For All Nails #83C: Politics as Usual
by David Mix Barrington
- New York Herald, page 1, banner
- 22 June 1974
MYSTERY SURROUNDS REPORTER'S DEATH IN VICTORIA: GG TO ADDRESS NATION TONIGHT
(Nairobi, Victoria) Confusion reigns in this troubled nation following the fatal shooting of NUBS vitavision reporter Kenneth McCormick in a refugee camp just outside this riot-torn city. McCormick was shot by parties unknown while broadcasting live to the CNA on an experimental satellite link. Before the link was cut, an unidentified NUBS technician was heard saying "Oh my G-d, they, they killed Kenny, the [scoundrels]". Armed civilians remain in control of the camp this morning. Spokesmen for the government and the Victorian National Congress each blame the other for the shooting, and no independent investigation has been possible. Unconfirmed reports say that the NUBS transmission waggon was on fire [...]
Sources in Burgoyne say that feverish diplomatic activity is in progress. The Palace has announced that Governor-General Monaghan will address the nation at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time tonight [...]
- Excerpts from Governor-General's vitavised speech, 22 June 1974
"My fellow North Americans, the situation in the east African nation of Victoria has become intolerable. For many years a white-dominated government has trampled the basic human rights of the Negro population, most of whom are denied even the basic privileges of citizenship. An opposition movement, the Victorian National Congress, has used both peaceful and military means to attempt to redress the legitimate grievances of the people. Their struggle has for the most part commanded the admiration of the world, though occasional excesses have been a matter for concern."
"Since the sedition trial of lawyer Victoria Madoka last year, North Americans have watched the deteriorating situation with honest compassion but a certain detachment. After all, Victoria is very far from us, and trade with her is of no great importance to our economy. But the recent escalation of violence, culminating in the murder of a young North American journalist, means that our detachment is no longer warranted. Stable and prosperous nations like our own depend for our stability and prosperity on a stable and prosperous world order of peaceful nations. Instability in Victoria can spread to neighboring nations where whites and Negroes warily share the land. Great powers may be tempted by the opportunity to compete for influence among the various factions through military and other aid. We cannot solve all the problems of this planet, but where we can act prudently we must do so."
"I have been in conference today with the President of the United States of Mexico. We have agreed on a comprehensive program of joint action to attempt to resolve the Victorian conflict. First, each of us will ask our respective legislative bodies to impose economic sanctions against the government of Victoria, until and unless they undertake negotiations with the VNC. Our two great nations account for a large fraction of Victoria's foreign exchange, and the threat of losing us both as trading partners should weigh heavily on them. Secondly, both North America and Mexico undertake not to provide arms to the VNC or to other opposition groups, and we will publicly expose any other nation that does so. Finally, President Moctezuma and I jointly offer our good offices as facilitators of negotiations, or as direct negotiators if need be, between the government and the VNC. [...]"
- New York Herald, page 1 banner
- 26 June 1974
COUNCIL DEFEATS VICTORIAN SANCTIONS 77-73: SIX PC COUNCILORS AGAINST, PJP MOVES NO CONFIDENCE
(Burgoyne) -- Governor-General Carter Monaghan suffered a major foreign policy embarassment yesterday when, after two days of sometimes acrimonious debate, the Grand Council defeated his proposed package of sanctions against Victoria. The vote was 77-73, with six People's Coalition Councilmen joining all 57 Liberals and fourteen Peace and Justice members in opposition. All nine of the PJP Councilmen who voted to elect Monaghan last year also supported him on the sanctions bill.
This was only the beginning of the Governor-General's problems, however, as after the sanctions vote PJP floor leader Vernor Dean rose to formally move that the Council declare "that it no longer reposes confidence in the Governor-General". Under the procedures codified by the Second Britannic Design, passage of this motion would vacate the office of Governor-General. The outgoing leader could then call for new national elections at his own discretion, or allow balloting to take place in the current Council until either a new Governor-General is chosen or (if five successive ballots fail to produce a majority) elections follow automatically.
