.”

She paused, coming a little to the point of discussion, rather than her rant about the motivations of the enemy, “I believe for this reason we must retain all approaches, and not foreswear any, each case is different, and the best solution varies. I support the option of economic inducements, but I fear they will have little applicability to many cases, and may be a waste of money, or worse, hijacked by slaver states to build weapons or slave-camps.”

[Imbrinium]

As Guglielmo Capon listened to the comments of the other delegates while eating his breakfast thinking of what to say. The king wants to take the hard-line on slavery and slave running. Guglielmo sets his fork down not even finished his breakfast, and stands up clears his throat.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve sat quietly listening to all of you speak your minds. While Imbrinium hasn’t had many dealings with the WASO, and as for the war with Blackhelm our nation took heavy losses in that war, even though we never made it to land on the mainland we still support the DL and its actions in its on goings. The king of Imbrinium wants us to take a stronger stand against slavers and slave buyer. The Prime minister and the Mod both thinks operations against the larger nations first and the slave buyers will bring a quicker end to this lawlessness. “

“The kingdom of Imbrinium is will to supply 12 fleets and divisions for operation against slavery trade in the world. Plus RIN sub fleets are tracking and gathering intelligence on slaver nations and slave buyers. We are prepared to mine channels and ports of both types of nations.”

“While we are prepared to do this we will support this summits decision.”

And with that short and to the point speech Guglielmo sat back down to his breakfast and tea.

[The State of Monavia]

Palace of the Revolution
Tailville, DR
Revolutionary Commonwealth of Wagdog

Ambassador Stolypin and Dr. Kázmér had both spoken again, and four others had also made statements. Because of the amount of agreement between the delegates present, the amount of material being contributed by successive delegate addresses was beginning to decrease. The Lyrans and Marshites certainly valued brevity and directness in addressing their concerns, and thus Carter did not have to pontificate at length in order to properly answer a longer series of statements.

Senior-Marshal George Wallins had rightly pointed out, quite rightly, that the minister’s example was flawed. The flaws, however, were there for a reason, which Carter would reiterate before moving on to another subject. The Marshsite statement that “Slavery is a crime against the soul, against the Holy Marsh, against humanity in all forms,” did, in a way, connect its meaning with his religious tenants. Perhaps faith could make the cultural changes needed to make slavery disappear.

Much could be said about Stolypin’s statement, but it addressed three points. First, he made it clear that when force is used against slavers, they will be inclined to retaliate. Second, he pointed out the reasons for the failure of the WASO. They were too passive, and they focused too much on manumission, but worst of all, they lacked any backbone. Third, he reasserted the need for an official purpose statement.

After Guglielmo Capon had yielded the floor, Carter decided that it was time to speak again so as to clarify his previous statement.

“Thank you Senior-Marshal, Dr. Kázmér, Cardinal Superior Serenasita, Ambassador Stolypin, and fellow delegates. I speak now to clarify some of my earlier words so as to avoid confusion and thus make it possible to move on further.

“Senior-Marshal Wallins is correct about the flaws in my example. Under existing circumstances, my example is certainly inaccurate, and even a bad one. The purpose of the example was not to say the Lyrans would undertake such an action, but rather, to demonstrate the way in which slavers use national sovereignty to shield themselves and then justify the retaliation described by Ambassador Stolypin. Yes, whenever we act against slavers, they will take measures to protect their interests. We have established that principle.

“Again, my example is a hypothetical illustration of a scenario in which the Doomani were not an aggressive power, and that the Lyrans were choosing to liberate the slavers held there. By no means was the military wisdom of such a decision being illustrated, but rather the diplomatic wisdom. Basically, my point was that if the Lyran government said to the Doomanis ‘We disapprove of what you are doing because it is disgusting, and thus we will intervene, revoking your sovereignty,’ their allies can then say, ‘We do not like what you are doing, because we think that it is wrong, so your sovereignty is null and void,’ thus creating an excuse to attack Lyras. Slavers like to use any number of tactics, including the painting of their opponents as hypocrites, in order to demolish their moral authority.

“Mr. Ambassador, I concur with what you have said. We do need to prevent rash actions and aggression on the part of slavers with the threat of force. If they threaten us with force, we can do likewise in order to deter them. In addition, I suppose that this would solve the problem that made the WASO ineffective. I still support private and nongovernmental manumission, because official purchases of slaves by governments would legitimize the slavers and their business. Governments do not negotiate with terrorists or pirates, except when it is somehow wise to do so. Let this rule be extended to slavers.”

