November 17th, 1147, The Hague Permanent Court of International Arbitration
At one of the world oldest international institutions, The Court was selected to host the second great peace convention of this century. Germany requested good offices of Netherlands. The term of convention was settled for today. Representatives of the negotiating parties arrived, and hallway in front of the conference room was filled with lively conversation. The groups formed by nationality and everyone was careful not to mix with their enemies. Nobody expected much of this first meeting and they all knew it was necessary to establish the first contact, test the waters and most importantly secure a truce for the duration of negotiations. Then it was time to enter the conference room. The room was prepared with a speaking stand and three large tables arranged so that heads of states and their associates could feel comfortable. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Hague." opened Dirk Jan de Geer "We have gathered here in order to secure the peace in Europe. The three nations represented here have agreed to use good offices of this Government to facilitate the negotiation and help them arrive to just solution to their ongoing conflict. I regret that government of Soviet Union has declined an invitation to come here. They stated that current situation is not of their making, that they are not at war with any of the powers invited and have no issue they feel need be solved by peace conference. For the rest of us here, I sincerely hope our efforts here will bear fruit and that in the following days, we will be remembered as peacemakers and not warlords. May God help us all. I pronounce The Hague Peace conference of 1939. open. I invite sir Neville Chamberlain to this stand and represent the position of the His Majestys Government."
Chamberlain stood up and walked to the speaker stand, displaying dignity characteristic to British. "Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues, in the name of His Majesty, King George VI and my own name I welcome your presence here at this moment. That we all gathered here shows that basic humanity, civility and honor that characterised our continent since time beyond the memory can still be counted upon. Unfortunate events that brought this war on us could perhaps have been averted had good will been present a few months ago. However, we got entagled in this struggle. Thankfully it has not yet become the struggle to life and death. If we all come to an agreement here, we can back off from the abbys we stare down to. I am authorised by the House of Commons to accept following conditions in order to establish truce and comence negotiations between our nations. We expect German government to immediately order evacuation of at least some areas of Poland proper as a further sign of goodwill. We demand that evidence be provided that these orders are issued and complied to by German forces on the ground. Also, we expect that German troops will retreat from French border, thus removing any possibility of accidental escalation of the conflict. Proper demilitarized zone will be established as a result of this conference to be maintained and control by international forces as determined on this conference. We request the German government accept those preliminary conditions in order to continue this peace process. Should the German government request additional time, provisional truce will be accepted for duration of three days. It will only be extended beyond this date if aforementioned conditions are accepted. If German government finds any of those request unjust, I remind them that this war was the result of their actions. War could have been stopped or avoided entirely had they not chosen to embark on course of action that forced us to issue the Declaration of war on September 3rd this year, despite ample warning His Majestys government gave before the final step. I invite French Prime minister Daladier to approach the stand." finished Chamberlain. All present applauded, although German delegation was less than enthusiastic about it. They resented harsh words spoken at the end of Chamberlain address.
Daladier approached the stand "Thank you Sir Chamberlain. Ladies and gentlemen I can only echo the words of my friend and ally with little to add. I will only insist that in the view of Government of Republic Of France which I represent, the demilitarization of border areas is the condition sine-qua-non. We will not negotiate it away and we will not allow it to be impotent. We will request efficient control by international forces and representatives of all three interested countries namely Belgium, Germany and France. I now invite mr. Goering to address this convention and state Germanys position."
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like first to express gratitude to our hosts for organizing this meeting on such short notice. Second, Government of Germany, despite protestations of Allied power does not and will not take sole blame for the conflict we are in. We are all aware that borders on the east were not satisfactorily established after the previous war. Instead of facilitating just and diplomatic solution, they propped up Poland by their Guarantee, thus inhibiting any efforts to peacefully adjust the borders between two neighbours. Germany requsted only the lands rightfuly belonging to us. Nothing more. Yet, Poland declined all German offers, no doubt encouraged by unlimited diplomatic support it received from Governments of Britain and France. Germany was left with only one option. Even then, we requested only the right to have contiguous territory and to protect our citizens from escalating Polish terror. But I am willing to leave all this behind us. I have already given orders to prepare evacuation of General Governance. I also ordered the naval forces of Germany to stop all activity and return to port. As this order was sent uncoded, you must be aware of it. As for the retreat from common border, I will point out that it is not German troops that invaded French territory, but the opposite. We will agree to retreat only when French troops currently occupying German territory retreat to within French borders. German government wants peace, make no mistake about that. But we will not be humiliated again. Ever again. We are willing to make any concesions that are honorable and just, but Britain and France will never again dictate peace to Germany. However, despite everything, in order to end suffering of all nations, I accept the conditions of the truce as laid out by sir Chamberlain. Germany will endeavour to the utmost for the success of this convention. I thank you for your attention. I hope that we will meet here again in three days."
