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The
government has agreed to use British taxpayers money to pay for the first
airstrip on the remote island of St Helena. The decision was welcomed by Tory
party donor Lord Ashcroft, who has been campaigning for a runway for the
British territory. It will mean that anyone wanting to get to the territory
will no longer be forced to catch the "Royal Mail Ship" from Cape
Town which takes more than week. Just over 4,000 "Saints" live on St
Helena, an island so remote it was used to imprison Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815.
Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, reversed a Labour
government decision to scrap plans to connect the island, which lies more that
1,200 miles off the African coast. The decision to build an airstrip was forced
by the imminent retirement of RMS St Helena,
currently the island's only lifeline to the world. The cost of replacing the
ship would be around £60 million while the airstrip is likely to cost in
excess of £100 million. Mr Mitchell said: "It's time to stop the
years of dithering and give the people of St Helena the decision they have been
waiting for since an airport was first promised by the Government in 2003. "But
these are tough times and we need to make sure we get the best deal for the UK
taxpayer as well as for the people of St Helena." Lord Ashcroft has
supported the campaign to get the air strip and last December he
"buzzed" the island in his private jet and conducted an interview
with a local radio station to lend his backing. He said: "I am delighted
for the islanders that at long last it looks as though it is going to happen
for them." The peer said St Helena had always held a
"fascination" for him ever since, aged two, he stopped there with his
family on the way to his father's first colonial post in Africa. He told The Daily
Telegraph yesterday: "The story in my
family was that when my parents' backs were turned, I fell into Napoleon's
goldfish bowl. They carried me dripping with water back to the ship. "I
have always wanted to go there, I have never really had the time or the
opportunity, and I certainly hope I will be first or one of the first to land
an aircraft there and visit." Lord Ashcroft, who has donated millions to
the party through one of his companies, said he had been "aware" that
the progress of the runway project was being reviewed. Last week he had a
Parliamentary Question about the landing strip plans answered, Asked if he had
contacted Mr Mitchell about the plans for the airstrip, he said: "I know
Andrew, but not particularly over this matter. I was aware they were reviewing
it." Sources close to Mr Mitchell said that Lord Ashcroft's interest in
the project had not played any part in the decision. One said: "Lord
Ashcroft has had nothing to do with this whatsoever. It will save money for the
taxpayer in the long-term." Island officials believe a tourism boom helped
by the air connection would wean the community off their dependence on
Whitehall stipends. Financial aid from Whitehall to St Helena has risen to
£20 million this year from £17 million last year. The island is the
most costly of the 14 Overseas Territories retained by the Crown, which will
collectively cost the taxpayer £59 million this year. It is run by a
Governor appointed by the Foreign Office. Mr Mitchell said the continued
reliance on the passenger boat service would condemn the island to a permanent
future of aid dependency. "St Helena would stand little chance of becoming
financially independent, meaning it would permanently rely on substantial
annual budgetary and other support from HM Government," Mr Mitchell said.
"A new ship would provide a costly service, but not a solution to St
Helena's stagnation and perpetual dependence on UK aid support."
- Daily
Telegraph, July 23, 2010

As England prepares to take the field against the dreaded
Boche tomorrow afternoon, let's spare a thought for Arthur Chesterton, founder
of the ill-fated League of Empire Loyalists. Product of a colonial demi-monde
where the superiority of all things British seemed to have the logic of
gravity, Chesterton launched a desperate bid in 1954 to turn back the tide and
preserve the Empire. He lost, but his spirit lives on in a tiny corner of
Africa. I refer here to the former colony of Natal, founded in the early l840s
by Sir Benjamin d'Urban on a stretch of elephant-infested bush, somewhat north
of British Caffraria and south, in those days, of almost nothing. Some would
say d'Urban stole the land from the Zulu kingdom, but the occupiers of record
in 1843 were Boer Voortrekkers, who reloaded their ox wagons and headed back
into the wild interior rather than submit to Queen Victoria. English-speaking
Natalians heaved a sigh of relief and proceeded to turn their territory into a
shrine to straight bats, and stiff upper lips. Much water has since flowed
under the proverbial bridge, but with the mother country facing deadly peril in
the World Cup, diehard white Natalians stand ready to do the right thing with
their Union Jacks. "The Boche will be trounced," cries Baden
Woodford, leader of a jokey pro-British secessionist movement in the Sixties.
"Of course I will support England," says Judith Smith, a well-bred
architect who still holds a British passport and rides to hounds on weekends.
"The Huns are just far too precise and, how can I put it, clinically
Aryan," says Ms Lin Sampson, whose mantelpiece sports a photograph of her
mother being presented to the Queen Mother in the late Forties. "Soccer is
played and supported by hooligans. I tend to be more interested in Wimbledon.
But I suppose one must rise to the occasion and support England in its hour of
need." Colonialists, such as Ms Sampson, are inclined to grumble about
their reduced position in today's South Africa, but want it known that they
would be supporting the local boys if we were still in the tournament. Since we
are not, waving the Union Jack is an attractive way of getting a rise out of
Afrikaners like your humble narrator. Baby Boomers missed the worst of it but,
as of 1974, there was still a measure of hostility between us – known
colloquially as "hairybacks" or bloody Dutchmen – and the soutpiels
of white Natal. Soutpiel means "salted penis" in Afrikaans
and denotes a person with one foot in Africa and the other in England, a
straddle so broad that his privates dangle in the sea. In 1974, Natal's rugby
team was captained by Tommy Bedford, a soutpiel who found himself at
constant odds with the hairybacks in the Afrikaans rugby establishment. They
thought Englishmen were sissies who couldn't really play the game. Bedford
thought they were chauvinist bullies. Tensions came to a head when Bedford's
Natal side almost held their own against the rampant l974 British Lions, who
had crushed the Springboks in three previous engagements. At a post-match
reception, Bedford pointedly compared his English-speaking squad's honourable
performance to the lacklustre showing of the Afrikaner-dominated national side.
Then he famously gave the finger to the Springbok selectors, adding:
"Welcome to the last outpost of the British Empire." The phrase
stuck, for reasons that were instantly obvious to visitors. "In many
ways," says businessman AD Harvey, "Natal was more British than the
UK itself." A disgruntled Conservative who fled Britain after it joined
the Common Market, Harvey was delighted to discover that white Natalians spoke
his language, drove on the "correct" side of the road, and sent their
sons to private schools modelled on Harrow and Eton. Even the place names were
familiar – Margate, Ramsgate, Sevenoaks and Maidstone. Harvey was
particularly impressed by the average Natalian's veneration for the Royal
family. They turned out in force to watch a film about Queen Elizabeth's Silver
Jubilee, and on the Prince of Wales's wedding day, they stayed home to watch
television in such numbers that downtown Durban was eerily empty. This was
precisely the spirit that moved Arthur Chesterton to found his League of Empire
Loyalists. An Englishman who grew up in Natal, Chesterton struggled to
reconcile himself to the rise of the Labour Party, which seemed bent on ruining
the brave and noble England of his boyhood imagination. When liberals started
talking about giving the Empire away, too, Chesterton drew a line and stood
behind it, fists raised. History marched right over him, but his fallen
standard was resurrected in Durban two decades later. The new imperial movement
was led by Ken Pottinger, who styled himself "colonial governor" and
presided over formal dinners where drunken students would toast the Queen and
hatch plans to secede from the rest of South Africa. History fails to record
what Natal's Zulus made of such shenanigans. Perhaps they were amused. It is
certainly true that Zulus and Englishmen have always regarded one another with
a degree of mutual fascination. To this day, you see Zulu warriors wearing
leather skirts modelled on the kilts sported by Scottish Highlanders in the
colonial wars of another century. And the British have always romanticised the
"spear-wielding savages" who walloped them at Isandlwana in 1879.
"Sunday will be a good day to remember that battle," says Rob Caskie,
who runs guided tours of Isandlwana and nearby Rorke's Drift, where that tiny
contingent of British infantrymen mounted their desperate last stand. According
to Caskie, the British soldiers were stunted runts for the most part, 5ft3in on
average and outnumbered 30 to one by muscular Zulus, but they stood firm and
carried the day, winning 11 VCs in the process. "The British have a great
history of standing and fighting," says Caskie. "Perhaps the English
players need to remember that." As to my own preferences, I might be a
hairyback, but I grew up on a diet of war comics in which the Englishmen were
always dashing and self-effacing, while the Huns played the bad guys. I will be
supporting England on Sunday.
-
Rian Malan’s “World Cup Diary”, Daily Telegraph, June 26, 2010

It became known as “the battle of
Crossing Point One”. In a series of suicidal attacks late last year,
hard-core Taliban fighters tried to over-run an isolated British base on the
northern tip of Nad e’Ali. Had the insurgents succeeded, the victory
would have been a propaganda coup par excellence, and the British mission in
central Helmand could have been seriously jeopardised. For two gruelling weeks
in the area of Luy Mandah, 30 soldiers fought a 360-degree battle with the
Taliban in the most arduous conditions. The combat was often at close quarters
where bayonets were fixed and hand grenades became the weapons of choice for
the beleaguered British troops. By the battle’s end, every man in the
platoon was credited with at least one Taliban kill. The battle proper began on
the night of November 4 last year, just a few hours after five members of the
battlegroup in another part of the district were shot dead by a rogue Afghan
policeman. The troops’ morale had been dented three weeks earlier when a
member of their company had been fatally wounded by an Improvised Explosive
Device (IED). Such was the force of the blast that Guardsman Jamie Janes
suffered a quadruple amputation. As the troops carried Janes’s shattered
body back to their base, they were ambushed by Taliban. Scores needed to be settled.
The troops from 5 Platoon No 2 Company 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards,
commanded by Lieutenant Craig Shephard, 24, and Sergeant Dean Bailey, 36,
decided to exploit the Taliban’s fondness for attacking wounded soldiers
by constructing an ambush based on a fake IED strike. After the explosives were
detonated, the Taliban – as expected – quickly appeared with a
two-man Pakistani sniper team leading the way. As the British troops pulled
back to the base, the Pakistanis were shot dead by hidden British snipers
– both dispatched with head shots from 400 metres. When the Taliban
pushed forward towards the base, they were cut down by raking machine-gun fire
and Javelin missiles. After two hours of fighting, 10 Taliban lay dead.
“The ambush was a case of thinking out of the box,” recalled Lt
Shephard. “We wanted to outsmart them by using their tactics. We knew
that they would ambush what they thought was an IED attack so we set up a
trap.” The following day, the platoon commander led a patrol to assess
the damage. But this time the Taliban was waiting. “At the time, I called
it a 'simple patrol’ – I will never use that phrase again,”
said Lt Shephard. As the patrol pushed into enemy territory, it was ambushed.
Accurate and sustained machine-gun fire and barrages of rocket-propelled
grenades (RPGs) kept the troops pinned down for almost an hour. “The fire
was so intense and accurate – we simply couldn’t move,”
recalled Sgt Bailey. “If we had tried to move, we would have been cut to
pieces.” The troops eventually managed to withdraw after a smoke screen
was laid by mortar fire. But as they pulled back to the relative safety of the
base, the Taliban attacked in force. “You couldn’t make it
up,” the sergeant added. “There were four sangar [sentry posts] in
the corners of our compound being hit at the same time. It was 360-degree
warfare.” As the base came under intense fire, a group of Taliban used an
irrigation ditch to move up to one of the compound’s rear walls. There
was a real risk that the insurgents might breach the base’s security.
With little thought for his personal safety, and knowing that drastic action
was required, Sgt Bailey, with two of his corporals, filled their ammunition
pouches with grenades, fixed bayonets, and charged 50 metres [55 yards] across
a field to reach the wall behind which dozens of Taliban were preparing for an
assault.“We lobbed high-explosive grenades into the ditch from behind the
wall. It worked. We killed or injured them all,” said Sergeant Bailey.
The fighting lasted for most of the day. By sunset, the British troops
estimated they had killed another 30 Taliban – bringing the number of
enemy dead to 40 in less than 24 hours. Back in enemy territory, a force of
around 100 to 150 Taliban fighters – including Chechens, Arabs and English-speaking
Islamists from south Asia – was preparing more attacks. Their original
plan was to create havoc for the second round of the presidential elections,
but after they were cancelled, Taliban commanders focused their attention on
Crossing Point One. The battle continued for days with such regularity that the
soldiers knew that it would begin in the morning after breakfast, followed by a
lull at midday, and would then continue until sunset. “It was like
Zulu,” said Sgt Bailey. “The Taliban just kept coming and coming.
It was suicidal. The more they sent, the more we killed.”
- Sunday Telegraph, March 21, 2010