The minister now addressed Stolypin’s other point about the purpose statement. “I also agree with the proposal set forth by Dr. Kázmér to draft and issue an official purpose statement. We need to define who we are and what we want to accomplish, something which we will be able to do over the coming days. I agree that our aim should be to make slavery harder to practice by creating an environment that is hostile to it, with the end goal of making it completely unviable. Dr. Kázmér’s suggestion to have a committee can be incorporated by having the committee focus on issuing later statements and creating plans for executing the procedures needed to make this end goal a reality. That would resolve the disagreements about when to use which approaches.

“Cardinal Superior Serenasita, I am a religious man. While our faiths are different, both hold that slavery is a moral crime. If the slavers desire slaves to use them for purposes which breach religious values, perhaps we need to send in missionaries. Last I looked, using slaves for sex constituted extramarital intercourse, a crime against God in the Christian faith. If the Marshite faith believes the same, I can see a partnership in which missionaries can be sent to convert people away from the sin of oppression. Of course, such things would have to be undertaken by religious institutions alone, save in your own country, which is the only theocracy represented here. Elsewhere, I know of no government in which the state can ask a religious institution to solve a foreign problem.”

Before the minister finished, he had some final remarks directed at Capon and Luinthelë. “I commend the government of Imbrinium for offering to supply this assembly with the forces needed to combat the slaver menace.” Turning to speak to the latter, he said, “I know nothing of these ‘Scandinavians’ of which you speak. They certainly are not a Novan, Dienstadi, or Tarquinian power. I may have seen them located on a map of Gholgoth, but that’s all I know. No Monavian has had dealings with such barbarians, but whether we send missionaries or bullets their way, they will have to be contained if they are as perverted as you say.

“In September of 2009, Ruccolan Foreign Minister Carolina Chan was present for diplomatic talks regarding an alliance between Ruccola and Monavia. During the discussion, she mentioned the country you call ‘New Nicksylvania,’ saying only that they practiced institutionalized rape and other such things. You appear more knowledgeable about what these two states do and who their people are, so perhaps it will be best if you explained to the assembly who it is we are fighting.

“Madam President, I yield the floor.”

---

OOC: Grammar errors corrected.

[Libertarian Governance]

Thomas McWain listened intently to the other delegates. Sipping orange juice every now and then he made mental notes on each nation and its policies as their delegates spoke. Tom was a good mind and he spent long hours making sure he was up to date on all the relevant facts. He ate a bowl of assorted fruit, a steak omelet dripping with melted cheese, fried potatoes with wheat toast and strawberry preserves.

The official Libertarian Governance position on slavery was that whatever needed to be done to stop the trade would be done. Only recently had Phoenix Strike special operation units captured a notorious slave trader, Merieu Chieftain Johnny Rexx. Rexx was now on trial for dozens of crimes that carry upon conviction a noose around the neck.

LG had committed long ago to a policy that included the explicit use of force. Considered a crime against humanity, slavery was being aggressively attacked on a variety of fronts. Accusations that LG used covert operations have been acknowledged by the government and proven with several public trials. While, the government has refused to confirm or deny rumors of assassinations and extrajudicial executions it has been stated by the countries courts that such actions are legal if done by intelligence agencies. This has produced speculation that several cell phone bombings and other killings of slave traders have been conducted by LG intelligence operatives.

Thomas knew the extent of such operations. In fact, the government was at war. There were patrols on the edge of territorial waters by carrier battle groups, raids on shipping by heavily armed commandos, support that went past weapons and supplies to actual combat troops went to anti-slave guerrillas. Money freely flowed as did materials and personnel to anti-slave political groups. LG did aggressively seize ships suspected of slavery, publicly place the crews on trial and execute the convicted. It also did use paramilitary units attached to the countries Bureau 24 Intelligence Agency to extract slave traders from foreign soil. Covert or overt, force was the means to rid the world of this scourge.

Tom had overseen the nations support of WASO. While WASO itself was more tolerable then many of the various shoddy organizations that came and went, it was filled with too many apologist nations. Too many countries unwilling to use force. He had been present when Robert ordered LGDF to prepare to intervene should Concordeia find itself at war. Yet, recently his cousin the Chief Executive of Libertarian Governance had only recently shown him a much broader effort going forward. A new policy was taking shape that would go after slavery militarily, diplomatically and economically and bring the entire Unified Realm Alliance of nations into the fight.

