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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 28, 1982
failure of their policies at home.
convinced them that they would
victory.
PAGE 15
Their ignorance and isolation
score a virtually costless
Since the fighting began they have consistently lied and
fantasied. ,!! Argentine military claims were true, scarcely�
ship in the Task Force would be afloat. There is no possibility
of serious discussion with such people. Their infinite capacity
for self-deception and their persistent frivolity have brought
this war about, have cost us dear in both blood and treasure.
They will only understand their folly, perhaps not even then, if
in our wrath we totally defeat them.
Finally, one of Britain's most distinguished historians, Sir Arthur Bryant,
wrote a stirring opinion piece in the DAILY MAIL, also on May 27, 1982,
entitled, "The Testing of a Nation."
Having our barrier of the sea, and our long mastery of the sea's
surface to ensure us domestic peace and freedom, we have
developed a form of government based on free discussion, on what
our medieval ancestors called counsel and consent. The finest
mom�nts in Britain's past have been those when, like St. George
with the Dragon, she staked her safety to defend the liberties of
the weak against the lawless strong. And in doing so upheld, and
ultimately restored, the rule of law among nations.
Britain's enemies however, took advantage of the fact that she was losing
the mastery of the seas, was developing a different kind of navy--a mere
component of a larger force (NATO)--one no longer geared to defend far off
places. Continues Sir Arthur:
For the dictator's very act of aggression had been set off by the
way in which Britain had apparently divested herself of her sea
defences, withdrawing her last guard ship from her Falkland and
Antarctic dependencies and announcing in Parliament, through her
Defence Minister, that she was about to dispense as a measure of
economy with a large number of the ships and men with which she
has since achieved so great a naval miracle. If the dictator who
so swiftly seized the opportunity to strike at our defenceless
island had only had the patience to wait for a few months,
nothing we could have done could have restored the situation.
But patience is a virtue which dictators seldom possess.
The losses of recent days have shaken the British, said Sir Arthur, who
nevertheless feels Britain will still "win in the end":
In the shock of it, for a moment, courage and resolution almost
faltered.
But war is like that and no nation has had more
experience of such shocks or recovered from them so well. It has
always been the last battle we have won in all our wars.
The next week or two, with the arrival of more troops on the "QE2" ( a
certain Argentine target) and the expected battle for Port Stanley, should
reveal whether Sir Arthur is right.
--Gene H. Hogberg, News Bureau
(Your temporary "war correspondent")