[But even in heroism and even in death…]

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But even in heroism and even in death, some are more equal than others.

Captain Birdseye who went down with his ship, the Atlantic Conveyor, was a case in point. Nobody knows what happened to him, or even whether he survived the first blast against his ship. But we were assured that he almost certainly died while saving unnamed sailors from death.

Colonel H occupied a still higher circle - a grand imperial hero.

The interviews with his wife, surely some of the sickest reporting of this war, proved that he was a man destined to die in battle. The Daily Express under the hosdline H - Му Него геротi to i dying that as a man Colonel H had "very black. and white views - he always know the difference beiween right and wrong and did what was right." It wasn't even as if Colonel H confined his military rectitude to wartime. The paper reported that he was on a skiing holiday when he heard on the radio about the task force being sent. "He drove like mad to the ferry and we arrived five hours early for the boat. As soon as we "ef got home he began making calls and sending signals, sayıng that the second Battalion were really the only ones that could do the job."

And he kept in practice between battles as well. "He read books about battles and played lots of war games at home." But his wife added, "Unfortunately he seems this time to have picked the wrong counter.

Nothing could make more: :of a contrast than Colonel H with his black and White, certainties in the cine side and militants in the trade unions on the other.

As the Daily Mail so eloquently put it.

"We have had our fill of the Britain of wrecking strikers; of anarchic shop stewards and selfish speculators.

"But there is another Britain. A Rritain of carvine and sacrifice; of duty and VI SUITILL gallantry. It is the Britain of H Jones and of his men."

As the Pope finishes his British tour and heads back for the Holy City that is something he will have to bear in mind. He might be feted by the media; he might be praised and he might be tolerated. But Popes like everyone else had better remember that when the lip service has been paid to peace, there is nothing the British press likes better than a Colonel,H, or two to lead his • men. into battle, preferably getting' them all ktilet at the eleventh hans

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Socialist Organiser, Thursday 3 June 1982. Page 11

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