General le Duc Alain de Mylcandonai, His Majesty's Minister of War, to
Major le Comte Coward de Custaad, Chancellor of the Exchequer
My Lord,
As I thought I had made perfectly clear in my previous message, I do not
expect the proposed system of military justice to make any financial impact
whatsoever. I very much doubt that His Majesty would be overly interested in
such trifling considerations in any case and, with the preparations which
must be made to put the military policy agreed between His Majesty, Duc von
Fersen and myself into operation, I have little time at present for such
trifling considerations myself. Should His Majesty, to whom I am answerable,
directly request a financial breakdown of the proposed military justice
initiatives I will, of course, be more than happy to comply. Unless or until
this happens I will prioritise my time accordingly.
Given that His Majesty has publicly announced that His current hunting trip
will keep him incognito and unable to consider governmental matters until
the 9th of the month, I do not expect a Royal response until such time. In
light of the above, I am sure that I will not be alone in finding your
claims to speak directly for His Majesty in this matter to somewhat dubious.
Having so recently been appointed as Chancellor the Exchequer, and not being
on such good terms with either of the previous incumbants as I am myself,
your ignorance of your new duties is understandable if no less regretable. I
would suggest that you aquainted yourself with them at your earliest
convenience.
[OOC If you read back through Greg's messages I think you will find a
statement to the effect that MoFM replaced the standard CoE - one of the
reasons the CoE can no longer embezzle - and the current CoE post now
replaces the Minister of Education, the latter post having fallen out of
use]
Your ignorance of governmental orders of precedence is equally lamentable.
The only ministers appointed by His Majesty directly, and thus directly
answerable to Him, are the Ministers of State, War, Foreign Affairs the
King's Cabinet. As an appointee of the Minister of State, it is Duc von
Fersen to whom you yourself are answerable and, since you have no
appointments within your gift, to claim that anyone is answerable to you
(especially a Senior Minister) is somewhat presumptuous.
The Minister of Finance and the Marine is similarly answerable to the
Minister of State and also has no government ministers answerable to him.
I am quite aware, My Lord, of the political strategem of attempting to bury
unwelcome proposals beneath a mountain of red tape. Please be assured that I
have no intention of allowing this happen where the Military Justice
proposals are concerned.
Finally, I am somewhat at a loss regarding your objections to my postscript.
Your wilful contravention of Dragoon Guard standing orders to secure your
majority is a matter of public record. Indeed, surely you must recall that
you were fined by Colonel d'Erring, your commanding officer, as a result? It
is plain to even the meanest intelligence that the recent proposals, if
accepted, will allow for a more robust response to such transgressions in
the future. If your misgivings regarding the proposals bore no relation
whatsoever to this, and were indeed prompted by a groundless concern that
they may entail a few more centimes in public expenditure, you may consider
yourself to have my unreserved apologies. Should this fail to satisfy you,
I'm sure that our respective seconds will soon be able to arrange a mutually
convenient time and place for further discussion.
Regards my supposed reluctance to entertain such affairs, I would have
thought that the time you spent as my subordinate in the Dragoons would have
disabused you of the opinion. Indeed, it is voiced only by a source to which
no gentleman pays any heed whatsoever and who, incidently, failed to turn up
to meet me at the duel which he was so insistant upon provoking.
One final point. Before drafting the proposals regarding military justice
for His Majesty I naturally, over a period of months prior to my recent
appointment, consulted with various generals having informed opinions on the
subject - such as Lt.General le Vicomte Soire de Success. This gentlemen has
a wealth of command experience at Regimental, Brigade and Divisional level -
experience in which you yourself are totally lacking. To suggest that such a
gentleman may speak with no authority on matters of military discipline is
somewhat insulting, and I would strongly suggest that an apology is in
order.
General le Duc Alain de Mylcandonai
His Majesty's Minister of War
