Cajal's conditions for armistice include:
"'...rights of nonseditious free speech...'" (p. 575)
No way, man. Not when the occupying force decides what is seditious. Of course, such a condition might be enforced under the barrel of a gun but that does not make it acceptable. I am reminded of a Black spokesperson in Apatheid South Africa:
"Because of this decree, I cannot tell you to boycott South Africa!"
When Trauvay says that the conditions will be considered, a xenologist who is an Ythrian expert leaps, laughs, weeps and shouts, "'The war's over! The war's over!'" (p. 577)
On Esperance, cathedral bells ring, fireworks explode, crowds roil, blow horns and shout, marines parade to trumpets, aircraft and small spacecraft dive low. Meanwhile, on Avalon...
3 comments:
Paul:
I saw a political cartoon along the same lines a few decades ago. A Russian woman was asked a number of questions about what was different under the new regime; to all, she smiled and said, "I can't complain." Then she was asked about the biggest remaining problem. "I CAN'T COMPLAIN!"
Kaor, DAVID and Paul!
I dunno, wasn't the Covenant of Alfzar being negotiated and agreed by the civilized interstellar powers about the time of the Ythrian War? As Commander Abrams said two centuries or so later in Chapter 14 of ENSIGN FLANDRY: "By the Covenant of Alfzar, Merseia confirmed her acceptance of the rules of war and diplomacy which evolved on Terra. They evolved, and you took them over, for the excellent reason that they work." I interpreted that as meaning the other interstellar powers ratified the laws and customs of war and diplomacy as codified long ago in the Geneva and Viennal Conventions.
I understood Admiral Cajal's terms about non-seditious free speech as applying only temporarily to planets under military administration pending their final disposition in the peace treaty.
Sean
Greetings to All:
I would have liked to have known more about the Covenant of Alfzar. Commander Abrams comments in Chapter 14 of ENSIGN FLANDRY tells us practically all that is known about that treaty. For more details about what Abrams meant by the rules of war and diplomacy the civilized interstellar powers accepted, we have to go to the texts of the Geneva and Vienna conventions and try to guestimate how they would be applied on an interstellar scale.
Sean
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