Dean's motion produced turmoil on the floor of the Council, but eventually the motion was determined to be in order, and it will be debated at the opening of today's session. The outcome is uncertain. With the defection of several "Green Dog" Councilors to the Liberals, it is clear that the Governor-General no longer commands a majority of the Council. But neither does Liberal leader Lennart Skinner, as the balance of power is held by a Peace and Justice faction to whom Skinner's foreign policy positions are anathema. Each party is weighing its chances of improving its position in a new election [...]
- Record of the Grand Council (excerpts)
- 26 June 1974
MR. SPEIGAL (L-IN): Mr. President, I well remember the last time that a Governor-General so lost the support of his own party. Horace said de mortuis nil nisi bonum, and I have no intention now of debating the merits and shortcomings of the late Dick Mason. But without debating Mason himself I have something to say about Masonism. Masonism to me is the view that all the leaders of all the nations of the world are as good and decent as Dick Mason himself. I long for the day when the whole world is run by Dick Masons, but I fear it is far off indeed, perhaps as far off as the Second Coming of Our Lord. In the meantime we have a very human mix of leaders, some trustworthy and some not. And Masonism, in a world run mostly by lesser mortals, is a tragically unwise foundation for policy.
Mr. President, I saw the triumph of Masonism within my own party, from the initial glories of the New Day program as it rushed to meet the suffering of a war-weary world, to the last days of an administration plagued by dissension and tragic inaction as our rivals surged ahead of us in military technology and military readiness. My party purged Masonism from its ranks at great political cost, and now stands firmly for a realistic foreign policy while the banner of Masonism is carried forward by a third party.
I fear now, Mr. President, that Masonism is resurgent, but now in the other of our two great major parties, the Peoples' Coalition. I have the highest respect for our Governor-General. I worked with him, with the great Perry Jay, and with members of my own party in 1963 as a bipartisan coalition fought to restore the strength and greatness of the Confederation after the Mason administration. He is a man of the highest ideals and of great compassion. And I fear now that those ideals and that compassion, like those of Dick Mason, have led him to an unrealistic view of the world.
Mr. President, the Governor-General has reached a number of diplomatic agreements with Mexico. Some, like the negotiations finally leading to the release of our prisoners from the Moca expedition, we applaud. Some, like the agreement to keep atomic weapons that neither has out of the Caribbean, are meaningless and thus harmless. Some, like the reductions of tariffs on agricultural products, we oppose. In each case our neighbors are pursuing their own interests, not some grand ideal of international peace. Each proposed agreement must be considered on its own merits, and in the context of the internal situation of Mexico, where we can never be sure that the word of the President binds the Secretary of War and the vast military that he controls directly.
The bill this Council has just defeated, Mr. President, was a Masonist bill. It serves the interests of Mexico and not our own, as I stated in the earlier debate. It was motivated by the desire to contract an agreement, any agreement, with Mexico in the interest of a "peace process" that can never lead to true peace as long as Vincent Mercator truly rules Mexico. It was rightly sent down to defeat, with the aid of several Councilors from the Governor-General's own party. Those members, Mr. President, recognize the creeping tide of Masonism within the People's Coalition, and seek to join a bipartisan effort to eradicate it [...]
MR. DEAN (PJP-NC): I stand here in amazement as the name of the late great Dick Mason is invoked in characterization of a policy that would have appalled him. Mr. President, I knew Dick Mason. I served with Dick Mason, Dick Mason was a friend of mine, and Carter Monaghan is no Dick Mason. Would Dick Mason have responded to a conflict with economic sanctions that will cause suffering, even starvation, to both sides? No. He would hold out the hand of Christian compassion to both sides, sending legions of volunteers to serve the people on both sides, ending the economic deprivation that lies at the root of all conflicts. He would use the economic might of the Confederation not as a club to force submission but as a balm for that wounded land [...]