To his political foes, he is an unlikely champion of the underdog,
but, two years after he launched a campaign in the Caribbean to prevent the
resumption of commercial whaling, Lord Ashcroft has chosen another unlikely
cause: the isolated islanders of St Helena. The billionaire Tory peer is so
enraged that the Government has "reneged" on its pledge to build an
airport on the remote British overseas territory - famous as the location for
Napoleon Bonaparte's final exile - that he has staged a private protest. With
the island in the middle of the South Atlantic down to a population of less
than 5,000 and in danger of a terminal decline, Lord Ashcroft recently diverted
his private plane – en route from Namibia [South-West Africa] to Brazil
– to "buzz" the islanders, who are frustrated that the
Department for International Trade and Development has announced a review of
the £300 million airport project. "St Helena is one of the most
beautiful places on earth and Michael [Ashcroft] fears that abandoning the
airport project would sound the death knell for the island," says a friend
of the peer. "So he decided to fly at very low altitudes over St Helena in
a personal show of support for the islanders." Mike Olsson, who runs the
island's newspaper and private radio station, interviewed Lord Ashcroft live on
air as the peer made his unusual protest. "Anything that Lord Ashcroft, or
anyone else, does to give us exposure on this issue is welcome."
- Sunday Telegraph, January 3, 2010

With shovel in hand the Queen, who was wearing a paisley turquoise
skirt and jacket and matching hat, patted down the earth around the sapling,
while officials from the building in Hamilton looked on. The three day visit to
Bermuda was organised to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement on
the island. Earlier the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh joined senior
dignitaries at a Thanksgiving service commemorating the efforts of the island's
founding fathers. The royal couple arrived on Bermuda on Tuesday and are due to
travel on to Trinidad and Tobago.
- Daily Telegraph, November 27, 2009

The
Duke of York has urged the Government and the public to be more vocal in their
support for British troops fighting a “difficult” war in Afghanistan. “It all comes back
to leadership. They [the soldiers] want to know the leadership is concerned in
their welfare” said the Duke, who was a Fleet Air Arm helicopter pilot in
the Falklands conflict. “They are
tremendously loyal people fighting in a campaign and they are being remarkably
more successful at it than is being adequately communicated. The troops need to
know there are people who think that the job that they are doing is
unbelievable. It should come from everyone, not just the Government.” The
Duke said that while he understood public misgivings over the military
operation, it was right to fight the Taliban. “If we were not to try to
make a change and difference in Afghanistan then it would affect our
nation state,” he said. “At the time in 2003 there was a clear and
present danger to the UK.”
-
Daily Telegraph, October 24, 2009

Michael
Palin, the travel writer and former Monty Python star, has said that Britain
should stop apologising for its colonial past. While the Empire – at its
height controlling a third of the world’s population – had many,
often brutal, failings, its positive effects were still being felt today, he
said. Palin has just taken up the role of president of the Royal Geographical
Society and, in an interview in Geographical
magazine, he said:
"If we say that all of our past involvement with the world was bad and wicked
and wrong, I think we're doing ourselves a great disservice. "It has set
up lines of communication between people that are still very strong. We still
have links with other countries – culturally, politically and socially
– that, perhaps, we shouldn't forget. "I want the Society
headquarters to be a place where an international community gathers, to talk to
each other and feel comfortable about talking to each other." Palin's view
was welcomed by British historians, who warned that the hand-wringing risked
masking the Empire's achievements, from the building of the Indian railways to
spreading of the English judicial system. Andrew Roberts, the author of Masters
and Commanders, said: "Allelulia! Mr Palin is quite right to acknowledge
that the British Empire has been taught in a particularly abject way in recent
years. The multifarious benefits of the Empire are something of which Britain
should be proud."
- Daily
Telegraph, October 2, 2009
A South African man has been granted
refugee status by Canada's
immigration and refugee board, which has found "clear and convincing
proof" he was persecuted for being White. Brandon Huntley, 31, "would
stand out like a 'sore thumb' due to his colour in any part of the
country", the board's panel chair, William Davis, said in his decision.
Huntley, who grew up in Mowbray, said he had been attacked seven times and
stabbed four times "by African South Africans" between 1991 and 2003.
Davis found he "was a victim because of his race rather than
a victim of criminality". He said the evidence offered by Huntley,
immigration lawyer Russell Kaplan and witness Lara Kaplan, who emigrated to
Canada last year, "shows a picture of indifference and inability or
unwillingness of the government and security forces to protect white South
Africans from persecution by African South Africans". Canadian High
Commission spokeswoman Valery Yiptong said on Monday night that the Immigration
and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) functioned much like the South African Home
Affairs' sub-directorate for refugee affairs. Davis
is a member of the board's refugee protection division. Huntley first travelled
to Canada on a six-month work permit in 2004 and worked as a carnival
attendant. He went back to Canada in 2005 and, after his work permit expired, he stayed on
illegally until making his refugee claim in April last year. Huntley told the
tribunal he had been called "a White dog" and "a settler"
when attacked. He had not reported any of the attacks to the police because
"the majority of them are South Africans and he did not trust them".
Huntley also said he had been able to find employment only because of family
connections. He was otherwise prohibited from finding work by the country's
affirmative action policies. "Upon his return to South Africa (at the end of 2004), he knew that he could not survive
there any more. He was constantly afraid and he knew there was no future from a
security (and financial) point of view because of his skin colour", the
decision said, noting Huntley's allegations. Testifying before the tribunal,
Russell Kaplan's sister, Lara Kaplan, told how their brother Robert had been
tortured and shot three times by a group of Black South Africans who had broken
into his home. Davis said he found Huntley a credible witness as his story was
consistent and "plausible". Lara Kaplan's testimony enhanced and
supported his claims that "persecution of White South Africans by African
South Africans (is) a common event today in South Africa". Russell Kaplan, who moved from South Africa to Canada in 1989, called Davis's
finding a "landmark case".
- AfricanCrisis, September 1, 2009

Tony Blair has called for Robert
Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, to be “toppled” as soon as possible. “If
you can do, then you should do it,” he said in an interview with the
German magazine Stern. “I think
whoever has the possibility should topple Mugabe - the man has destroyed his
country, many people have died unnecessarily because of him.” Mr. Blair’s
comments do not specify military action but he hinted that intervention may be
needed.
- Daily Telegraph, July 23, 2009

The Turks and Caicos Islands are set to return to direct
British rule as early as tomorrow after an inquiry found the overseat territory
was rife with political corruption. A British governor will take over daily
rule for at least two years in the restoration of a colonial-style government,
and the constitution of the group of Caribbean islands will be suspended after
allegations were heard of systematic corruption involving current and past
politicians and a widespread culture of fear. At the heart of the row is
Michael Misick, the former prime minister, who allegedly built up a
multi-million-dollar fortune after being elected in 2003 through a series of
loans from banks and deals with property developers for land owned by the
Crown. Gordon Wetherell, the British governor, will take executive and
legislative authority from the House of Assembly and a series of police
investigations will begin into allegations of skulduggery in business and
nepotism. The islands, at the southern tip of the Bahamas chain, lure some
300,000 tourists a year to the sandy beaches and coral reefs, and have long
served as a tropical playground for celebrities such as Keith Richards and
Bruce Willis.
-
Daily Telegraph, June 16, 2009

Royal
Navy warships have again clashed with Spanish vessels trying to invade British
waters in a tense stand-off, it emerged yesterday. In an echo of historic
battles between the Spanish and Sir Francis Drake and the sinking of the Armada
in 1588, British sailors have repulsed a bid by the Spanish navy to take
control of the seas around Gibraltar. Patrol boats from the Rock’s
Navy squadron were scrambled to see off a heavily-armed Spanish corvette that
strayed into UK waters. The Government
confirmed last night that strong protests had been made to Madrid amid suggestions that Spain’s defence
attaché had been called in for a dressing-down. A Foreign Office
spokesman said: “It’s a violation of British sovereignty and
something we take very seriously indeed. We have made strong representations to
the Spanish government.”
-
The Daily Express, May 23, 2009

Former British Prime Minister Tony
Blair is reportedly visiting Sierra Leone this week to promote the country's potential as a
‘tourism hotspot’. In Freetown, Blair will meet President Ernest Koroma as part of his
Africa Governance Initiative, which has done much to try and raise the
war-weary country from the ruins of a decade-long internal war. "During
this visit Tony Blair will particularly focus on the tourism potential of the
country and the fact that Sierra Leone is being recognised as an emerging destination," said a
spokesperson for Blair. The visit will be Blair's fourth to Sierra Leone - he has previously been to the country in February 2002,
May 2007, and June 2008. Under his leadership, Britain sent in White
Para’s at the height of the slaughter and anarchy - who were mobbed
during their departure by the black population, who openly advocated the return
of British, White rule.
- Southern Cross Africa News, April 28, 2009
In
early 2009 a new monument in honour of the Royal Marines was unveiled and
dedicated in Gibraltar. On Saturday 28th February
2009 the Royal Marines exercised their Freedom of the Rock by marching down Main Street to the Governor’s
Residence at The Convent with bayonets fixed, colours flying and band playing,
after which a reception was held at The Convent. The following day, Sunday 1st March 2009, the monument was unveiled by the
Chief Minister of Gibraltar, The Honourable Peter Caruana QC,
and in the evening a special concert was staged by the Band of the Royal
Marines, Scotland, under the direction of
Lt.Col. Chris Davis OBE, BA(Hons), MMus., DMA, LRAM, RM, the Principal Director
of Music, Royal Marines, at St.Michael’s Cave.
Pictured (left to right): The Band of the Royal
Marines, Scotland, reach the gates of The Convent; The Hon. Peter Caruana QC,
Chief Minister of Gibraltar, speaking just prior to unveiling the monument;
Members of the Royal Marines Association assemble at the newly unveiled
monument.

A
Cambridge college has found itself at the
centre of controversy after choosing a colonial theme for this year’s May
Ball. Emmanuel College is holding its annual
black-tie event in celebration of the British Empire. Organisers promise
guests a trip through the Indian Raj, Australia, the West Indies and Hong Kong as they celebrate
“the Victorian commonwealth and all its decadences”. In its
advertising, the ball’s organisers write: “The British Empire was the biggest empire
ever, bar none. They say that the sun never set on the British Empire - but at the Empire Ball
you’ll be wishing it never rises. We invite you to celebrate the Pax
Britannica and party like it’s 1899”.
-
Daily Telegraph, February 10, 2009

Royal
Navy sailors killed three pirates off the Somalia coast yesterday in the
first incident of lethal action being taken by the British against the growing
problem. It was believed to have been the first time that the Navy had taken
lives at sea since the Falklands War and possibly the first pirates it had
killed in centuries. Fast sea boats from the frigate Cumberland were launched after a
dhow refused to stop when it was identified as being involved in an earlier hijack
attempt on a Danish ship. When the ratings from the Type 22 frigate began
circling the dhow, the pirates opened fire on them. In an intense exchange of
fire, two Somalis were killed by machine guns firing from the Navy boats. Cowed
by the gunfire, the dhow crew surrendered. The sailors boarded the boat and
found two bodies and a seriously injured Yemeni pirate. He was treated by the Cumberland’s doctor but died
from his wounds.
- Daily Telegraph, November 13, 2008
The Gibraltar Chronicle
has an article on its website today saying that Jorge Argüello,
Argentina’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, is the new Chairman
of the UN Fourth Committee, the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee.
The Gibraltar Chronicle describes him
as a "hawk" over the Falklands, and says that "He is one of the last people Gibraltar –
less still the Falklands – would have hoped to have seen nominated". The Gibraltar Chronicle says that
Gibraltar Prime Minister Peter Caruana and Opposition Leader Joe Bossano will
face Argüello in two weeks time at the UN.
- report sent by PPR, September 20, 2008

