MAYBURY RESPONDS TO FREE MUNDUS ARTICLE In a recent
Free Mundus article the East Moreland government and East Moreland Aircraft Company were part of a system were it appeared "the controls on the export of East Moreland's armaments do not fully vet to whom they are selling." In a recent interview on EMTV the CEO of EMAC responded to some of the points made as he appeared alongside Sir Harry Samuelson the nations Minister of Defence.
"You know the article in many ways is misleading. It calls us one of the largest exporters of arms, I think its safe to say when looking at our track record and our sales books that, at least when it comes to aircraft, we are THE largest in the world. As for not fully vetting whom we sell to not a single weapons platform sold by our company has been used in any incident that could be deemed to violate the Uppsala Convention, nor the MCUR. Infact with East Moreland's aircraft being the workhorses of aid operations in what was left of Uppsala, the refugee crisis in Mavrosia and Lakhzovia as well as the genocide in Royal Seleucid I think it would be interesting to see just how lives they have saved. Now I'm not sitting here painting EMAC as some hippy peace, love and understanding peddler, we make weapons of war.....among other things. I will make no excuse for leading a team that help make sure our nation is safe, and help support other nations. The article certainly made interesting reading though. The article does make issue of our nations ties to the Iwi and some raid, Sir Harry is better positioned to discuss that than me. But the only aircraft sales to the Iwi are of 10 training aircraft which certainly would not have featured in this operation nor made it possible. To my knowledge their is not a single East Moreland made item in the Maori's inventory which would have supported it. As for saying King David is involved in flooding the market with East Moreland weapons I wish the article had not said that, you see we haven't paid him a single penny and if apparently he's so central to our sales team I suspect he may pop by wanting commission. The reason nations around the world want EMAC equipment is for two reasons, one it is ground breaking , second they know we deliver an incredible value for money product that is tested by one of the best militaries in the world."
Sir Harry Samuelson then took over to address other points in the article. "The writer asked about sales to SCIR a nation that since signing their deal with EMAC has apparently got a plan somewhere for a first strike against Rokkenjima. The existance of such a plan shouldn't send anyone running for cover, I suspect somewhere in the basements of Rokkenjiman High Command there is probably a plan in place for a similar first strike against SCIR, maybe even Dartfordia. Its called worst case scenario planning. Hell I even asked whether our new missile system could be converted to fire nukes, not because I planned to, but because I needed to know what firepower we can lay our hands on if the world goes crazy. Until we see moves to actually have this plan capable of becoming a reality, or actually be used the SCIR are only guilty of having a military that has some pretty insane ideas. Now as for this Iwi raid this is old ground and as Sir Alan said not a single East Moreland asset was used in the planning, preparation or execution of that raid. I know the world love conspiracy theories but that's all this is. Now we do share information with the Iwi on ship movements in the Kyne after they were attacked by the Seleucid, was that data used by the Iwi, possibly as after all they'd need to plan when to time their attacks and a time when the patrols were absent or in a different location would be the best and we may have been able to confirm that for them because of the defensive nature of the data we provide. Now should the Iwi, or anyone else turn East Moreland made weapons against the innocent then rest assured we shall step in, and we have. Somehow, and we are still investigating, some of our weapons fell into the hands of the Bene Gesserit and have been used against the KDF in Kaitaine. We have taken steps to limit the chances of further supplies appearing there as well as share intelligence about the weapons systems and movements of key people. Should for example the Iwi start bombing Xaeth with their ten training aircraft then rest assured we would step in there as well. Lets not forget that when Verover turned weapons against Seaforth at a time when we were allies with both we had no hesitation in helping bomb the crap out of Verovian troops."
