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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 16, 1982
like that; those are for blimps, blusterers and
Certainly you do not fight about marginal issues.
that is the real answer: "give peace a chance."
PAGE 9
television.
"Negotiate,"
At the moment, both the British public and the politicians appear solidly
behind Mrs. Thatcher's resolve to meet force with force. Even the Labour
Party is lined up behind her on this issue. The left-wing opposition, as
expected, is dead set against the actions of the Argentine military junta.
One Labour spokesman called President Galtieri a "bargain basement Musso
lini." (Galtieri, like many Argentines, is of Italian descent.)
While the British display their traditional "stiff upper lip" on the
crisis, the Administration in Washington appears in need of a spine trans
plant. It wants to avoid a confrontation at all costs--or maybe permit the
British just a little glory to mollify their aroused anger.
American syndicated columnist Jack Anderson claims that President Reagan
told Secretary of State Alexander Haig to make him the villain if it would
help resolve the Falkland Islands dispute. According to taped conversa
tions between the President and Mr. Haig, which Anderson claims to have
obtained, Mr. Reagan is quoted as saying: "In those talks, if it's helpful
at all don't hold back on making me the bad guy and insisting on restraint
if that's necessary."
Anderson said Mr. Reagan speculated whether the
British might be appeased if they sank an Argentine warship by saying,
"Would that be enough to vindicate them?"
Another Sea Gate Gone
The British fleet is at a great disadvantage in terms of distance and air
cover. The Argentines, meanwhile, have dug in. Even if the British should
recover their possession by force of arms, the Falklands are probably lost.
Britain would have to maintain a large expensive occupying force, far out
of relationship to the few inhabitants and the strained British military
budget now being trimmed to allow money for Trident submarines. Then too,
how long can NATO permit two-thirds of the British navy to remain far
removed from its primary assigned area, the North Atlantic?
The British Foreign Office in the event of a stalemate or an unlikely
victory would still probably engineer a diplomatic handover to Argentina.
This, in fact, would have taken place years ago, if the 1,800 Falklanders
had not objected to living under Argentina's oppressive dictatorship and
inflation-wracked economy.
Significantly, the new military governor of the "Malvinas" is General Mario
Benjamin Menendez, who bears the dubious nickname of the "Butcher of
Cordoba." Menendez ruthlessly crushed a revolt which had been stirred up by
opponents of the government's ruling junta in that Argentine city in 1979.
Thus a small segment of Ephraim is now living under what amounts to house
arrest conditions, ruled over by a tough taskmaster (who doesn't speak any
English at all). Could this be a forerunner of much grimmer days to come
for the home isles--sirnilar to the prototype of America's corning captivity
in the form of the hostages held for over a year in Iran?
So for all practical purposes yet another British sea gate, one vital in
both World Wars I and II, is gone. One of our members in the British Isles,
a journalist by profession, sent us his personal observation of the crisis: