Kalistan

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Chancellor responds to numerous news stories
Hutorian Queen's passing "troubles us the most", said Chancellor
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
May 1, 5693


Chancellor of the Empire, Lady Ericka Donahue answers reporters questions at her office in Kaliburg

Lady Ericka Donahue, the nationalist Chancellor of the Empire, took questions today concerning the Government's response to various news from around the world. Below is a transcript of the short Q&A that became something of a press conference.

Q: Lady Chancellor. Has the Government responded to the death of Queen Arianna of Hutori?

Donahue: This story has troubled us the most the Princess Regent and I have had a few conversations about this. House Ananto has privately contacted the Hutorian Royal Family. Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto, and both Her Highness Princess of the Empire Mary Ananto-DeLaurentis and Her Highness, the Princess Regent Carolina Ananto-Collins have expressed that they share the royal family's grief at this time. Queen Arianna was a close and personal friend of both Her Highness, the Princess of the Empire, and the entire Ananto Family. She held the privileges of an adopted family member, and her husband and grandfather of the new Monarch, King William, is Her Imperial Majesty's Cousin.

Q: It's known that the new Hutorian King has spent much of his life in Ananto.

Donahue: Yes, at Raven's Head where he now holds a hereditary title as Viscount and a Land title to the Barony.

Q: How will Kalistan engage with the young king, given that Hutori will enter a regency.

Donahue: We have made the formal offer for the young man to come to Kalistan to train for his future role with the Royal Family. Her Highness the Princess Regent and I have agreed to work with the King to give him first hand access to the Royal Administration. There are some constitutional differences of course, and the offer has not yet been formally accepted by the Hutorian Government, but Her Highness wanted me to stress that the young man is well liked among the Anantos and will be welcomed to move into Cliff House and train here as long as he likes to take over the reigns of the Kingdom when he reaches his majority. When Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto is released from National Service, he will be, I believe 15, and can want no better tutor than his older cousin--She kind of views the young man as something of a younger brother, especially given the loss of her actual brothers, and said she would be willing to act as a guardian of sorts to help him learn the ins and outs of Government. And of course, we will offer him plenty of opportunities to maintain his life and schedules in Hutori as the Government there sees fit for him. We want to be available to take some of the burden off Lord David Alvarez-Ananto, and let them know that House Ananto is happy to help raise its own.

Q: Lady Chancellor: What is Kalistan's response to Egelion's travel ban?

Donahue: We are studying the matter right now. It is indeed very troubling and hits us at the start of the Tourism season when we frequently see an uptick in regular travel across the sea. Our diplomats were not warned that this was coming at all, and to be honest, we were kind of blindsided by this. I can't honestly say I am surprised: Egelion frequently conducts its foreign relations as if Kalistan doesn't exist. And perhaps we don't to them. But Her Imperial Majesty's Foreign Minister, Sir Thomas Harney, is working with his Keris team right now, and they are trying to figure out whether this is a prelude to something else, or if its just an advisory to travelers that we are in the middle of a war with organized crime in Sulari. It was interesting that they put the advisory out for the whole nation. When really, it mostly Yeudis shooting other Yeudis in Sulari. And reciprocity is kind of funny: they do something to us, we have to do something back to respond, they decide they need to ratchet it up, we respond, tit for tat, that kind of thing. That's silly. And childish, especially when its your supposed friends...

Q: Do you have any immediate things you are working on?

Donahue: We had initially kicked around an idea of a Visa for Egelians to come to Kalistan, but usually those are used to reduce inflows of people... And we don't want them then to put a visa requirement on Kalistanis who still can travel freely to Egelian. So we decided that their Foreign Ministry urging Egelians not to come to Kalistan sort of takes care of that problem for us. They don't want to come here? Let them stay home where its cold and miserable. Not a problem. If we have tourist related businesses who struggle because of lack of Egelian visits, the Government can and will step up to ensure that Egelian foreign policy doesn't affect Kalistan's economy in any long lasting way.