Sir Harry went on to say, "The author states that they wonder "Why should we expect East Moreland to honour its word" the answer is simple, because we always have. We promised to support the operations to remove religious extremists in Marseille and our troops lead the way in, we promised Krokom aid and we turned up, we promised to evacuate refugees from Lakhzovia, we still have tens of thousands in our nation. We promised to get the refugees out of Mavrosia, we turned up. There has never been a single case under the reign of King David where East Moreland has made a promise and not kept it and that includes putting the word given to our allies ahead of defeating our own terrorist menace the Borlanders. Now imagine that, a promise given to a then ally kept above the chance to deal the Borlanders a hammer blow, and we kept our word. Everyone who knows East Moreland well knows our motto is "Deeds Not Words." Our words become our deeds. Now as for weapons in the hands of the Bene Gesserit that represents a major security issue and the world has my word that East Moreland will get to the bottom of it and that will be sorted. As for Slava Lavosk they were given five unarmed roadbased remote vehicles to patrol their border with Tamora. Those were not sold they were loaned by SmartWar. When it became clear Slava Lavosk were not living up to the expectations we placed on them further supplies were stopped and the agreement cancelled, when word of them perhaps developing nuclear weapons came to light we even began moves to place on loan assets such as Jekars Shield into Royal Seleucid, a nation we share no great love for, and in Tamora under certain conditions. When that agreement faulted we ensured our naval assets with intercept capabilities could still provide an umbrella over a region that carried out a genocide against our faith and that permits slavery. Surely that very example shows that we shall stand by our code."
The article was written by an as yet unidentified author, as are many Free Mundus article, however Sir Harry Samuelson concluded saying. "It is a well written and thought provoking piece to be sure but as I hope we have now set the record straight the valid concerns it raised do not need to cause worry at all."
While being interview by EMTV's Shelly Coe Sir Harry was also asked about recent data from polling in Tytor that East Moreland has seen a "drop in popularity" in the Kingdom. "I must say I'm rather surprised. We're two nations that haven't really bothered each other much as of late but we do have a history of being productive together. We were both among the original members of JET and our two peoples have worked on numerous aid operations around the globe. We share little geographic or cultural similiarties but I had hoped our desire to be leading lights in helping some of the least fortunate people on Mundus would have made us get on better. So far the only explanation I can put it down to is the attitude towards us shown by Empress Beatrice of Rokkenjima, who I understand their nation is naturally close to, when she cancelled the Tripartite. I'd like to assure Tytor that our JET volunteers still look forward to working with their respected colleagues and perhaps that can be a focus for improved relations between our two populations in the future."
Sir Alan was also asked about the recent Speed Record set by an Achkaerin where a solar powered car set a new record of 58.318 miles per hour. "Its still got a long way to go before it worries the SSC Honeybadger but its an impressive bit of engineering. While I'm pleased their driver Megan Harrison came through the tests successfully I will be hoping the success doesn't follow her into the new Formula Mundus season. I think the fact we've two nations supportive of such interesting engineering achievements is a good thing for Mundus as ourselves and teams like Dawnbreaker seek to push what is possible. We're a planet in need of some radical solutions to problems and only by encouraging constant development will we get that. While Dawnbreaker was powering cars without petrol cutting emissions on our aircraft is our current priority. We hope to run a flight between Northfort and Gaia in the coming weeks using a newer version of one of our cargo planes that will have the lowest emissions per km of any conventional fuelled plane on the planet, but we know that is not enough so while we work on cutting emissions we're also working on removing them entirely."
Sir Alan then went on to offer support for another Achkaerin based project. "I understand Achkaerin are establishing the Legacy Sport Foundation, their version of our own Legionnaire Legacy programme. When EMAC were asked to support that project we jumped at the chance and as Achkaerin forces have stood side by side with those Legionnaires we feel we should do the same for the LSF. As such should they wish to accept the offer we'd be honoured to welcome the racing team their putting together to come and train their pit crews alongside ours. Additionally we would be thrilled if the team would accept our trailers from last season. In the past we've given them to our junior karting teams or converted them into hospitality however we've a full set of things like that so currently they are simply picking up dust in our car park. If it helps a team of veterans get started in this sport then they can have them."
The final word on the interviews went to Sir Harry Samuelson, the Minister of Defence who was asked about the recent CNN moon mission which saw a joint mission "bomb"the moon in order to retrieve fresh moon rocks. "I have no idea of the science behind it but it does sound impressive. I know Sir Alan here and Martin Dawson and SmartWar were both involved and as a nation we're proud of their ingenuity, as always. I hope we find something interesting out, all I know is that to hit a target that accurately from a distance of 384,400 km away gives me great confidence in what our Air Force can pull off."