Chief Executive Robert Wilhelm Stratton was also President of the Unified Realm and he was adopting an aggressive policy across the alliance of more then 30 countries. Steps were being taken to have the alliances defense forces to act much as LG was now, its intelligence agencies to coordinate activities and to shut off the economies of its member states. Though, Tom winced a little as he thought of the military force aspect of the problem. The last major use of force resulted in the razing of nearly half a country and tens of millions of civilian deaths. Admitting inwardly that force was necessary, at times, Thomas hoped that greater cooperation over a range of effective activities would make force less necessary.

Tom waited for his chance to speak and after a pause in the conversation stood. On behalf of the Free Republic of Libertarian Governance I would like to thank our hostess, Stewardess Friedrich and each of the honorable delegates making their presence felt here. Our history is often filled with the tales of suffering brought about by bullies who take from those weaker then themselves. It is unfortunately a rarity that nations stand up for those who can't defend themselves. Therefore, to be in the company of so many who are standing up for those suffering under this heinous industry is a great, great thing for me to be a part of.

As Mister Bieito states slavery is a huge problem. Cooperation is needed between our nations and across our areas of the world, our friendships and alliances. If we could share intelligence data for instance we could be much more effective in targeting our activities in ways that make a real difference. A little teamwork can go a long ways. We would happily donate the servers and everyone could access it and dump whatever information they wish to share in there.

But cooperation is going to be needed everywhere. We need military force but we also need to strangle this trade by cutting off its money, seizing assets and holding slavers accountable by arresting them anywhere they are found. We must acknowledge that slavery is a crime against humanity. As slavery and its brutality is enhanced by the regimes that practice this trade, we must acknowledge that such regimes have no more right to act nor exist then does any other criminal.

National sovereignty can not or does not exist without individual sovereignty. Slavery deprives individuals of their right to liberty, it is a systematic rape that goes on often for a persons entire life. So, let us seek a path of wisdom, courage and strength that lead to the best decisions. Let us form a comprehensive and cooperative approach that will lead to the end of this deplorable trade. He smiles affably as he takes his seat.

[Concordeia]

George Bedford, one of Concordeia's most experienced ambassadors and now its Secretary of Foreign Affairs, gradually worked through his breakfast, consisting of a single waffle with butter and maple syrup, scrambled eggs, two bacon strips, hash browns and a glass of orange juice, while patiently listening to the delegates present their ideas and opinions. Upon seeing Chief McWain finish his address, he decided now was a good time to go ahead and make his position known as well. Mention of the Concordeia-Phonencia incident had not missed his ears and he intended to address the issue. Upon finishing the last of his breakfast, Bedford took a long sip of water, cleared his throat and stood up to address the other delegates:

"Honored delegates, I know it's been said several times already, but thank you all for your contributions to this conference. Slavery is a global evil which can only be dealt with by the combined efforts of nations standing in unity against it. Let us hope that our efforts here today and in the future will one day bring about the end of this terrible blight on humanity.

Before I present my position on possible measures against slavery, I would first like to address concerns about the conflict which occurred between our nation and the nation of Phonencia. At the beginning of the incident, our nation had diplomatically confronted Phonencia, then a member of the World Assembly, regarding their practice of slavery and their slave trade, both of which are violations of General Assembly Resolutions #23 (Ban on Slavery and Trafficking) and #35 (The Charter of Civil Rights). As a member of the World Assembly ourselves, our government felt it appropriate to challenge Phonencia on these grounds in an effort to convince them to cease these practices. Instead, Phonencia resigned from the WA in order to escape any kind of legal consequences and to maintain their 'right' to practice slavery and slave trading.

Our government was outraged by this development and felt that Phonencia had demonstrated that they had no interest whatsoever in giving up slavery peacefully. It was at this point that things began rapidly escalating. Our government issued an ultimatum against Phonencia threatening war if they did not abolish slavery and the slave trade in their country. Several nations became involved on both sides and tensions had were strained to the breaking point. However, one of our closest allies, the Soviet Socialist Union of Osea, helped convince us to once again try using diplomacy to persuade Phonencia to abolish slavery, this time using economic rather than legal incentives. With help from the Protectorate of Lyras, our efforts were ultimately successful. The point I wish to illustrate here is that, though our cause for taking action against Phonencia may have been justified, our overzealous desire to deal justice upon them had blinded us to more peaceful and far less costly alternatives. Had Osea not intervened, our course of action might have been successful, but it would have cost both sides very dearly.