Q: Lady Chancellor, how about the recent comments coming from Tel Bira. What is the Government's take on the fact finding missions that are uncovering Beiteynese complicity with Kundrati?

Donahue: We welcome that. It's long past time someone acknowledged the role that Beiteynu played in the run up to that war. In covering up the evidence of concentration camps which undermined the Kalistani case for war globally, in supplying them technical know how for the weapons they used to kill 40,000 of our people including Yeudis here in Kaliburg, Port Swedes and Eshar, and the smear campaign they ran to discredit Kalistan's war efforts to attempt to contain the Legion. Yes, we welcome that indeed, and look forward to the final report. It can't happen soon enough.

Q: Do you think a report will improve relations with Kalistan?

Donahue: I absolutely do 100%. That stuff happened almost 80 years ago. In many cases much longer. All of the people involved in those decisions are all dead by now. Will a report bring them back to life? No. But will a public admission help Kalistan get past it? You better believe it. Kalistan has always stood on the truth, and to be called a flat out liar by one of the great powers of the world when we told the truth was a hard pill to swallow. To know it was done to further some cynical foreign policy goal is even more unconscionable. But I think I, and I know Her Imperial Majesty would be willing to accept a mea culpa to clear our reputation. It doesn't even have to be a big deal. The report will suffice.

Q: How about Tel Bira's offer to accept all former defendants of the Organized Crime Investigation who wish to relocate?

Donahue: Let them go. We won't lose a single night of sleep over the matter.

Q: The Government is not concerned about capital leaving the nation in that event?

Donahue: Many of those assets in our banks have already been frozen. This just happened late last month: I don't even think the papers have reported on it, so maybe I will break some news here: We've frozen assets totaling more than ₭250 Billion Imperial Rubles in the Bank of Suldanor and the Bank of Kaliburg, our nation's two main commercial banks that are associated with a list of known and indicted members of the Undzer Shtik Mob. Raids over April have also netted another ₭23 Billion in hard cash from store rooms across the Empire, leading to a recovery of more than ₭300 billion total during this entire operation. We also captured 4 Hoyptmen in Sulari that are associated with the mob, and they will have their day in court, along with dozens of Lieutennants and associates, in addition to the ones we captured or killed in February. We have picked their bank accounts clean and have decapitated the organization, and now we begin the long arduous process of trying all these people.

Q: Was the government acting on some tip that has led to this sort of success?

Donahue: We gleaned a lot of this information from those who are currently serving sentences on Kings Rock, which is on the verge of being over populated during this process. I can't name names publicly, due to the desire to protect the identity of the informants, but lets just say, we have negotiated several lower prison sentences and parole arrangements from that lot and from other interviews we've accomplished.

Q: Has the Government been in touch with Julian Levinson?

Donahue: To my knowledge, Mr. Levinson has been maintaining the terms of his parole, has abstained from Gambling, has reported to his parole officer once a week since his conviction, has paid his fines and is otherwise at liberty. He is paying off his debt to society which he incurred in his conviction, and that's as far as I know.

Q: Some report that he was seen in Kaliburg Airport in early March.

Donahue: I know this may surprise the press, but as Chancellor of the Empire, I don't tend to keep tabs on the citizens of this nation. I am far too busy for that. You would have to ask him about that.

Q: Would his travel to Kaliburg be a violation of his parole?

Donahue: I will say this: Mr. Levinson is a convicted felon. The crime he was convicted of was not violent. Of the other charges he escaped due to a sympathetic jury, or a timid Solicitor General, or whatever, we still do have... rule of law in this nation, and he was found not guilty of those charges. As long as he keeps to the terms of his probation and pays his fines, which he has, he is a free man to come and go within this nation as he pleases. And his wherabouts at any given moment are so far beneath my pay grade, I just would prefer to move on.

Q: Do you know if he plans to take Tel Bira up on their offer for his retirement?

Donahue: I haven't asked him, but if he does, good riddance. We'll get the rest of them.

The Chancellor ended the press conference then, and apologized that she needed to prepare for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry.

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