More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the
streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious
"Black Ops" over the past two years. It is understood that while the
majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly
members of the organisation known as "al-Qa'eda in Iraq" have been
killed by the SAS. The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called "Task
Force Black" which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the
SAS. The prime targets have been those intent on joining the wave of suicide
car bombers that claimed around 3,000 lives a month in Baghdad at the height of
the terrorist campaign in 2006. Using intelligence gleaned from spies and
informers, Task Force Black has nearly broken the back of the terrorist network
and reduced bombings in Baghdad from about 150 a month to just two. A senior
British officer told The Sunday Telegraph: "We took over 3,500
terrorists off the streets of Baghdad in around 18 months. "You could say
it was a very successful period. But the butcher's bill was high. The attrition
rate is equivalent to that experienced by the SAS during the Malayan insurgency
50 years ago.
- Sunday Telegraph, August 31, 2008

The
commander of British troops in Afghanistan has said that aggressive
tactics by special forces had “decapitated” the Taliban leadership.
He said the war had reached a “tipping point”. Brig. Mark
Carleton-Smith said the new “Reaper” aerial combat drones and commando
raids had killed scores of insurgency leaders and disrupted links between the
Taliban and their allies in Pakistan. “I can therefore judge the Taliban
insurgency a failure at the moment,” said Brig. Carleton-Smith, 44.
“We have reached the tipping point.” But it is the “very
effective targeted decapitation operations” that have removed
“several echelons of commanders” that have left the insurgents on
the brink of defeat, the head of Task Force Helmand said. “The Taliban
are much weaker,” he said. “The tide is clearly ebbing not flowing
for them. Their chain of command is disrupted and they are short of weapons and
ammunition.” The killing of Mullah Dadullah, the Taliban chief, last year
was “a seminal moment in dislocating” their operation, he said.
- Daily Telegraph, June 2, 2008

As regards news from Gibraltar, you
may have heard that action in the local Algeciras courts by an environmental
group has made it dangerous for our Chief Minister to cross the border
into Spain, as he is accused of being partly responsible for not dealing
speedily enough with the environmental threat of the "New
Flame", a foreign ship that ran aground off Europa Point. The real issue
is that the Algeciras
Court has
apparently ruled that the Chief Minister has a case to answer in a Spanish Court, since the vessel is in Spanish territorial waters though
less than a mile from land! Zapatero's socialist government, which has so far
been unrecognisably fair to Gibraltar, will have to do something about this embarrassment, which
could wreck the tripartite talks (UK, Gib and Spain) on restoring normality. The villain of the piece is La
Linea Mayor Juarez, who has brought the charges and made them personal to Peter
Caruana. There's one born every moment! HMG will, it is expected, stand
very firm on this one; and since Gibraltar has no navy, we may
yet have to invoke the spirit of Horatio Nelson, your hero.
- report sent by MXS, March 31, 2008

Hero Prince Harry rescued underfire
comrades in Afghanistan by calling in bomber jets using the anonymous call sign
Widow Six-Seven, The Sun can reveal.
Acting as an emergency air controller, Harry helped crush a Taliban attack and
kill about 30 enemy fanatics. The young prince also saw off an enemy raid on
his tiny lookout post by leaping on to a heavy machine gun and blasting the
rebels away. It was the first time he had ever used the fearsome weapon. Harry
sent bursts of fire across 550 yards of no-man’s land - with only distant
puffs of smoke from enemy rifles to serve as his target.
- The Sun, February 29, 2008
Australia
Day (January 26th) was marked by several events in London in 2008. New Britain staged their traditional
ceremony at the bust of Admiral Arthur Phillip (the founder of Sydney and the
first Governor of Australia) in the City of London, where a floral tribute
was laid by Mr. Dennis Delderfield, the National Chairman of the organisation.
The Australian National Anthem was then sung, before a march headed by an
Australian flag-bearer set off for the near-by St.Katherine Cree Church where a special service
to mark Australia Day was held. Throughout the day special Australia Day celebrations
were also held at the Australian-themed Walkabout
pub near Temple which was attended by an
estimated 2000 people - most adorned with the REAL Australian flag! The
Australian National Anthem was constantly played throughout the evening - as
well as the New Zealand National Anthem at the end of the night! Apart from
masses of expat Australians and New Zealanders and the inevitable
“Pommies”, there were also a number of South Africans and at least
one South-West African present at this crowded event - thus confirming the
continuing friendship and unity between the pan-British people around the
globe.
Pictures [from left to right]: a
few of the people attending New Britain’s
ceremony at the bust of Admiral Arthur Phillip; Mr. Dennis Delderfield laying
the floral tribute at the bust; revellers at the Walkabout Australia Day celebrations later during the evening.

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A battalion
of soldiers received a heroes' welcome last night after a six-month tour of
duty in Iraq. Their
families cheered as the 160 men from the 1Bn Royal Horse Artillery arrived at
Tidworth Camp, Wiltshire. Lance Bombardier Chris Sweeney, 25, hugged his wife
Abbie, 30, and their 18-month old twins Bethany and Sophia. L/Bdr Sweeney,
from Nuneaton, Warks, said: "We were
guarding the guns 24/7 and sometimes it was up to fifty degrees. It was
awful, but that's the job we are doing." Half the battalion performed
strike and search operations south of Basra, while the
rest of the troops were sent to Az Zubayr in southern Iraq. Alex Gray,
the captain, said: "We killed 18 insurgents without losing one of our
own. The younger lads did very well. They did their jobs and were very
brave."
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- Daily Telegraph, November 29, 2007

A recent disclosure by a former
British chief of the defence staff about discussions concerning a possible
military intervention in Zimbabwe with Tony Blair has been taken up by the
Zimbabwean regime as 'proof' of 'British sinister motives'. General Sir Charles
Guthrie, who served between 1997 and 2001 and was later ennobled, mentioned
such a discussion and said his advice to the former British Prime Minister was
to "hold hard, you'll make it worse". Now George Charamba, President
Robert Mugabe's spokesman, claimed that Zimbabwe had deployed troops to combat a possible British
"invasion" and also accused Gordon Brown of trying to assassinate key
members of the regime. He added that only Britain's fear of the firepower of
Mugabe's forces had averted the invasion 'because of the combat power of our
army, drawn "from the finest elements of different military
traditions"......Observers have pointed out that Zimbabwe's
hyperinflation has left the Mugabe regime unable to feed its troops, let alone
deploy them in battle. One pilot who fled to South Africa told how Zimbabwe's once effective air force is all but grounded.
- Southern Cross Africa News, November 25, 2007

According to Mark Gevisser, the
latest biographer of “new” South African president Thabo Mbeki, the
ANC leader and his agents are actively canvassing support for him to win yet
another term as party chief. Asked why Mbeki seemed so desperate to cling to
the ANC's leadership, Gevisser said: "Why? I can only speculate. Firstly,
[because] he doesn't believe his work is done; and then, he has actually been
in control for 15 years. That doesn't mean that he thinks the country is his
personal property. But 15 years is a very long time, combined with a certain
power. Not necessarily to abuse, but the power to change things. Thirdly, and I
think perhaps the most important, is that he and the people in his circle who
are insisting that he should make himself available as president, honestly
believe that a Zuma presidency would turn South Africa into another
neo-colonial African basket case."
- Southern Cross Africa News, November 19, 2007

Iraqi army
officers in Basra are preparing
to make a desperate plea for the return of British troops to patrolling the city
to stem rising sectarian killings and political violence. Up to 40 people are
being killed each day in Iraq's second
city, say officers who have set a two-week deadline for security to be improved
before they approach the British for help. The Iraqis say that unless the rate
of killings can be curtailed, they will have no choice but to call in British
forces, at present confined to an airfield on the outskirts of Basra, to resume
their previous role. "We can't control Basra any
more," said one Iraqi colonel, who disclosed that political divisions were
leading to bloodshed even within the ranks of the army. "Our forces in the
streets don't obey us - they obey their parties." He described a recent
outbreak of fighting at a checkpoint manned by troops from rival Shia political
factions. One of the soldiers was shot. Neighbourhoods in Basra have been
divided between the two factions and another Shia grouping, the Al Fadila
party, according to the officer, who also pointed to continuing sectarian
killings of Sunnis, a minority group in the south. He and his colleagues
resolved last week to seek British help if the violence continued unabated.
"We stand between two fires," he said. "The first is the shame
of telling the British that we need help, because the people will consider us
as losers. The second is the number of the dead people? We have drawn up a plan
to try to make the situation good in two weeks. If we can't do it we will ask
for help from the British before another 1,000 soldiers leave Iraq. If there are
no British left, we will be executed by the militias." Sunni Muslims in Basra are also
mourning the absence of British patrols. Ahmed al-Dulaimy, a member of the
Sunni Islamic party, told of more than 50 people killed by Shia militiamen in
Al Zubair city and Abu Al Khaseeb after being kidnapped at checkpoints manned
by Iraqi security forces. "The British were watching the checkpoints to
stop the kidnapping and killings, but now the Shia militia do what they want to
do and no one can stop them," he said. Major Mike Shearer, the British
military spokesman in Basra, insisted
that the security situation in the city was showing signs of improvement.
"We don't patrol in the city but we still use it as a transit route to
other operations," he said. "We have done this without any shots
being fired at us." Asked if British forces would countenance returning to
the centre of Basra if asked to
do so by Iraqi security forces, he said: "We will go into the centre of Basra if we are
invited to do so, and if we feel it is necessary. We are still responsible for
the security in Basra but we don't
really need an invitation."
- Sunday Telegraph, October 7, 2007

Argentina has reacted furiously to plans by Britain to lay claim to vast new tracts of potentially oil and
gas-rich territories in the seas off the Falklands. In a
move likely to add new heat to the long-running diplomatic dispute, British
officials are preparing to submit a bid to the United Nations to prove that
thousands of extra square miles of the surrounding ocean floor are
geographically part of the islands. The claim follows a new approach in
international law which holds that a nation's legitimately-held territory can
extend up to 350 miles from its coast, if it can verify that it is part of the
shoreline's underlying continental shelf. In the case of the Falklands, that
could extend the zone of British exploration rights on the seabed well beyond
its existing 200-mile boundary. Britain's application is being filed to the UN Commission on the
Limits of the Continental Shelf, that has asked for all such claims to be
submitted for consideration by May 2009. Downing Street is
also putting in bids for territories around Ascension Island
in the mid-Atlantic, and Rockall, a tiny pinnacle more than 200 miles west of
the Hebrides. The bid on the Falklands has been prompted by British interest in the possibility of
huge oil, gas and mineral deposits thought to lie deep beneath the South Atlantic.
Last night the Foreign Office insisted there was no certainty that the bid,
being prepared by the UK Hydrographic Office, would go ahead. "We are
considering the possibility of making a submission to the UN Commission on the
Limits of the Continental Shelf, but no firm decision has been taken yet,"
said a spokesman. However, Mike Summers, spokesman for the Falkland Islands
Legislative Council, told The Sunday
Telegraph that the studies had been under way for several years.
- Sunday Telegraph, September 23, 2007

Greeted by hundreds of admirers and
bouquets of flowers, Queen Elizabeth II strolled past thatched-roof houses in
historic Jamestown Friday in a visit that evoked both the U.S. colonial past and the early years of her own reign. The
monarch's visit marked the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown by English settlers who sailed for five months across the Atlantic in
search of gold and silver. Despite travails including a scarcity of food and
clean water, the colonists established the first permanent British settlement
in North America and named it after King James I. The Queen, wearing a teal
coat and matching hat, was joined by Vice-President Dick Cheney as she toured
houses and a church created as replicas of buildings from 1607 settlement. The
Queen also viewed rusted armor and other original items at an archeological
site. For some Virginians old enough to have been in the area in 1957, the
excitement around the visit brought a sense of deja vu. Queen Elizabeth, then a
young mother who had assumed the throne just five years earlier, came to Jamestown for its 350th anniversary as well. "Everyone thought
she was so beautiful and charming," said Sarah Watkins Williams, who was
12 at the time. But she added, "I think it's even more exciting to see her
this time." Williams, 62, and Hugh DeSemper, 80, watched Thursday evening
as a horse-drawn carriage took the queen through the historic area of Williamsburg, Virginia. Both saw her go by in a similar procession when the Queen
was just 31. But one difference they noticed was the much higher level of
security. While many of the events 50 years ago were open to the public, the
Queen's audiences this time have been much more restricted-a limitation that
annoyed some tourists who hoped to see Queen Elizabeth in person. Bob Buettner,
55, and his wife and daughter did not get to see the carriage ride despite
waiting for two hours. "We kept asking people when she was going to arrive
but no one would give us a straight answer. I think because of security they
were so secretive about it," said Buettner. In addition to Cheney and
retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the Jamestown visit included volunteers for the settlement's historic
society and several reporters. Virginia held a lottery to pick members of the public who could join
the Queen on her walk around the state capitol building in Richmond Thursday, although people were allowed to sit on the lawn on
blankets and watch from afar. Many were not deterred by the tight security and
long waits, including
11-year-old Tristan Terrell, who was visiting Williamsburg on a tour organized by her school in Alabama. "She's got a million outfits," Terrell said,
adding it was "really cool" that Queen Elizabeth had travelled so
far. The school group was on its way to try to see the Queen at the
Williamsburg Governor's Palace, a reconstruction of a colonial-era building
where Thomas Jefferson once lived. The Queen said later said she was moved by
the Jamestown archeological site that allowed her to imagine
"something of the experience of those early settlers when they first made
landfall on the James River."
- report sent by Bob Vinnicombe, Sydney, Australia, May 5, 2007