With this in mind, I would like to endorse Prince Doukas' proposal for a comprehensive and diversified policy of discouraging slavery through protection of vulnerable areas and their populations from slaving raids, inhibiting the international transportation of slaves, overt or covert disruption of slave sales and auctions, enforcement of anti-slavery laws to discourage potential buyers, and application of military force where and when necessary. Provision of economic aid where appropriate should also be considered, however, echoing Lady Luinthelë's earlier statements, many pro-slavery nations retain the practice for ideological or sociological reasons rather than economic ones. Taking this into account, I believe that isolating these nations diplomatically and economically using the aforementioned policy proposal is imperative to convincing them to abolish slavery.

I would also like to endorse Under-Minister Bieito's proposal for us to form a joint international anti-slavery organization and mutual defense alliance in order to better coordinate and implement anti-slavery activities. I also endorse Dr. Kázmér's proposal for an offical mission statement, and that this mission, as Ambassador Stolypin and Minister Carter have both said, should be to make the international environment too diplomatically and economically hostile for the slave trade, and eventually slavery itself, to be sustained.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I yield the floor," Bedford finished as he sat down again, taking a few gulps of water to hydrate his now-parched vocal cords.

[Sebastianalandia]

Karl Tellenberska had not said a word so far during the entire conferene, at least not publicly. The thin man with a lame leg was an enigmatic figure. In his early fifties, he was Plenipotentiary of the United Socialist States of Sebastianalandia, entrusted with near-arbitrary powers when it came to dealing with foreign dignitaries. Already a candidate member of the Communist Party Politburo, many expected him to rise to the post of People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs; however, it was felt that paperwork and office hours would be a massive waste of his abilities. And so his arch-rival in the diplomatic service, Vladimir Kalinin, was appointed.

And so the post of Plenipotentiary was officially established especially for him. As Plenipotentiary, he could act with powers as great as an Ambassador in any nation he happened to pass through. But why was this man so powerful? What abilities did he have to merit this office?

His ability was persuation. Physically, he was not that attractive: his balding head was covered by occasional thin whisps of white hair, his frame was thin, his leg was lame (necessitating a cane at all times). But there was a certain something about his face. His cold, piercing eyes had, over years of tense negotiation, developed a pokerface-like stare that betrayed no emotion, but that somehow seemed to penetrate into his adversary's very soul. But it was his voice and words that made him the deadly but charming 'hypnotic cobra'. His voice was soft but could become, whether by imperceptible grades or by a sudden reversal, forceful in tone.

His personality was built as a series of façades, into which he fell easily. The grim Realpolitiker, the zealous Communist enthusiast, the dignified noble, the humble clergyman, all were his characters.

His history was one of deceit. He was born into the aristocracy, to a Marquis. At a young age, he was sent to study in a seminary, developing simultaneously a disdain towards religious faith and a respect for religious hierarchy. He was eventually made a Bishop, and served in the King's National Assembly as a deputy for the First Estate. However, as soon as the Revolution broke out, he abandoned the Church and threw in his lot with the Communists, authoring many anti-clerical decrees and working as a member of the commission that drafted the new country's Constitution.

He was loyal towards two things: the 'tidal wave' of the Revolution, and himself. Within certain circles (and especially within the upper echelons of the Party and State), his amoral and rakish treatment of the numerous women who fell to his subtle charm was notorious. He was also known to behave incredibly corruptly, but never at the detriment to his mission; in fact, he was often forced to stoop to the moral low ground in order to secure favourable treaties, a stooping that he all-too-happily undertook.

Back to the matter at hand, Tellenberska took out a sheaf of paper and carefully set it between his plates of scrambled eggs. Adjusting the monocle that rested to the left side of his acquiline nose, he scribbled in his elegant cursive handwritting a brief summary of all that the previous spreakes had said. He decided that there was a glut of lofty words, and that one more speech would be a waste of time.

Having no personal convictions on the issue of slavery, he decided that he would wait until the conference broke down into small discussion groups, where defficiency as an orator would be made up for with his skill in individual persuation.