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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 28, 1982
PAGE 13
Britain's Pride Shaken, But How Badly?
Despite the current setbacks, British pride, patriotism and determination
(the term "stiff upper lip" does appear in newspaper copy) is still high.
Of course, the mushy Left dismisses it all as mere "jingoism."
Nevertheless, these are trying times. In one real sense, the Royal Navy is
the very embodiment of national pride for Britain.
Therefore, the
increased number of crippled and sunk ships takes its toll on the nation's
soul. Naval cities like Portsmouth go into mourning for days after a home
ported ship is lost. The newspapers run article after article of moving
stories of anxious mothers whose sons (in one case three sons) are 8,000
miles away at sea and virtually out of communication.
These mothers-
including Queen Elizabeth--sit poised before the radio all day, and stare
at the televized BBC 9:00 p.m. news and !TV's News at Ten. It is a grim
wait to find out if you are one of the "next of kin" to be informed of the
death of another seaman.
Perhaps the greatest pressure of all is on another British woman, the "Iron
Lady" Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Grim-faced and dressed in black
she told a large assembly of Conservative Party women's conference ·dele
gates thdt "despite our losses, neither our resolve nor our confidence is
weakened."
The mettle of the "Iron Lady" is surely being tested.
One member of
Parliament told Mr. Herbert
w.
Armstrong and several others of us at a lunch
the other day that Mrs. Thatcher "is the greatest Prime Minister since
Churchill.
11
She possesses courage and determination, said M.P., Sir
Bernard Braine, but it is not yet known, he said, whether Mrs. Thatcher has
another key quality of leadership--vision.
As of now neither the Prime
Minister nor anyone else in the Cabinet really know what to do with the
contentious islands should they be recovered. No one is in any mood to give
them to Argentina, not after the loss of so many lives--over 100 to date-
and that's before any ground action against Arqentine positions in Port
Stanley.
Neither can anyone ascertain what the post-war period would be
like, specifically British relations with Argentina, the U.S. or Europe.
Oblivious to Dangers?
Despite the mounting political and economic problems plaguing Britain
today, the British workingman (or nonworkingman) is still pushing for more
money and privileges. The threat of a nationwide strike by health service
workers is looming, as is a widespread railway employee walkout. Brand new
railway equipment (for the line from London to Borehamwood where our office
is located) lies idle as the union insists the new units carry a useless
drone trainman. And everywhere the concern of nearly all males is football
(soccer)--the Football Association (national) Cup, the European Cup and the
upcoming World Cup in Spain. The first half of the daily paper is devoted
to the Falklands, the last half to football.
Most Britons do not realize how many "gray hairs" (Hos. 7:9) are on
Ephraim's head these days. Some do, of course, such as DAILY MAIL commen
tator Keith Waterhouse, who wrote on May 27:
The Suez fiasco was not the cause of our decline. It was the
effect. It was because we were already on the skids that we