Veterans
of the Falklands Islands Defence Force march through Port Stanley to commemorate their role in the
Falklands War after a ceremony on 2nd April 2007.
- Daily Telegraph, April
3, 2007

As unlikely as it sounds, the people
of Yaohnanen and surrounding villages worship 85-year-old Prince Philip as a
God. They believe him to be the son of an ancient spirit who inhabits a nearby
mountain, on the island of Tanna. Despite worshipping the Prince for half a century, the
villagers - all of whom are illiterate - only learnt recently that his birthday
falls on June 10. Ambitious plans are now underway to celebrate the occasion
this year. There will be dancing and a feast. Chief Jack Naiva has acquired an
immaculate Union Flag, which will be run up a flagpole and saluted. But the
celebrations will only really be complete if Prince Philip himself turns up,
say the tribe’s people. "You must tell King Philip that I'm getting
old and I want him to come and visit me before I die," said the
white-haired chief, who thinks he is about 80. "If he can't come perhaps
he could send us something: a Land Rover, bags of rice or a little money."
Determining exactly how these people came to believe in the Prince's divinity
is very difficult. It appears that at some point in the 1950s, they melded
Christian beliefs in a returning messiah with the respect accorded His Royal
Highness by the British authorities in what was then the colony of New Hebrides.
Their veneration of the Prince fitted comfortably with an ancient prophecy that
a Tanna man would venture far away in search of a powerful woman to marry. The
Prince's cult-like status received a boost when he paid a state visit to the New Hebrides in
1971, resplendent in a white naval uniform as he and the Queen steamed into the
capital, Port Vila. It continued to flourish even after “Vanuatu” was granted independence by Britain and France in 1980. The Prince is well aware that he is the subject of
distant adoration. He has allowed his framed portraits to be sent to Chief Jack
and the band of believers. The first, a black and white print now badly damaged
by damp, appears to date from the early 1960s. The second, which shows the
Prince holding a traditional "nal-nal" club, is dated 1980, while the
most recent was sent in 2000. Correspondence from Buckingham Palace was also highly prized by the tribe, but humidity and
nibbling mice have long since destroyed it. London may be half a world away from this obscure corner of Melanesia, but
villagers say the spirit of Prince Philip is close. "We can't see him, but
sometimes we hear his voice," said Chief Jack. He knows that Prince Philip
is, like him, in the twilight of his life, but Chief Jack is unfazed, believing
the Prince may be immortal. If not, the villagers might switch their allegiance
to Prince Charles or his sons. "We don't know where England is but we know he lives there and he has four children:
Charlie, Andrew, Edward and Anna [sic]," said Jimmy Nipil, a tribe member
in his thirties. "We believe England is a very special place."
- Daily Telegraph, February 19, 2007

A UK soldier killed in an explosion in southern Afghanistan has been named as Lance Bombardier James Dwyer of 29
Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery. The 22-year-old was killed on Wednesday
when his vehicle hit an anti-tank mine during a reconnaissance mission in
desert south of Garmsir, Helmand. Another serviceman was seriously hurt while two sustained
minor injuries. The seriously injured man had been operated on and was
"doing well", a Royal Marines spokesman said. Lance Bombardier Dwyer,
born and raised in South Africa, was described as a "professionally outstanding soldier".
Known as "Doobs" to his friends and colleagues, he joined the Army in
July 2003, and joined the 29 Regiment in June 2004. The MoD described him as a
"bright and intelligent young man with an infectious sense of
humour". It added he has a "passion for travel" and was an
"enthusiastic sportsman". "Very much a family man, he spoke
often of home and was especially close to his sister, also a serving soldier in
the British Army," it said. "He had proven himself a versatile and
dedicated soldier whilst deployed on exercises both in the UK and Norway, as well as on operations in Afghanistan." Lance Bombardier Dwyer's commanding officer,
Lieutenant Colonel Neil Wilson, said he "displayed all the characteristics
of a commando soldier". "He was extremely popular within the regiment
and undoubtedly would have progressed through the ranks rapidly. "James
will be missed sorely by all members of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery,
and our thoughts and condolences go to his family and friends at this very difficult
time," he said. The Plymouth-based 29 regiment is the Close Support
Artillery Regiment that supports 3 Commando Brigade Royal Marines.
- report sent by DDN, Arizona, USA, January 6, 2007

British troops
carried out a dramatic three-pronged attack on insurgents in Basra yesterday in
the biggest strike operation since the invasion of Iraq. Five
top-level terrorists were arrested, and a number of bombs - just 48 hours away
from being planted - were found in the dawn swoop. In a set-piece assault, more
than 1,000 soldiers in tanks, armoured vehicles and boats carried out
simultaneous raids into one of the toughest areas of Basra at 3am. The assault into the densely populated Al
Harthah district was launched when an "armoured fist" of 28 Warrior
armoured vehicles carrying nearly 300 troops of the Duke of Lancaster's
Regiment and 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks stormed across the Qamart Ali
bridge. As soon as the Iraqis heard the armour approaching they opened fire
from the narrow alleyways and two-storey mud brick houses that honeycomb the
area, which is bordered on two sides by wide rivers. A barrage of
rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and small-arms fire rained down on the
tank column as it stormed across the bridge. American F15 fighter jets were
called in by RAF co-ordinators to conduct a low and fast fly-past of the Iraqi
position as a show of strength. Troops then returned fire with the tanks of
Egypt Squadron, 2 Royal Tank Regiment using their chain guns, and the soldiers
using machineguns and SA80 assault rifles to put down fire. "All the way
over the bridge we took incoming rounds but we punched our way through and got
to the other side without casualties," said an officer. "When we went
in there we knew they would be well protected but we did have the element of
surprise so they could not bring anything heavier to fire at us." As the
tanks provided heavy covering fire, the Warriors crossed the bridge with half
of them sweeping right and the other to the left. Confronted by the narrow alleyways
and darkness, the troops, equipped with night-vision goggles, leapt out of the
back of the Warriors to accompany specialist search teams from the Royal
Engineers. The troops entered two homes where they found AK47s, 12.7mm heavy
machineguns, which can penetrate light armour, and a number of artillery shells
strung together with detonator cable that are used to make deadly roadside
bombs. They also found 66mm rockets and RPGs. The two arrested gang leaders
were handcuffed, placed in the back of the Warriors and driven back for
questioning at the main British base in Basra Air Station, eight miles outside
the city. As the tanks fought their way across the bridge a flotilla of
high-speed landing craft carrying a company of infantry conducted a daring amphibious
raid on another corner of the district known for its tribal fighting and
criminality. More than 100 soldiers from the Staffordshire Regiment were taken
up the Shatt al Arab river in eight rigid raiders and two
offshore raiding craft. As the high-speed boats hit land the troops, while
under sporadic fire, waded ashore. They rapidly made their way to houses where
another two insurgents were detained. Inside the homes the troops discovered
arms and a number of "useful" documents. The suspects were handcuffed
and taken by boat back to the base at the Shatt al Arab hotel, close
to the spot where terrorists murdered four troops last month. As the raids from
the south- west and south-east took place, a large force of Scottish troops
accompanied by Danes attacked from the north. The company of 110 men from the
Black Watch in 20 armoured snatch Land Rovers with 250 men from the Danish
battalion in lightly armoured vehicles drove at speed into al Harthah. Without
a shot being fired they grabbed the fifth and final insurgent to be arrested.
Brig Tim Evans, the overall commander of the raid, deliberately deployed four
times the number of troops usually used for a strike operation to ensure that
none of the suspects got away. "If you strike at just one person another
four or five will disappear for months, so we decided to go in all at one
go," said Major Charlie Burbridge, the British military spokesman.
- Daily Telegraph, December 9, 2006

There was a
vivid moment a couple of years ago during the first stage of the British
intervention to support the struggling government of Sierra Leone. Its prime
minister asked a visiting British politician, in the presence of journalists,
if it might be possible for his country to become part of the British
Empire again. Most of those present believed that the Sierra Leonese
leader was serious. The problems of African societies are so huge, so
deep-rooted, that the few honest and decent politicians despair. They grasp at
any straw to rescue their countries. It is a tragic spectacle and few experts
see a way out. When the West does intervene in any African society, it is
essential to stay for at least 10 years or more to have any hope of making
lasting progress. The Americans failed miserably in Somalia a decade ago,
because they treated it as a short term problem. The British Army training team
in Sierra Leone has done a
good job, but the lasting need is for civil assistance - to teach people to
collect taxes, administer courts and run infrastructure projects. We are
talking, of course, about something embarrassingly close to neo-colonialism.
Many Africans would be delighted if there was more of it about.
- Daily Mail, November 22, 2006

The
Rock of Gibraltar, home to 500 footballers and 160 Barbary apes, is heading into
next season’s UEFA Cup and eventual inclusion in qualifying for Euro
2012, following a landmark ruling in Lausanne. Not since the
Gibraltarian national side drew 2-2 with Real Madrid in 1949 have the people of
the Rock celebrated such an extraordinary result as the one just achieved in a
courtroom, a victory that paves the way to become the 53rd member of
UEFA. Gibraltar is one of the world’s oldest footballing countries,
boasting a national side formed 105 years ago and the planet’s sixth most
ancient FA (offices open every Monday to Friday, from 6-7pm) It is also tiny,
affiliated to Great Britain (and the FA) and coveted by Spain. Backed by the UK
Government, and bitterly resisted by the Spanish, Gibraltar appealed to the Court of
Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that UEFA had no right to deny their application to
sit at European football’s high table. The CAS agreed.
- Daily Telegraph, September 7, 2006

The
Falkland
Islands are bidding to become a holiday “hot spot” with the
introduction of direct civilian flights from Britain. The service is to be
brought in to break an air blockade imposed by Argentina in an effort to bring
diplomatic pressure on the islands. The new air link to Britain is expected to create a
huge boost for the Falklands’ tourism sector, which is built
around the islands’ abundance of wildlife, their unspoilt landscapes and
their position as a setting-off point for ships cruising Antarctica.
- Sunday Telegraph, August 13, 2006

In 2000 Jeff Rense published an
article by an American, Gordon Frisch, who has travelled and lived extensively
in Africa. He suggested using mercenaries to stabilise Africa and for
African nations to then invite back the former colonial powers in a new
semi-colonial arrangement. Cliff Saunders explained that in his travels across Africa he is
convinced that re-colonisation is the ONLY solution to the mess in which Africa is now in.
He explained that the infrastructure of Africa which was
inherited after colonial rule has been totally destroyed.
- Weekly African Crisis Report, April 30, 2006

Allegations
made against White farmers and safari operators, who are supposed to have been
plotting to undermine President Levy Mwanawasa in the country's upcoming
elections, have been taken seriously by the Zambian government and are
officially being ‘investigated’. The president's office has accused
the White farmers and safari operators of working with an opposition party to
cause artificial food shortages ahead of elections later this year. Farmers and
safari operators rejected the accusations and threatened to take legal action
against Alfred Chipoya, a Mwanawasa aide who allegedly ‘unearthed’
the plot. According to a letter, dated April 3 and signed by Chipoya, four
White commercial farmers and safari operators attended a meeting organised by
the opposition Patriotic Front (PF).
At the meeting they resolved to mobilise the White community against
Mwanawasa.
- Southern Cross Africa News, April 29, 2006

