PEACE
BY NORMAN ARKAWY AND
STANLEY HENIG
We bid you welcome, Earthmen!
Take your rightful place
beside us, share our peaceful
existence. By your endless
struggles you have earned it.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, October 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Peace Communique No 1.—Abilene—April 1, 2049
The war is over. Iverson is safely exiled on asteroid 14, and the otherleaders of the aggressor forces—Cartwright, Briande, Remberg, Kiangand Risofsky—are all in confinement on their respective space islands.Peace has been restored to the system: on Rios and on Nwad.
(signed) SER GULLA
Sup. AC
Rios Adm.
AC Pamphlet
PIE Rios No. 1-1-1
10 APR 49 RT
REPORT TO THE PEOPLE OF RIOS
On March 29, 2049 (Rios Time), the Rios-Nwadian war ended.
This report on the recent conflict has been prepared by the Bureauof Public Information and Education, Rios Branch, for the purpose ofenlightening the inhabitants of Rios about the War, its causes, and theproposed policy of the Nwadian government concerning the administrationof your planet.
In order to provide for full understanding by the people of Rios,Riosic terminology shall be used wherever possible in this report.Thus, Rios shall be called 'Earth', Nwad shall be designated 'Venus',and all dates, measurements and other data which are different on thetwo planets shall be indicated according to the Riosic calculation.
The War ended on March 29, 2049 when the last Earthian troopssurrendered to the Venusian peace forces.
When did the War begin? The first battle was fought on December 18,2048, but the first 'incident' that led directly to the conflictoccurred in November, 2042. And even before that date, many yearsbefore, officials on Venus knew that war between the two worlds wasinevitable.
Space scientists of Venus have been observing Earth for hundredsof years. The first space ship to reach your planet and returnto Venus made its voyage in the Earth year, 1891. From that timeon, explorations were made sporadically until the 1950's, whenrevolutionary improvements in the design of our ships made possiblemore economical and faster trips.
It is an interesting coincidence, incidentally, that atomic powerwas discovered on Earth just as we on Venus had made atomic drivenspacecraft obsolete by the introduction of the magnetico-gravitationaldrive. This fact is mentioned because it was the evidence of atomicexplosions on Earth that increased our interest in your planet acentury ago.
In all our observations of Earth, the most obvious fact we learned wasthat its dominant race was aggressive and war-like in nature. Havingno desire to introduce this war-mindedness to our peaceful world, weavoided all contact with Earth.
We realized, however, that in time the Earth race would accomplishspace travel and thus force a contact with us. Therefore, we devisedhighly potent weapons for our defense in the event that the people ofEarth ever stopped quarreling among themselves and attempted an attackon our world.
High officials in our government were appalled at the thought of warwith its chaotic and indiscriminate killing. There were those whodeemed it an actual act of aggression on our part to arm ourselvesin preparation for a war. The opposition to our defense program wass