The Governor-General has exploited the unfortunate recent events in Victoria for his own purposes. We appeared to see a man die on vitavision last week, and the sight touched us deeply. But was that sight what truly happened, or only what we were meant to see? Meant to see by the business conglomerates that control our vitavision networks, control our newspapers, and control our two major parties. Mr. President, we don't know what happened to Kenny McCormick. I call for an investigation, Mr. President, to get to the bottom of the deception perpetrated on the North American people in order to gain support for a failed policy of confrontation [...]
Mr. President, the people have no confidence in the Governor-General. They have no confidence in the Governor of Georgia, who will carry out the same policies as the Governor-General if he is elected. The people reject the major parties, Mr. President, and only through a new election can they manifest that rejection [...]
THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Mr. President, as you know, it is not often that I find myself in agreement with the Councilor from New York. I repose confidence in my own leadership, naturally, and I am sorry that he does not. He has quite rightly raised the question of whether this Council reposes confidence in my leadership. I hope it does, and I hope to be worthy of that confidence. But it is quite rightly called into question when the Council rejects a major initiative in foreign policy.
I was proud to work with the Councilor from Indiana ten years ago, and I agree with him that our joint efforts helped restore the strength and security of our Confederation at that time. Now, he suggests, my leadership threatens that very strength and security. I have endeavored to base that security on two pillars. The first is a military strong enough to repel any assault and to preserve our interests wherever necessary. The largest opposition party supports me in this, which I greatly appreciate. The second is a program of cold, rational negotiation with our great neighbor and with the other nations of the world as required. It is for this program that I stand accused of the crime of Masonism.
And it is that program of negotiation, Mr. President, which is now threatened by the questioning of this Council's confidence in my leadership. It is far more difficult for me to negotiate with a foreign leader if my word cannot be relied upon as representing the nation. This is a problem. It may be an inevitable problem, if this Council remains divided between three factions, none of them commanding a majority, as it is now. But I propose that we give the people the chance to remedy that situation if they wish. They may restore the majority of my party and its allies. They may vote a majority for the Governor of Georgia. Or they may even, as the Councilman from New York suggests, decide that a true Masonist is preferable to a merely accused Masonist, and support his party. Finally they may do none of these things, giving no faction a majority, in which case we will form a government by some compromise, each secure that we embody the will of some portion of the people.
I thus, by my prerogative as Governor-General of the Confederation of North America under the Second Britannic Design, dissolve this Council as of the close of business on Friday the twelfth of July. I call for a general election to be held on Thursday the fifteenth of August, to be followed by balloting for the office of Governor-General. The Council is of course welcome to continue debate on the present motion, but I suggest that this action on my part makes that motion moot, and that the Council might better proceed to its other business.
- NUBS Morning News
- 28 June 1974, 7:00 a.m. Eastern
"Good morning, North America, and a pleasant Friday to you all. I'm Charles Kurtz, and this is the news.
Burgoyne remains in political ferment this morning, as the members of the Council and the political parties scramble to prepare for an unprecedented midterm election. The latest developments overnight:
Grand Councilman Hugh Thomasson of Georgia announced that he will contest the upcoming election as a Liberal, bringing the total number of "Green Dogs" to nine.
The Indiana and Northern Confederation delegations walked out of the Peace and Justice executive committee meeting in North City late last night. Sources within the PJP indicate that these two confederation-level bodies will not participate in the PJP convention on July 10th in Boniface, but instead call a rival convention in Michigan City. It appears that two different Peace and Justice parties may contest this election -- we'll be monitoring this story as it develops.
But the political news may be overshadowed by disturbing developments abroad. First, reports from Berlin say that shots were fired at the Chancellery building by an unknown gunman who was then struck by a passing locomobile. There is no word on any casualties within the building, where the German Chancellor and Cabinet were meeting FN1.
Secondly, fighting has erupted on the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. Telephone connections have been lost, but some unconfirmed amateur radio reports say that New Granadan forces have landed on Trinidad. We'll be keeping track of both these stories for you, but first an update on the nation's weather [...]
Forward to FAN #84A: Surprise!.
Forward to 24 June 1974: The Next Stage.
Forward to CNA Politics: My Father Was a Gambler Down in Georgia.
Return to For All Nails.