Solomon Islanders, resentful of
Chinese influence in government, have raised much of Honiara's Chinatown to the ground, burning down
shops and forcing some families to jump from burning buildings. Violent
protests erupted on Tuesday after parliament elected a new Prime Minister,
Snyder Rini - whose opponents accuse him of corruption and of favouring Chinese
businessmen. In the aftermath Australia and New Zealand are sending extra troops to the nominally independent
islands to help restore peace. Some 280 Australian police are already in the country as part of a
regional force sent to restore peace in 2003.
- Southern Cross Africa News, April 20, 2006

Gibraltar is in talks to create its own stock exchange. The
exchange, which would be called GibEx,
was dreamt up by local law firm Hassans
and Austrian-based bank Medici. They
are outlining plans to the authorities and the business community to create a
trading platform. Although the proposals are still at an early stage, it is
hoped that the Gibraltar Stock Exchange would attract primary and secondary
listings, and particularly the listing of mutual and investment funds. Other areas
that could be developed are for debt instruments, e-commerce and mezzanine
financing. Forty-nine insurance businesses are licensed in Gibraltar, including Admiral - the motor insurer quoted on
the London Stock Exchange in the FTSE 250. It has also become the registered
home of major gaming operators such as blue-chip giant PartyGaming, 888 Holdings
and 32 Red, and 18 banks are licensed
there. Marcus Killick, chairman of the Financial Services Commission, said
“This is an exciting prospect for Gibraltar. We have been working
with the interested parties to ensure that an exchange, if it does happen, is
in line with international standards.” Guy Canessa, a spokesman from the
Gibraltarian government’s Finance Centre Department said that there was
government backing for the project.
- Daily Telegraph, April 10, 2006

The Queen
has been welcomed by cheering crowds in Australia after arriving for a five-day tour,
during which she will open the Commonwealth Games. Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Governor-General
Michael Jeffery - the Queen's representative in Australia - met her as she flew into Canberra. About 300 people shouted "God save the Queen" to
greet her and Prince Philip. The monarch's visit will include meeting
volunteers who fought bush fires in Canberra in 2003. The crowds at Fairbairn airport stood against crash
barriers and took pictures of the pair after they arrived in a British Airways
777 plane at 09.00 hrs local time on Sunday. The Queen, who wore a white
jacket, yellow skirt and matching hat, collected bouquets from well-wishers and
spoke to others. The Duke of Edinburgh also exchanged words with the crowd. The
centre-piece of the tour will be the opening of the Commonwealth Games in front
of thousands in Melbourne. During the ceremony, the Queen will read out her message of
welcome to the athletes, which has travelled to all 71 nations of the
Commonwealth Games Federation during the past 12 months.
- BBC.co.uk, March 12, 2006

British
soldiers are expected to be sent to the tiny state of Djibouti [formerly French
Somaliland] in the Horn of Africa for the first time to help America’s anti-terrorist
Operation Enduring Freedom. Defence officials and diplomats are said to be in
the advanced stages if discussions with the authorities in Djibouti, at the southern end of
the Red
Sea. The strategically vital enclave [next to the former British Somaliland].is the site of America’s only base on
African soil, with 1,500 soldiers based at headquarters in a former French
Foreign Legion base.
- Daily Telegraph, December 24, 2005

Racial
violence flared in Sydney yesterday in apparent
retaliation for earlier clashes in which a mob of 5,000 White youths chanted
abuse and attacked people of Middle Eastern origin. Anti-Muslim feeling has
been exacerbated by the Bali bombings, a series of gang rapes of
White women by men of Pakistani and Lebanese background and last month’s
counter-terrorism raids on Islamic militants in Melbourne and Sydney. White
youths accuse Lebanese men of looking for trouble in beach areas, intimidating
women in bikinis and picking fights. The violence was concentrated on Cronulla,
a southern suburb where rioting on Sunday led to more than 30 injuries and 16
arrests. Cronulla, a staunchly Anglo-Keltic area, attracts thousands of
trippers from the less salubrious western suburbs, a stronghold of the Middle
Eastern and Muslim communities, which number 300,000 out of the national
population of 20 million. On Sunday thousands of White youths congregated on
the beachfront to protest against an incident last week in which two lifeguards
– the epitome of White Australian culture – were beaten up by men
of Lebanese origin. Although peaceful at first, the demonstration was tinged
with racism from the start – one man had scrawled on his chest
“Mohammed was a camel-raping faggot”. The crowd chanted “No
more Lebs [Lebanese]” and sang Waltzing
Matilda.
- Daily Telegraph, December 13, 2005
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Representatives
from the Springbok Club and the London Swinton Circle about to lay
their wreaths at the Trafalgar Cemetery on the 200th anniversary
of the Battle of Trafalgar (21st October 2005).
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Mr. Denis King speaking about the historical significance of the Battle of Trafalgar at the beating retreat
ceremony at Parson’s Lodge Battery.
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The band of the Royal Gibraltar
Regiment beating retreat on the parade ground at Rosia
Bay on the 200th
anniversary of the Battle
of Trafalgar.
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The sea off Cape
Trafalgar on the 200th anniversary plus one day
of the Battle of
Trafalgar (22nd
October 2005).
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Members of the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society
visiting the Convent (the official residence of the Governor).
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On the balcony of the
Convent – including: the Marchioness de Lendinez (left), Mrs. Janet
Whitely (second from left) and Mr. Denis King (second from right).
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Massive
celebrations took place in Gibraltar throughout the period from 21st
to 30th October 2005 in order to mark the 200th
anniversary of the British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Both a joint London Swinton Circle and Springbok Club delegation and a party
from the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage
Society visited the Rock during this period, and participated in several
events commemorating this most important victory, which were orchestrated by
the Gibraltar Heritage Trust. On
Friday 21st October (the actual 200th anniversary of the
Battle of Trafalgar) representatives from the London Swinton Circle and the Springbok
Club laid wreaths at the graves of Capt. Thomas Norman and Lieut. William
Forster (the only two combatants from the Battle to be buried in marked
graves at the Trafalgar Cemetery in Gibraltar). Later during the day
the band of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment staged a Beating Retreat ceremony on
the parade ground at Rosia Bay, which was witnessed by specially invited guests
viewing from the ramparts of the over-looking Parson’s Lodge Battery,
which included the Governor of Gibraltar, Sir Francis Richards, military and
naval dignitaries, and representatives from the Gibraltar Heritage Trust, the London
Swinton Circle and the Springbok Club.
A short talk about the history of the build-up to the Battle of Trafalgar was given
at this ceremony by Mr. Denis King, and afterwards the Gibraltar Heritage Trust staged a special Bicentenary Dinner at
Parson’s Lodge. The following day, Saturday 22nd October, the Gibraltar Heritage Trust organised a
trip to Cape Trafalgar in Spain, again including
representatives from the London Swinton
Circle and the Springbok Club.
During the journey Mr. Denis King and Mr. Joe Desoisa gave expert commentaries
about the history of the rise of British naval power and the victory at
Trafalgar 200 years previously, before due respects were paid at Cape Trafalgar itself. On Monday 24th
October an official party of officials and members from the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society
arrived on the Rock, and after receiving an official welcome from Cdr. Joe
Ballantine and Mr. David Eveson of the Gibraltar
Heritage Trust, and enjoying a rendition of the Gibraltar national anthem
and other appropriate songs from Mr. Robin Willow of the London Swinton Circle (who had earlier sung at both the
wreath-laying ceremony and the Bicentenary Dinner) were treated to a riveting
talk by Mr. Richard Garcia about the development of regular maritime links
between Gibraltar and Great Britain in the aftermath of the Battle of
Trafalgar. The following day, Tuesday 25th October, a small party of
members of the Friends of Gibraltar
Heritage Society were most honoured to be given a conducted tour around the
Convent, the official residence of the Governor of Gibraltar. After
refreshments and a most elegant welcoming speech by Lady Richards (the wife of
the Governor), Mr. Denis King conducted a highly informative tour around the
Convent itself, its gardens, and the near-by King’s Chapel. On Wednesday
26th October members of the Friends
of Gibraltar Heritage Society laid wreaths at the Trafalgar Cemetery,
before visiting the Casemates Maritime Exhibition with Prof. Clive Finlayson
and enjoying a special Admiral Lord Nelson dinner at the Gibraltar
International Casino. On Friday 28th October a statue to Horatio
Nelson was unveiled at the Trafalgar Cemetery, and on Saturday 29th
October a Freedom of the City of Gibraltar parade was staged by the
Royal Navy. Finally, on Sunday 30th October, a special Battle of
Trafalgar Remembrance Service was conducted at the Trafalgar Cemetery, before the Royal Marines
Band performed a special concert at the St.Michael’s Caves.

The Duchess of Cornwall
arrived at Buckingham Palace last night wearing her
first royal tiara. The diamond head-piece, loaned to her by the Queen, was the
tiara previously worn by Queen Mary for the Delhi Durbar to celebrate the
coronation of King George V. It was last worn in 1947 by the Queen Mother for
an official visit to South Africa. The circle of
brilliant-cut diamonds mounted in gold and set in platinum was made by Garrards in 1911 and Queen Mary wore it
in Delhi to mark the start of King
George V's reign as King and Emperor of India. It was lent to the Queen Mother
for her visit to South Africa and remained with her,
but she is not believed to have worn it subsequently.
- Daily Telegraph, October 26, 2005

Muslims
who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia, as the government targeted
radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks. Prime Minister John
Howard and his ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown.
Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not
want to accept local values should “clear off”.
“Basically, people who don’t want to be Australians, and they
don’t want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then
they can basically clear off,” he said. Separately, Howard angered some
Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spies monitoring the
nation’s mosques.
- report sent by Nick Maine, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, October 19, 2005

Major
Colin Risso and Major John Perez MBE of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment have both
received awards in the latest Operational Honours List, published on 9
September, for their presence of mind whilst serving on operations last year.
Major Risso, Officer Commanding G Company, has been awarded the Military Cross
for the actions he took when his convoy came under attack in Afghanistan. Major Perez has been
awarded the American Bronze Star award for meritorious service on a high
intensity combat zone during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Major Colin Risso was
serving as the Plans Officer in the Combined Joint Task Force in Bagram, Afghanistan, when the convoy he was
travelling in came under heavy attack in a narrow wadi. Upon hearing that he
had been awarded the Military Cross Major Risso said “I am absolutely
overwhelmed at being awarded the Military Cross. It is good news for the Royal
Gibraltar Regiment and Gibraltar as well. I enjoyed working alongside
US forces and Afghanistan is a beautiful country.
However, the best reward has been the birth of my second child the day after I
arrived back home.” Major John Perez, Second in Command of the Royal
Gibraltar Regiment, has been awarded an American Bronze Star Award for his
outstanding service as a forward operator alongside American Forces in Iraq. He was the Officer
Commanding a 300-strong Coalition Military Advisory Team in a training camp North of Baghdad, under the constant
threat of bombardment and hostile action against Coalition forces who were
supporting the new Iraqi Army against the insurgency.
- MoD Press Release, September 9, 2005

The
Duke of York paid a surprise morale-boosting visit yesterday to British forces
serving in Iraq. He flew into Basra and travelled to Maysan
to meet troops from 1 Bn, the Staffordshire Regiment, and to visit memorials to
soldiers killed on their tour of duty. Later he visited a small contingent of
Royal Navy and Royal Marine reserves based at Umm Qasr.
- Sunday Telegraph, August 21, 2005

