It is with much confusion and alarm that the Galactic Empire has observed the recent provocative actions of the New Republic and its Senate and, most graciously, not protested until now out of confidence in the Chief of State's apparent dedication to peace. However, that confidence has been shaken this week with inflammatory words and proposals in the Republic's Senate and the amassing of its Fifth Battle Fleet—which the Chief of State has rightfully called "a force designed only for conquest"—at Bandomeer mere hours after the Empire proposed the withdrawal of the Republic's fleets and garrisons at that planet.

We are willing to believe, if the Chief of State will assure us of this fact, that the sudden concentration of vessels at Bandomeer is not a hostile gesture but, rather, a careless and impudent blunder of the Republic's Warfleet (because such incidents of unprofessionalism are common to your forces, as we understand it). Without such an assurance, however, the Empire will have no alternative but to interpret this incident as a deliberate provocation and will, accordingly, reinforce its own ships near Bandomeer. Let us hope, for the sake of peace, that this is a misunderstanding.

We are also willing to believe the Chief of State's word that his proposal to "abolish the Bastion Accords"—which, I remind him, is a treaty to which both he and our most gracious Grand Admiral Pellaeon agreed, and cannot simply be abrogated without reason by one of its signatories—is a political maneuver designed to pacify his opponents in the Senate. However, the Council of Moffs finds the most recent remarks on the matter (namely from the perennially barbate Mr. Karath, of Corellia) to be offensive and unbecoming even of the Republic. We demand that Mr. Gavrisom take some action in repudiation of Mr. Karath's words and discipline him accordingly.

The Empire will consider this as nothing less than a test of the Chief of State's sincerity and his commitment to peace.

Walther Thaddeus Fiske
Imperial Minister of State