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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 28, 1982
PAGE 14
desperately had to show the world that we weren't. I hope never
to find convincing evidence that, even subconsciously, this was
also a subsidiary motive for our losing lives in the Falklands.
But when it is over, we shall be no further off the skids. Three
million will still be on the dole, and look like remaining on it
for the rest of the decade. The inner cities will continue to
rot. The schools will continue to decline. Street riots will
still be in the offing.
Yet there is nothing that rouses the ire of the British more than the
threats and actions of imperialist dictators. Argentina, it seems, mirrors
notorious lead characters from World War II, Hitler and Mussolini, all too
well. The Lion is growling again: the question is first, how many teeth
does he have--and, most importantly, is God on his side this time? The
DAILY MAIL on May 27 said this, in a stirring editorial:
There is no need for pretence. We are not a people that needs to
batten down the hatches on its feelings during these harrowing
days. Grief is in order. Anxiety is natural. More brave men
have died. Coventry--a symbol of British endurance in World War
II. There will be many echoes of the 1939-45 war before the
Falklands are ours again.
Then it was those grim convoys in the Arctic and North Atlantic.
Now it is our supply ships in the icy South Atlantic, doggedly
provisioning and reprovisioning our beachhead at San Carlos.
Yesterday one of them, the Atlantic Conveyor, together with its
stores, was abandoned. Four, at least, of the crew are dead.
In these dark moments we must take our comfort where and how we
can.
Forty years ago a great wartime leader made the nation
understand this.
Though his indomitable will rallied Britain,
Winston Churchill knew the torment of the sleepless small hours
when ships went down and the spirits of even the most resolute
sank, however temporarily, with them. The night the news came
through of the loss of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, he
tortured himself till dawn with one characteristic question:
"How can I get back at them?"
He�
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fighter. And is there anyone who can doubt that we are
being led
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another fighter today? "sombre, and determined,
Margaret Thatcher speaks for Britain; for the honesty and the
rightness of our cause; for the grief of the bereavedi for the
gallantry of our men at sea, in the air and on the British soil of
the Falklands. There will be more sadness before we can cheer.
But we will cheer when the Union Jack is raised in Port Stanley.
And it will be raised.
The blood is also beginning to boil in the editorial offices of the DAILY
TELEGRAPH.
Its May 27 lead editorial, "Cause For Anger" dealt with the
mounting losses in such a senseless, costly war:
Our sailors, pilots and soldiers are dying because of the stupid
ity and criminality of the Argentine junta. These politically
and morally•bankrupt men ordered the invasion of the Falklands in
a cynical attempt to distract attention from the disastrous