It
was a pivotal moment for the Allies, yet for more than 60 years no national
memorial existed in Britain to commemorate the Siege
of Malta. Today that will be rectified on the anniversary of Operation
Pedestal, the epic and ultimately successful attempt to run more than 80 Allied
ships past Axis bombers, u-boats and minefields to bring vital fuel and food to
the Mediterranean island under siege for three years, one of the most important
British victories of the Second World War. Prince Philip will lay a wreath at a
simple memorial, hewn from the granite of Gozo, the small island off Malta’s coast, donated by
Malta’s government to
commemorate the anniversary. Malta was strategically
critical, lying alone in a hostile Mediterranean, 800 miles from Gibraltar and Alexandria. If it fell, North Africa was likely to follow. For
three years it was the fulcrum on which the fate of the war balanced. More than
7,000 civilians and servicemen and women died during the siege, which saw Malta sustain some of the worst
bombing of the war. In Malta, those lost defending the
island are commemorated by the Siege Bell, a granite memorial unveiled by the
Queen in 1992. Yet despite the numbers of British military involved, no
national memorial had been erected in Britain until now. The memorial,
which stands outside All Hallows church near the Tower of London, was the idea of Fred
Jewett, now 82, who served as an able seaman in the destroyer Ashanti, escorting the supply
ships on Operation Pedestal. Serving alongside him was a young lieutenant-commander,
Terence Lewin, later Admiral of the Fleet and Chief of the Defence Staff, Lord
Lewin, who masterminded Britain’s victory in the Falklands conflict. Their
friendship survived the war and, in part, bought about the creation of the
memorial.
- Daily Telegraph, August 15, 2005

A
highly successful visit by Prince William, a good-humoured tour de force from
British Lions rugby fans, and the London bombings have rekindled
in New Zealand a sense of kindred with
“the mother country” unlike anything seen for years. A poll shows
that support for the monarchy has soared, a campaign to remove the Union Flag
from the national ensign is floundering, and the big spending rugby-following
Barmy Army gave the economy a huge mid-winter fillip. Only 27% now believe New Zealand should become a republic,
an opinion poll published this week showed. Although Helen Clark, the current
Labour prime minister, holds republican sympathies, she admitted that, like the
rest of the nation, she found Prince William utterly charming when he visited.
New Zealanders have felt a special affection for the prince since his first
visit with his parents at the age of nine months. They were flattered that it
was to be in their country that, on July 10, he carried out his first solo
official duties. When he bowed his head before Auckland’s war memorial to
lay a wreath in memory of New Zealand’s war dead, there
was an unspoken understanding that the nation was sharing his grief for those
who perished in the London bombings.
- news.telegraph, July 23, 2005

England wickets tumbled yesterday
in the other Ashes battle that began in the Iraqi desert. The first officially
backed encounter between an Australian and British regiment got under way in a
draining 55C at the Al Muthanna cricket ground, three miles south of Baghdad. The first of five
limited over matches for the “Desert Ashes” began on a coconut
matting pitch in front of local and international media hiding in the shade of
a Bedouin tent. The cricketers of the 2nd Australian Cavalry duly
dished out a drubbing to the unfortunate cavalrymen of the Light Dragoons. England responding to Australia’s 220 off 25 overs,
were 102 all out. The regiments, who form part of Task Force Eagle taking on
Iraqi insurgents, will play the matches on the first day of each Test. The
series has been backed with equipment from Cricket Australia and the England Cricket
Board.
- Daily Telegraph, July 22, 2005

As
the British Lions team flew into Auckland yesterday, New Zealanders
braced themselves for the promised invasion of up to 25,000 fans that will
follow. The city of Palmerston North, however, will be
pleading with them to stay permanently. When Sir Clive Woodward’s squad
play the local Manawatu side on June 28, a high-powered working party of
council leaders will swing into action. Supporters will be confronted by a
publicity campaign offering them jobs across a range of industries, and help
with emigration formalities. Palmerston North, population 72,000, is the
provincial centre of a farming region 90 miles north-east of the capital, Wellington. Named by 19th
century settlers in honour of the British Prime Minister Viscount Palmerston
and universally known to New Zealanders as “Palmy”, Palmerston
North is suffering from a crippling shortage of workers. “We are making
this a comprehensive effort to try to recruit skilled staff to a range of
businesses in the city where there are identified shortages,” explained
Heather Tanguay, the mayor. “We have thought up a slogan to greet the
Lions fans: ‘Move your pride to Palmy’.”
- Daily Telegraph, May 28, 2005

After a Kenyan
high court judge dropped murder charges against him, the grandson of one of Kenya's first White
settlers, Thomas Patrick Gilbert Cholmondeley, has been freed from jail, where
he had been held for weeks. Cholmondeley had reportedly shot and killed a Black
game park warden, who was among a group of wardens working ‘undercover’,
who had gone to his farm and detained his workers for allegedly skinning the
carcass of poached buffalo. Both Judge Muga Apondi and attorney-general Amos
Wako accepted that the farmer was under the impression that the warden was a
gangster, and that there wasn't enough evidence to prosecute. Cholmondeley's
prominence and history had drawn attention to the case. His grandfather, Lord
Delamare, was one of the first settlers in Kenya. Cholmondeley
also owns one of the biggest farms in Kenya. It produces
livestock for both meat and milk and is a leading Kenyan exporter of baby corn,
mainly to Britain and other
European countries. However, last
month a Maasai tribal leader accused the Cholmondeley's family of oppressing
his people for generations and threatened to lead an invasion of Cholmondeley's
farm in retaliation for the warden's death. The Maasai claim land occupied by Kenya's settlers and
their families was stolen from them in 1904, soon after Britain colonised the
country. Kenya gained
independence in 1963, but the Maasai say successive (Black) governments have
done nothing to address their grievances.
- Southern Cross Africa News, May 20, 2005

On
18th May 2005 the London Swinton Circle was addressed by Mr.
Peter Pepper, the former co-editor of the Falkland
Islands Newsletter, and a prominent member of the Falkland Islands Association. In a highly-informative talk Mr.
Pepper detailed the history of how the Wilson Labour government of the 1960s
had tried to sell-out the Falkland Islands, and then went on to emphasise how
similar this was to attempts by the Blair government to sell-out Gibraltar in
more recent years. He also gave a number of interesting insights into the thinking
and modus operandi of the Argentinians, and illustrated how there was great
potential for the Falkland Islands and its British link in the future.

A
British soldier who fought in Iraq is awarded the Victoria
Cross, the highest award for gallantry, today for saving dozens of comrades
during two incidents in which he was seriously wounded. Pte Johnson Beharry,
25, from Grenada is only the fourth Black
serviceman to win the award, instituted in 1865 to honour heroism in the Crimea. He was cited for his
actions during battles with Iraqi insurgents in the southern town of Amarah last summer. Pte Beharry,
of 1 Bn, the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment, first drove his burning
Warrior armoured vehicle through several ambushes to lead six vehicles, containing
several dozen troops, to safety. In the second incident, he was wounded in the
head during an ambush but managed to reverse the Warrior against a wall to
allow injured colleagues to be rescued. He then fell into a coma.
- Daily Telegraph, March 18, 2005

Britain has announced a
£3.5 million plan to revitalise Pitcairn Island, the far-flung south
Pacific colony. The island, which is half-way between New Zealand and South America, is home to only 47
people, but the authorities want to double the population. That would signal a
return to Pitcairn’s glory days at the start of the Second World War when
it boasted a population of 233. Leslie Jacques, Pitcairn’s New
Zealand-based commissioner, announced an investment bonanza yesterday after
years of neglect. The infrastructure upgrade will include construction of a new
slipway, jetty and breakwater in Bounty Bay, the island’s
lifeline to the outside world. The breakwater will shelter the bay from the
swells of the Pacific while the jetty will make it easier to load and unload
people and supplies. A mud track from the bay up the Hill of Difficulty to
Pitcairn’s main settlement, Adamstown, will be paved.
- Daily Telegraph, February 22, 2005

Terror [sic]
Lekota, “new” South African minister of defence, has complained
that there were only 144 young White recruits in the latest intake of the
“new” South African Defence Force, while over 300 White South
Africans joined the British defence force last year.
- Southern Cross Africa News, February 7, 2005

Gibraltar scored a diplomatic victory yesterday when it gained
equal status with Britain and Spain in securing a veto over
any talks on the colony’s future. Negotiations on sharing sovereignty
over the Rock collapsed in 2002 because of strong opposition from Gibraltar, which had boycotted the
talks in protest that it would be treated as subordinate to Britain. The old format of
negotiations under the “Brussels process” has been
effectively suspended and replaced with a “forum” for discussions.
According to a joint statement, “dialogue will be on an open-agenda basis
and, therefore, any of the participants may raise any issue relating to or
affecting Gibraltar”. Spain can still discuss
sovereignty but Gibraltar’s government can block any deal.
- Daily Telegraph, December 17, 2004

Nearly
30 years after Australia granted independence to Papua New Guinea, the former colonists are
back, and Australian police on Thursday began patrolling the streets of the
country’s crime-ridden capital, Port Moresby. They are part of an
ambitious five-year, £800million mission agreed with the government
which, it is hoped, will stamp out rampant crime and corruption. 275 police and
public officials are being deployed to PNG, which is on the brink of
economic and social meltdown. Australian civil servants have been placed in
senior positions in customs, the judiciary, the treasury and other government
departments. For decades Australia was sensitive to charges
of neo-colonialism and allowed its Pacific neighbours, many of them former
British colonies, to forge their own futures and make their own mistakes. The
increasingly parlous state of some island nations prompted a re-think. With Washington’s blessing, it has
become the South Pacific’s policeman. Canberra feared that unless it intervened
more actively in the region, failed or failing states could become havens for
drug traffickers, international criminals and terrorists. It was also anxious
to stop its massive aid contributions being squandered or pocketed by corrupt
officials. The mission’s first few days have been promising. Port Moresby, established in 1873 by a
British adventurer, Capt. John Moresby, commands spectacular views of the Coral Sea and a scattering of
idyllic islands. But the city is in crisis and two-thirds of the population
live in shanty towns and unemployment stands at around 70%. In the last two
years Australia has sent police and
public officials to the near-bankrupt island of Nauru and the former
Anglo-French colony of “Vanuatu”, once known as the
New
Hebrides. Fiji’s police force is
led by an Australian, as is the 16-nation Pacific Island Forum. There are
Australian police serving in East Timor, Bali and Jakarta. Last year an
Australian-led force of 2,200 troops and police restored law and order in the Solomon Islands. But the scale of the
crisis in PNG far outstrips those of other South Pacific countries.
- Daily Telegraph, December 4, 2004

Exposés
appearing on both sides of the Atlantic on the
mercenary group Executive Outcomes,
threaten to implicate British intelligence in what is described as the current
destabilization campaign of Black Africa on behalf of circles associated with
the Privy Council and US
President George Bush. According to the French daily Le Figaro, the London Observer and the American Magazine, Executive
Outcomes is the mercenary arm of a vast network of British-South African
corporations dealing in gold, diamonds, and oil, primarily, but not
exclusively, in Africa. They
allegedly came under the umbrella of Strategic
Resources Corporation, headquartered in Black-ruled South
Africa.
Described universally as an “advance guard of a corporate network that
includes mining, oil, and construction companies”, Executive Outcomes is active in 13 African countries, including Uganda. For its
services, it demands a lien or franchise on the exportable raw resources,
particularly mineral wealth, of the client country - in the same fashion as
colonial mercenary companies like the British
East India Company of the 18th and 19th centuries exploited native lands as
the “advance guard” of the British
Empire. Executive
Outcomes was reportedly incorporated offshore, on the Isle of
Man, in 1993, by Anthony Buckingham (a British
businessman), Simon Mann (a former British officer), and Eben Barlow (a former
South African soldier). Buckingham is also chief executive of Heritage Oil and Gas. Backed by US
Executive Order 12333, which placed all U.S.
intelligence operations under President Bush's personal control, Executive Outcomes has reportedly
thrived as “privatized warlords”. It was deeply enmeshed in wars in
Angola, Sierra
Leone, the Congo and Uganda. Now Executive Outcomes has been linked to
the British Special Air Services (SAS) too, through one of its sister-firms
operating out of Chelsea Plaza 107 - Capricorn
Systems Ltd. The Observer claimed
that the name Capricorn originates with the “Capricorn Africa
Society” established by the eccentric military hero who founded SAS, Sir
David Stirling, and that the company which took the first EO troops to Angola was called
CapricornAir.
- Southern Cross Africa News, November 3, 2004

Memorandum to a
cannibal - fascinating in-depth article by Anthony
LoBaido detailing the situation in present-day Sierra Leone.

