A Question of Territorial Exchange (Part III)

Imperial and Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ballhausplatz, Vienna, Austria-Hungary, January 1889.

"In addition to the former Ifni consul-general, I am also expecting an offical from the Spanish Embassy, to explore the details of this offer." Haymerle remaked absently returning his attention to the papers on his desk.

"The Spanish are being damned secretative about the whole affair but at the same time energetic about pushing the matter with us. Probably worries about how the matter will be viewed by the parties in the Spanish Cortes." Haymerle said after some moments of quiet refection. Archduke Friedrich nodded in response before commenting himself.

"I suppose, the Spanish Embassy is anxious because of all the diplomatic thunder and lightning that was occassioned by our ongoing negotiations into obtaining a lease on Walfisch Bay from the Germans in their Southwest Africa colony. They likely expect a similar uproar from the other Great Powers with an interest in the West African situation as it currently stands. Then there is the Moroccan side of it. How will the Sultan Hassan react?"

"Hm. True, very true." Haymerle nodded and turned as his aide knocked at the door, then entered.

"Yes, Franz?"

"The former Ifni Protectorate consul-general and senior military officer has just arrived, Your Excellency do you want to see him immediately?"

"Yes, Franz, send him in immediately."

Haymerle, gave his side whiskers another absentminded but thoughtful tug, as he turned the matter over again in his mind. Compared to most of the Great Powers, Austria-Hungary's colonial possessions were fairly minor. They amounted to a handful of colonies, protectorates and trade concessions scattered around the world; just enough to give the Empire a certain amount of prestige amoungst it's peers. They were also quietly prosperous and internally peaceful enough on their own merits that they did not cost the k.u.k. government too much to protect, police or administer to. The flip side of that agreeable equilibrium was that said colonies, protectorates and concessions were sufficiently profitable and so placed that they inevitablely irked someone else in the region or found themselves being entertained in some other powers's expansionistic designs.

Haymerle, snorted to himself quietly, in thoughtful exasperation and sarcasm.

The bulk of the colonial trade concessions that the Austro-hungarian Empire possessed rested in Asia. In particular, the two trade concessions in the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Tientsin respectively. The other two Asian concessions were in India, Cabelon on the Coromandel Coast and Banquibazar on the Hooghli River, upstream from Calcutta in Bengal. These concessions were almost exclusively concerned with trade and travel and thus were largely run by the k.u.k. Consular Service, although the Ministry of the Marine and Colonies was in charge of their security and overall management. The last of the Austro-Hungarian trade concessions was located in Delagoa Bay, in Portuguese East Africa. It had been established by the Austrian East India Company in the 1776-81 period and had sufficiently annoyed the Portuguese into attempting by force to evict the trade concession from an area they considered theirs.

Their response had been to send a battalion of 500 men and a 40-gun frigate from Portuguese Goa in India to drive the Austrians enscounced at the trade fortresses of St Joseph and St Maria. The Austrian East India Company had been warned that the attempt was coming and had taken precautions including assembling a small fleet of a half dozen warships or heavily armed east indianman merchantile vessels and reinforced the fortresses with several hundred men and a hundred artillery pieces of various sizes. To the Portuguese commander's credit he did make a serious effort to carry out his orders but after being defeated by William Bolts, the Portugese authorities thought better of the effort and concentrated on other more profitable projects.

The Austro-Hungarian colonies proper could be considered to start with North Borneo in the East Indies, this area had been acquired semi-privately in the 1866, 1876 and 1879 by the Torrey-Dent-Overbeck Colonial Trade Company before becoming a formal Austrian possession in 1881. Moving westward towards Europe came the Nicobar islands, in eastern part of the India Ocean. These islands had been originally claimed by the Austrian East India Company as far back as 1778. The Austrians had stubbornly held onto them despite various attempts by both the Danish and the English to dislodge them at various times, sometimes by force. Next came the Austro-Hungarian Diu Enclave in western India, which actually included Diu island and a sizeable portion of the adjacent shore.

Pictures of my Sir Leo Stanley Worthing-Topper Cosplay 2019-2020

The First and Second Pictures were taken in 2019.

The next pictures were taken in 2020.

I've made a small number of changes over time, the extensive sideburns I now have is the latest, and helps with giving the cosplay a more period feel, as do the spectacules.

A Question of Territorial Exchange (Part II)

Imperial and Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ballhausplatz, Vienna, Austria-Hungary, January 1889.

 "Quite honestly, I am still surprised the Spanish government is even willing to bring the matter up. They have had to surrender or sell off so much of their colonial empire over the last two centuries, that they have shown a very stubborn resistence to parting with anything they have left." Haymerle commented once again tugging on his side whiskers thoughtfully.

"Well, consider it from their point of view, the Ifni Protectorate is surrounded on three sides by the Sultanate of Morocco. They have considerablely more valuable and extensive territories in northern Morocco, on the south side of the Straits of Gibraltar and the Spanish Sahara: the Rio de Oro as they sometimes call it, to the south of Morocco, adjacent to the Spanish Canary islands. If they feel they have to sacrifice one of their three remaining African holding to concentrate on the other two, then Ifni is the one they can afford with the least investment in it both from a national and emotional point of view." Archduke Friedrich remarked as he considered the matter carefully.

