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Question of Responsible Government [Attn: Salen]

Natal

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Administratiewe Raad van die Protektoraat en Kolonie Nataal
Administrative Council of the Protectorate and Colony of Natal

Your excellencies,

It is in this day of remembrance of the battles of the Great War, truly a War to End all Wars, that we contact you with the hopes that we can truly become brothers and equals. As you know, the Salian protectorate of Himyar, is formed of three colonies, Lower Natal, Upper Natal and Langveld and four native polities, the Rozvi and Loda Kingdoms, the Engaruka and Mbunda Paramountcies, which are all brought legally together under the name of the Colony and Protectorate of Natal. It is under the banned of thus federation of polities, that we have began participating in the history of the world, not anymore as Salians, but as Natalians, for even if we are loyal citizens of the Serene Salian States and subjects to its supreme laws, we have found our home in the South Western corner of Himyar, a life which we see as a blessing from God for it its bountiful and we are given the chance to develop a land that resembles the Garden of Eden and see it transform and civilise into a country that would make even the nations of Gallo-Germania proud, if not envious. That all comes from the chance the Serene Salian States have given us and our native co-inhabitants, to create a corner of Himyar that develops at a faster rate than any other colony on this party of the world, and to create this continent's first colony that evolves into its own nation-state.
We understand that sometimes, the relationship between Hartstad and Herenthem was problematic, especially in the months right before our brave republic's entry into the war, but the arguments that envelope the Hartstand Incident, which brought Salen into war, must be put aside, for then the Natalians have answered the call of the Serene Salian States, and have answered with the same, if not even more enthusiasm to the call than expected. The Natalian Overseas Expeditionary Force has managed to bring up to Gallo-Germania over 150,000 soldiers, which, while seemingly a small number compared to the millions mobilised by the big players in the war, it represented the prime of the 1895 Generation, not only from the perspective of the settlers, but also from the natives, as it had Askaris and Impi too in it's formations. Through it's home front, Natal has managed to keep functional it's shipwrights that gave allies ships a safe haven in the ports of the Southern Thaumantic, it managed to ship the necessary coal and iron that kept the Salian war machine functions and sent to the homeland food supplies in such quantities that it allowed the Salian States to mobilise more and more agricultural workers without fearing great famine.
Our 1895 Generation, in which so much hope was put on, has given it's life in the battle of the Blood Ridge, to allow Salian and Gaullois units penetrate the defences of Varlais and enter the Eserian Republic and threaten Auraria. In a single day in that battle, we lost more than 30,000 of our sons, and the campaign itself incapacitated the Expeditionary Force a lot, as it has only minor duties afterwards for the duration of the war, but it provided us with the chance to show our mettle and it gave us a baptism of fire, as the banners of the colonies and the native kingdoms have finally found a common element and felt for the first time, truly Natalian.

It is by our participation in the Great War, both actively in the military front but also on the homefront, that I come to you, out of respect for our losses and efforts, to declare myself, my colleagues from the council and my fellow Natalians, brothers of the Salians. We may be from the world's end, but we are speaking and are feeling like the Salians, for we feel that we aren't the sons of the Serene States that the paternalistic image the Company Rule has painted, but rather, we are the brothers of the Serene Salian States, and we have, in the Great War in general and the Battle of the Blood Ridge in particular feel that we have come of age. We feel that while the bonds of family and origin will never broken, the time has come for the Salian States to see Natal as it's brother, rather than the son that it has to keep on a short leash.

For that, we have been delegated by the citizens of the Protectorate and Colony of Natal, to represent not only Hartstad, but the Colonies of Lower and Upper Natal, Langveld, the Rozvi and Loda Kingdoms and the Engaruka and Mbunda Paramountcies and request the abolition of Company Rule and Direct Rule from Herenthem and to replace it with a responsible government, that fully represents the citizens of Natal.

Our proposal for the future of the Nation is the following:

  • The Colony and Protectorate of Natal will be replaced with the Union of Natal, a federal republic formed of three settler states and four native administrative areas;
  • The Union of Natal will have Dominion Status under the Serene Salian States;
  • The Sovereign of the States will be the head of state of the Union too, with him being represented by a Governor General, appointed by the government in Herenthem;
  • The Natalian armed forces, which are currently still divided in the colonial militias and the Askari and Impi for the native polities, are to be brought together into the Union Defence Force;
  • The Natalian Thaler will continue to be pegged 1:1 with the Salian Thaler;
  • A Thaler Economic Zone will be created, where tariffs between Natal and Salen are nil and the Salian Thaler is a legal tender in Natal but not the other way around;
  • The Serene Salian States and the Union of Natal remain tied by a military, political and economical alliance.
While we understand that our proposal might seem revolutionary, we feel that it is important that the will of the Natalian people be future proofed and that Salen and Natal will develop into having an extremely mutually beneficial brotherly status coming from this political development. For company rule offers little to no political representation, and this is problematic for a people that has given so much for the war effort and in taxes and who feel that at least they can be represented by officials they themselves elect.

Signed and Sealed,
Dian van der Knaap
Governor of the Prot. and Col. of Natal

@Salen
 
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