Two
British sisters are to travel 435 miles down the River Niger in West Africa in a wooden canoe in an
attempt to retrace the steps of their ancestors. Emily Lander, 39, a property
developer and Megan Lander, 43, a television producer – who are both from
London – will set off next month to repeat the
adventures of their great-great-great grandfather and uncle more than 170 years
ago. Richard Lander and his brother, John, discovered the course and mouth of
the Niger in 1830. The finding was
of huge importance because it opened the area to world trade. He sisters, who
will travel in a specially built vessel similar to the one used by their
forebears, will have to cope with temperatures in excess of 90F, mosquitoes,
and other tropical hazards, during their month-long expedition. The sisters
said “Goodness knows what Richard and John would say if they could see
us, two middle-aged women paddling down the Niger in steaming weather.
It’s going to be quite a challenge.” Megan Lander added
“Richard Lander was only 30 when he died, but what he did in his lifetime
was really quite extraordinary. When I tell Nigerians I am related to Richard
Lander they start crying. It seems strange that in Britain nobody has ever heard of
him.” For centuries it was thought that the Niger was a tributary of the Nile. When the Lander brothers
discovered that the river executed a 90-degree turn south and flowed back
towards the Atlantic they had solved its mystery. The discovery opened a
lucrative trade route into west Africa and the brothers became household names
in parts of the region. Although their historical adventures feature
prominently on the school curriculum in Nigeria, the brothers have been
largely forgotten in Britain. The sisters’
expedition, which marks the 200th anniversary of Richard
Lander’s birth in 1804, has been organised by the British Police
Expeditions Society. Eleven other members of the society will join the sisters
in the canoe when they set out from New Bussa on November 2. The journey is
expected to end at the coastal town of Asaba four weeks later. Up to
nine hours a day will be spent in the 24ft canoe, designed by students at Falmouth College’s School of Boat
Building. The team will eat chicken and plantain, as the Landers did before
them. Richard Lander was born in the Fighting
Cocks pub in Truro, Cornwall, and was inspired by the
sailors’ tales he heard there. Aged nine, he walked 250 miles in London to find an explorer to
take him on. By the time he was 21 he had travelled most of the world. His
first journey to the River Niger, in 1825, ended when the crew was killed by
disease. Lander, the only survivor, spent seven months on foot before he found
the coast again. His return visit in 1829, with John Lander, was more
successful. The brothers paddled through storms, encountered hippos and
crocodiles and on one occasion were almost sucked into a whirlpool. Their
journals were translated into six languages and they enjoyed an audience with
King William IV. Richard Lander became the first recipient of the Royal Geographical Society’s Gold
Medal. In Truro a monument was built in his honour.
The Edinburgh Review described the
brothers’ discovery as “perhaps the most important discovery of the
present age”. The Industrial Revolution created demand for African palm
oil, which was used in soap, candles and as a lubricant for railway engines.
British traders and missionaries followed the Landers to Nigeria. Richard Lander was
killed in 1831, when he was ambushed by tribesmen as he led the first trade
expedition up the Niger. John Lander died in
1839. In Nigeria the expedition is front-page
news and a television station hopes to broadcast daily half-hour updates of
their progress. Megan Lander will film her own documentary of the trip, which
is expected to be broadcast on the National
Geographical Channel next year. Emily Lander added “It is time that
the British public knew who he was. He should be on the curriculum here too,
really.”
- Sunday Telegraph, October 17, 2004

Moeletsi
Mbeki’s judgment that “The average African is poorer than during
the age of colonisation” will be applauded from the grave by Henry
[Morton] Stanley. His missive (Letters,
Nov. 15, 1875) paved the way for the declaration of a protectorate over Uganda in 1894. The rushed
granting of independence in 1962 led to chaos. Mbeki’s assertion cuts
right across the denigration of our Imperial record by the liberal/Left over
the past 40 years. When have we heard Messrs. Blair or Straw counter this
process of denial and inculcation of false guilt? No other government would
have failed to support the brilliant Museum of the British Empire and Commonwealth in Bristol.
- Letter to the Daily Telegraph by Alan
Forward, September 28, 2004

Thabo
Mbeki’s denunciations of Western Imperialism were contradicted yesterday
by his brother, who said Africans had been better off under colonial rule.
Moeletsi Mbeki, head of the South African
Institute of International Affairs, told a meeting in Durban that Africa was in a spiral of
decline. “The average African is poorer than during the age of
colonialism,” the president’s younger brother said. He accused Africa’s post-colonial
rulers of neglecting development and wasting money on “enormous
entourages of civil servants”. He contrasted this with the record of
colonial governments who built the roads and cities that Africa depends on today.
Mr.Mbeki pointed out that China had lifted 400 million
people out of penury during the past 20 years, while over the same period 90
million Nigerians had fallen below the poverty line, despite their
country’s oil wealth. A United Nations report published in July found
that Africa was the only continent where most people were poorer than they were two
decades ago.
- Daily Telegraph, September 23, 2004

I
was thinking we should perhaps one time arrange for an exhibition on Indian
soldiers that fought for Britain in two world wars.
Although I am anti-colonialist British rule I have to admit had some positive
aspects to it like the fact we are speaking in English now. Indeed compared to
Islamic rule that preceded it, and the 50 years of Marxist corruption and lies
that followed independence, it was mild in comparison.
- message sent by M.M., Hampshire, August 13, 2004

When
Wilfred Thesiger died last year, Britain’s last great
explorer was spared the ordeal of witnessing disaster in his former home. For,
at the age of 24, Thesiger governed 50,000 square miles of Darfur when assistant district
commissioner in Kutum, Northern Dafur, between 1935 and 1937. Today,
124,000 refugees have overwhelmed Kutum, fleeing Janjaweed militia. In
Thesiger’s day, he ruled the area with one other Briton and 24 Sudanese
mounted policemen. Darfur enjoyed one of the few peaceful
periods in its history. Britain added Darfur to the Empire in 1916, 18
years after victory in the Battle of Omdurman had secured the Nile Valley. Four decades of peace
followed until Sudan became independent in 1956.
- Daily Telegraph, August 11, 2004

A
Victoria Cross holder who has lain in an unmarked grave in Ireland for almost a century was
finally recognised in a formal ceremony at the weekend. The Irish Defence
Minister and the British Ambassador to Ireland stood side by side as a
bugler sounded Last Post beside the
grave of Sgt.Major Cornelius Coughlan, who was decorated for valour during the
Indian Mutiny. The service in Westport, Co.Mayo, conducted by a
Roman Catholic priest and a Protestant clergyman, was a significant step by the
Irish state towards recognising the immense contribution made by Irishmen in
the service of the British Army. More than 200 people, including descendants of
the soldier, watched as 10 re-enactors dressed in the period costume of the
Connaught Rangers, Sgt.Major Coughlan’s old battalion, fired a volley of
shots over the graveyard. Saturday’s ceremony was the first time an Irish
politician formally recognised on Irish soil the sacrifices made by Irishmen in
the British Army. Despite local republican complaints the day marked a
substantial shift in Irish attitudes towards the past. The funeral last year of
Cpl. Ian Malone, an Irish Guardsman killed in the Iraq War, witnessed hundreds
of Irishmen for the first time proudly wearing their regimental blazers and
ties in Dublin. Memorials to the war dead are beginning to appear and the
recent Normandy landings anniversary
received front-page coverage, with many Irish veterans talking publicly about
their experiences. Sgt.Major Coughlan, born in Eyrecourt Co.Galway, was awarded
the VC after a series of heroic acts in India in 1857. At the height of
the Indian Mutiny, with all his officers of the Gordon Highlanders dead, the
then Colour Sgt. rallied the men and led a charge that took the Kabul Gate in Delhi. The NCO also rescued a
private under heavy fire. Queen Victoria felt moved to write a
personal letter to Sgt.Major Coughlan on hearing about his act of bravery.
- Daily Telegraph, August 9, 2004

The
reproductive capacity of the Barbary Ape of Gibraltar was, it appears, a matter
of supreme national importance in the corridors of power. A previously
confidential file released at the National Archives yesterday chronicles the
concern in government over the ape colony’s erratic breeding pattern, and
all for one very simple reason. Tradition has it that British rule would end if
the apes disappeared, a catastrophe that [Sir Winston] Churchill was not
prepared to countenance. His message to the Colonial Secretary was brief and to
the point. “The establishment of the apes should be 24,” he wrote,
“Action should be taken to bring them up to this number at once and
maintain it thereafter.”
Luckily for the Empire the apes did their duty and both colonies -
British and primate - survived. Joe, Harold and Hercules (three males at the
time of gender imbalance in 1967 when Franco threatened the Rock) did indeed
prove their worth and the colony grew. There are now no fewer than 160 apes on
the Rock. Well done Joe!
- Daily Telegraph, July 23,
2004

On
a hot, dirty-air day more suited to reclining in air-conditioned comfort than
marching through Central, more than 530,000 people marked the July 1 anniversary
of the handover by sending an unmistakable message to Chief Executive Tung
Chee-hwa and Beijing yesterday: Hong Kong wants democracy.
“We made history, this is much higher than expectations,” enthused
march organiser Jackie Hung of the Civil Human Rights Front. After a year in
which Beijing has tried everything from economic
sweeteners to harsh words to mute the spirit of dissent, Hong Kong people once again showed
their determination to live in a democracy. Whatever happens next, the second
successive July 1 half-million strong march is sure to reverberate widely here
and in Beijing. “The message is
very peaceful but the people are very determined,” lawmaker Emily Lau
said. “We want democracy.”
- report sent by JM, July 16, 2004

To a
bagpiper’s lament, the statue of a cat that was shot dead on Ernest
Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914 Antarctic expedition was placed on the grave
of its owner in New Zealand yesterday. The lifesize
bronze of “Mrs.” Chippy, a male tabby, was installed during a
ceremony in Karori Cemetery, Wellington, on the grave of Harry
“Chippy” McNeish, the Scottish-born carpenter of Shackleton’s
ship, the Endurance. The part McNeish
played in the crew’s epic struggle for survival after the ship was
crushed by ice is thought to have been unfairly overlooked. Leaving the Endurance stranded in the Weddell Sea in January 1915, the men
sailed in lifeboats to Elephant Island. Realising they had
little chance of rescue, Shackleton led a five-man team on to South Georgia. He returned to rescue his
men five months later. It was McNeish’s carpentry skills that ensured
Shackleton’s boat, the James Caid,
withstood the battering of some of the world’s roughest seas during its
800-mile journey to South Georgia.
- Daily
Telegraph, June 28, 2004

About
5,000 people took to Hong Kong's streets yesterday carrying banners
and placards in protest at Beijing's refusal to permit full
direct elections in 2007, when the next election of its chief executive is due.
The march also commemorated the 1989 pro-democracy movement and the Tiananmen Square massacre.
- Daily
Telegraph, May 31, 2004

Next
week, Ascension Island's council will discuss a plan to raise the population
to 1,500 (from 900) over the next few years by encouraging families to make
their homes here. A building programme is under way, with plots earmarked for
more than 20 houses. They will be the first on the island to be owned by
residents. The thing is, no one is quite sure how much they should cost. Land
is is hardly a problem, despite the island's size (35 square miles), and there
is now a full range of utilities. The trouble lies in the building materials,
which must be shipped 4,000 miles from the mother country. Still, Andrew
Kettlewell, the Yorkshire-born accountant who is the island's Administrator,
believes a single-storey, three-bedroomed house should cost no more than
£60,000 in total. Mr. Kettlewell, an employee of the Foreign Office, via
the government of the British dependency of St. Helena, said: "Virtually
all of the people on Ascension are there only because they are posted to the
island by their company, or because they are in the Services. We want to ensure
that Ascension continues to be a viable community, whether or not a particular
company comes or goes."
- Daily
Telegraph, April 5, 2004

Two
hundred Royal Engineers paraded at the base of the Rock of Gibraltar at the
start of events to mark 300 years of British rule. The regiment's forebear, The
Company of Soldier Artificers, was based there 300 years ago, building gun
emplacements and digging 32 miles of tunnels in the Rock.
- Sunday
Telegraph, March 21, 2004