"And it would not kick up too much of a fuss for us domestically to accept the offer, although offically, the cabinet-council is not interested in further colonial adventures of any kind, we have all the trouble we need here at home or in the colonial holdings we already have." Haymerle, picked up a map of northern Africa from the clutter of papers upon his desk. "That said, I really do not know much about the place so I am not at all sure I could get the cabinet and His Majesty to accept the idea. The Spanish still have not told me exactly what they want for it, yet."

Haymerle, passed the map to the Archduke, who nodded in agreement with the foreign minister's skeptical mood. Archduke Friedrich looked at the Ifni Protectorate map critically for some minutes before commenting.

 "Well it is a north African port, which would give us a station and stop off point on the Atlantic for our Navy and our Merchant Marine for other more important ports of call. I have briefly visited the place several times over the years. As I recall it is not an terribly exciting place, it's basically an enclave centered on the fishing port of Sidi Ifni with a few hundred square kilometers of sparsely populated hinterland surrounding it. That said, it is at least a quietly prosperous and largely contented place. I have never heard the Spanish having much problem administering the place. Though the Sultans of Morocco have had their eye on the protectorate though since the Spanish first put down roots there in the 1400s if I recall correctly."

"I imagine the Sultan will not enjoy the news that someone else might take over the place."

"I imagine not, but I think we can make such a deal acceptable to the Sultan's government, if we offer them some worthwhile economic or political incentives."

Haymerle frowned thoughtfully as he considered the matter once again, then sighed and tugged on his side whiskers.

"Well, I have sent for one of the former consul-generals we had assigned to the place, to give me some first hand information about the place and how it might be valuable to us. More importantly he can tell us, just how much trouble it will cause us locally if we do accept the Spanish offer. Assuming of course, we can actually convince His Majesty and the Cabinet-Council to accept the offer."

"When do you expect him?" Archduke Friedrich asked.

"Momentarily, actually. He is a naval officer, since Sidi Ifni did not require a full diplomatic offical, just someone to look after trade and the odd visiting Austro-Hungarian citizen or business group that might have cause to be in the enclave. He also looked after such military affairs as we had and as might be necessary in the region. He came back to Vienna last year and has been attached to the foreign ministry archives. He has been helping with the ongoing updates of the information dossiers, the ministry maintains on Morocco in particular and the West African affairs in general."

Attendence at the Kendal Ball (Part XIII)

Kendal Palace, Grosvenor Square, London, Great Britain: January 1886.

Ursula Wraithdale, eyed the languid, swaggering approach of Lord Roderick Crossley with scant favour, although she concealed it well enough from those immediately around her. Regis Crossley, however, after a life time's service in the diplomatic and consular corps was an expert reader of body language and facial expression. He realized exactly who Ursula was looking at, and knew instantly that it meant trouble. Sir Thomas Jameson's tightly controlled non-expression would have been warning enough to Regis, as he stood silently but supportive beside the duchess.

Sir Leo, warned by the announcement of Baron Landseer's arrival, had quietly but swiftly come back to the young duchess's side with the other six Wraithdale Estate trustees following close behind. They had just gotten within earshot when Ursula finished her welcome of the Baron Landseer and turned to greet his younger brother.

At that moment, Regis, noticed the Wraithdale Trustees materialized out of the throng of guesta behind the Duchess of Kendal. Sir Leo was in the lead, flanked by Lady Penelope Wraithdale and Dame Daphne Cosgrave. Regis observed Duncan Foster, Sir Samuel Thistlewood, Alistair Scattergood and Philipa Fieldhouse followed close behind them. Foster was an accomplished and hardworking solicitor with graying, light brown hair, with a quiet, studious and methodical air to him. Gold spectacles topped his strong beak like nose, which along with his balding crown and long sideburns and muttonchops lent an inquisitive, scholarly air to him.

Thistlewood, was a craggy, hard featured man, dark haired and dark eyed with a short, bristling beard, who despite his great wealth as a businessman and investor and accomplishments as a serious inventor, engineer and scientist, never quite shed his working class origins nor had he ever tried. Thistlewood was the epitome of the hard working, serious but thoughtful self-made man, though without the arrogance of some of that bred. Regis also noted Thistlewood's heavily gloved hands, which covered the replacement mechanical appendages which replaced the fingers and wrists destroyed years ago by a few technological mishaps.

Scattergood, gave the impression to the casual observer of dandified elegance. While only of average height, he had a fit build and handsome, swarthy features framed by soft mouse brown grey hair and long sideburns with an almost permanently amused expression fixed on them. His grey eyes however were at this moment without their customary sardonic expression, they were alert, clear and watchful.

Fieldhouse, watched the unfolding scene with a disturbing almost reptile like calm, which was hardly surprising give her family background, Regis thought wryly. Philipa's father was an English born human but her Austrian mother had been a mix of human, Lemurian and Serpentine.Which was not as obvious as one would have thought, unless you knew what to look for. The dark glasses she habitually wore had slipped down slightly, revealing just a hint of her vivid yellow eyes with vertically slit black pupils. She had a strikingly olive completion which went with a willowy, lithe figure and equally exotic and strikingly beautiful facial features which were suggestive of her unusual li
neage.

"Lord Crossley, I do not believe you have made the acquaintance of Sir Thomas, before now?" Ursula asked suddenly with a decidedly mischievious expression playing upon her face. When Roderick, languidly if politely indicated that that was indeed the case. Ursula smiled even more disarmingly and then ushering Sir Thomas a pace or two forward so that he was standing directly beside her.

"Lord Crossley, allow me to introduce you to Sir Thomas Jameson, Captain of the Locke and Key Line, my fiance."