A
service of thanksgiving was held at St.Clement Danes Church in the Strand on Tuesday March 3rd to
celebrate the tercentenary of Gibraltar becoming a British
possession. HRH the Duke of Kent represented HM the
Queen, and other dignitaries in attendance included Baroness Thatcher and
representatives of all the major political parties and the armed forces. The
Union Flag and the Gibraltar Flag were borne into the service by members of The
Royal Gibraltar Regiment. Lessons were read by Mr. Albert Poggio MBE, UK Representative of the
Government of Gibraltar, the Rt. Hon. Michael Howard, and Baroness Symonds,
Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. A stirring address
was given by Mr. Peter Caruana QC, the present Chief Minister of Gibraltar, in which he spoke of Gibraltar's determination to remain
part of the Great British Family. Solos were sung by two renowned Gibraltarian
singers, Nathan Payas (tenor) and Andrea Martin (soprano). After the service a
reception was held at the Savoy Hotel, at which keynote speeches were made by
Albert Poggio, the Mayor of Westminster and Peter Caruana, who emphasised that Gibraltar wanted nothing but
friendship with her neighbour Spain, but that this friendship
must be reciprocated. Also in attendance were the former Chief Minister of
Gibraltar Sir Bob Peliza, former Deputy Chief Minister Maurice Xiberras, the
Rt. Hon. Ian Duncan Smith MP, the Rev. Martin Smyth MP, Sir Nicholas Winterton
MP, Miss Sukey Cameron MBE, the UK Representative of the Falkland Islands
Government, and representatives of many pro-Gibraltar organisations including
the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society, the London Swinton Circle,
the Springbok Club and New Britain.
- report sent by
HKH, March 3, 2004

The
Royal Navy will be given the freedom of Gibraltar on August 4, the 300th
anniversary of the Rock's capture from the Spanish by an Anglo-Dutch force. It
allows the Navy to march through the city with swords drawn, bayonets fixed and
colours flying.
- Daily
Telegraph, February 10, 2004

A
quantity surveyor who plays for a Sunday league soccer side in Cambridge was celebrating an
unexpected World Cup call-up yesterday. Lawrence Harvey, 30, has been selected
for the Turks and Caicos Islands team to meet Haiti in next month's crucial
World Cup qualifier. He qualified to represent the Caribbean colony on the basis of
two years he spent working there. The central defender, who plays for Alcia
Athletic in the Halls of Cambridge Senior League, said he was thrilled by his
international call-up - two years after returning from the Caribbean.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 21, 2004

China has detained one of its
top officials in Hong Kong for spying for Britain. In the biggest espionage
scandal between the countries since the 1997 handover Cai Xiaohong, the
secretary general of the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Hong Kong, faces the death penalty
if convicted. "He sold state secrets to Britain," said a Chinese
government source. The British Embassy in Beijing declined to comment.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 17, 2004

Several
thousand British troops will remain in Iraq until at least 2006, Tony
Blair said yesterday during a surprise visit to forces stationed in the south
of the country. The Prime Minister congratulated the 8,215 servicemen and women
stationed in and around Basra for their
"brilliant" and "noble" work. He told them they were
"pioneers" of a new form of soldering that involved far more than
winning wars.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 5, 2004

At
a time when the French, Germans, Russians amd Japanese face dramatically
insuperable problems, Britain can claim to be, in combined military, economic
and cultural projection, the world's Number Two power.
- Mark Steyn,
writing in the Sunday Telegraph, January 4, 2004

Thousands
of people thronged the streets of Hong Kong yesterday to demand
direct elections at the start of what may be the former colony's most decisive
year yet since its handover to China. Organisers of the march
said 100,000 people had paraded through the commercial and political centre
shouting "We demand more democracy". The protest leader, Richard Tsoi
of the Civil Human Rights Front, referred to the abandonment of
anti-subversion legislation after protests in the summer. Pro-democracy parties
want to maintain the momentum of the summer protests and November's local
elections, in which Beijing's representatives were
heavily defeated. Their next aim is a convincing victory in September's
elections for the legislative council which could theoretically give them a
majority and the power to block laws proposed by the Beijing-appointed chief
executive. Mr. Tsoi, along with the leading democratic parties in Hong Kong, is demanding a swift
move to full elections for the legislative council and the chief executive.
Currently the chief executive, equivalent to the colonial governor, is chosen
by China's government.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 2, 2004

Denis
MacShane, the Foreign Office minister, yesterday told the House of Commons that
the Princess Royal would visit Gibraltar next year "to
represent all of us. It is a very important anniversary of the occupation by a
combined Dutch and British fleet during the Spanish War of Succession, during a
time when France was trying to dictate its
will to Spain and we stoutly
resisted." Britain captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 and was then
formally ceded the territory in the Treaty of Utrecht nine years later. The
celebrations will have a prominently military tone. The Royal Engineers will
Beat Retreat on the 75th anniversary of the opening of their base there, while
the Royal Navy will be granted the freedom of Gibraltar. Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter
Caruana, said "We are extremely happy that the Royal Family, for whom
there is an enormous store of affection in Gibraltar, will join us in
celebrating our 300-year sovereignty links with Britain."
- Daily
Telegraph, December 17, 2003

Pro-democracy
parties claimed last night that they had made major gains in the Hong Kong elections after record
numbers of voters went to the polls. After several hours of counting, the Democratic
Party said it had won 95 of the 120 wards it contested, 20 more than it has
now. Several members of the main pro-Beijing party, the "Democratic
Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong" [sic] were heavily defeated in key wards.
"The Democratic Party is a big winner. The people are giving the
message they want more democratic reforms and they are punishing the government
for not heeding their voice", said Inan Choy, a politics professor at Hong Kong's City University. The increase in seats
for Democratic Party and other anti-government candidates is certain to
lead to more pressure on Tung Chee-hwa, the chief executive, to introduce
constitutional reform.
- Daily
Telegraph, November 24, 2003

Yesterday,
at the Banqueting Hall - the same building in which the Religious Right of the
17th century struck history's first blow against the divine right of kings by
cutting off the head of Charles I - President George W. Bush delivered a grim
warning to the tyrants of the Middle East.
- David Frum,
writing in the Daily Telegraph, November 20, 2003

A
plan to build a memorial in the Irish Republic to a 13-year-old boy,
thought to have been the youngest soldier to die in the First World War, is
being opposed as "imperialist" by republican objectors. John Condon,
from Ballybricken, near Waterford, lied about his age to
join the British Army and was killed during the second battle of Ypres in 1915. For decades the
Irish largely ignored the deaths of 60,000 of their countrymen in the two world
wars. The funeral of Cpl. Ian Malone, an Irish Guardsman from Dublin killed in Basra this year, appeared to
mark a turning point. Hundreds of serving and former servicemen openly wore
British Army medals. But Waterford county council's plan for
a "peace memorial" dedicated to Pte. Condon and all Irish war dead is
abhorrent to members of the Workers' Party, the successor to Official Sinn
Fein. John Condon, 70, the soldier's nephew, said "It will mean
everything, having a memorial, not just for John but for all his mates. It is
hoped that, despite the objections, planning permission will be granted next
month for the bronze sculpture of four soldiers.
- Daily
Telegraph, November 12, 2003

God
put Bush in charge, says the general hunting bin Laden. Lt.Gen. William
"Gerry" Boykin, the newly promoted deputy under-secretary of state of
defence for intelligence, has repeatedly told Christian groups and prayer
meetings that President George W. Bush was chosen by God to lead the global fight
against Satan. Gen. Boykin, a 13-year member of Delta Force, the top-secret
commando unit modelled on the SAS, was promoted this summer, with
responsibility for speeding the flow of top-secret intelligence to commandos
hunting bin Laden and other high-value targets.
- Daily
Telegraph, October 17, 2003

Villagers
in Fiji whose ancestors killed
and ate a British missionary 136 years ago are to offer a traditional apology
to his descendants. The Rev. Thomas Baker, of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, was killed in the remote
mountain community of Navatusila in 1867, possibly after he took a comb out of
the chief's hair. Touching the head of a chief was taboo in Fiji, once known as the
Cannibal Isles. Mr. Baker, from Playden, Sussex, is the only European to
have been cooked and eaten in Fiji. The people of Navatusila
want to atone for the sins of their ancestors because they believe they have
been cursed by Mr. Baker's death, with their village suffering a string of
misfortunes. The chief of the village, on the island of Viti Levu, has invited the
missionary's descendants in Britain to attend next month's
ceremony.
- Daily
Telegraph, October 15, 2003

Tens
of thousands of people demonstrated in front of Hong Kong's legislative council
building last night, for the second time in a week. They called for democracy
and the resignation of Tung Chee-hwa. After a protest last week by 500,000
people, Mr. Tung deferred anti-subversive legislation demanded by China. The new demonstration
was to show the dissatisfaction with his leadership and to demand the complete
withdrawal of the legislation, known as Article 23.
- Daily
Telegraph, July 10, 2003

Hundreds
of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong yesterday to protest
against new anti-subversion laws in the biggest display of discontent since the
Tiananmen
Square massacre of 1989. Six years after Britain returned the territory to
China, a mass gathering of the
former colony's middle classes and professionals called on the government to
drop the proposals which many say mark the "real handover", and quit.
The scale of the march far outdid expectations, and over-shadowed the formal
celebrations of the anniversary at which the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, was
guest of honour. As he spoke, a handful of protesters demanding the release of
political prisoners and an end to one-party rule burned the Chinese flag.
Police estimated 350,000, but organisers said as many as 500,000 people took to
the narrow streets beneath the city's skyscrapers, far more than the 100,000
predicted. Many marchers dressed largely in black, as a sign of mourning for Hong Kong's "lost
freedoms". Some held up posters showing Tung Chee-hwa splattered with a
custard pie. Their anger was not just over Article 23, but also over the
decline of Hong Kong since 1997. The downturn in the economy and the
collapse of the property market have hit the middle classes particularly hard.
- Daily
Telegraph, July 2, 2003

Baroness
Thatcher has been appointed Patron of the Falkland Islands Association.
She has expressed delight at the Association's invitation, which comes twenty
years after she was given the Freedom of the Falkland Islands, the only individual to
be so honoured in appreciation of her leadership in 1982 leading to the
liberation of the Falklands from invasion by Argentina. The work of the
Falklands Government Representative in London, Sukey Cameron, has been
recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours. She has been awarded an MBE - a
Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - for public service to
the Falkland
Islands.
- Falkland Islands Newsletter, June 2003

Britain has abandoned
negotiations with Spain on sharing the
sovereignty of Gibraltar. A government minister told Spanish newspapers
yesterday that the prospect of a deal was "simply zero". Denis
MacShane, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, admitted failure after
nearly two years of talks and acknowledged that London could not impose a deal
against the almost unanimous opposition of Gibraltar's population. The news is
a resounding victory for Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's chief minister, who led
a campaign of opposition to any dilution of British sovereignty.
- Daily
Telegraph, June 9, 2003

Australian
SAS troops have captured up to 60 Ba'ath Party leaders and Fedayeen fighters as
they attempted to flee into neighbouring Syria. The captures in
north-western Iraq this week underline the
unsung role that Australia has played in the war
against Saddam [Hussein]. Key among the 2,000-strong Australian contingent is a
squadron of about 150 Australian SAS, highly respected in the special forces
world. They worked closely with British and American conterparts and were
involved in the seizure of air bases in western Iraq. A military spokesman
said the Australians, like the British, preferred to operate in
"grey", not worrying about a share of the limelight. "Our forces
have been praised as first rate and the British in particular don't say that if
they don't mean it." he said. No Australian servicemen died in combat,
despite the SAS task group's involvement in more than a dozen exchanges of
fire. The group, which was given its own zone of operations in the north and
west of Iraq, was also given the task
of monitoring routes for signs of movement by the [Ba'athist] regime's
leadership. Australia also contributed three navy
ships, Anzac, Darwin and Kinimbla, and
a squadron of FA18 Hornets which were used in attack missions over Iraq. Australian navy divers
were used to find and destroy mines in the port city of Umm Qasr. The White House
spokesman, Ari Fleischer, gave high praise for their contribution. "Australia has stood as a strong
ally and close friend," he said.
- Daily
Telegraph, April 17, 2003

British
troops walked into the historic centre of Basra yesterday to be greeted
by thousands of Iraqi civilians flocking on to the streets to welcome them as
liberators. Men, women and children rushed to greet paratroopers as they
advanced into the oldest part of Basra. The narrow, winding
streets had been expected to provide a haven for Fedayeen paramilitaries
determined to resist the British soldiers. Instead, the British troops found
themselves having to fight off not enemy attacks but swarms of smiling children
trying to practise their English. There was a succession of thumbs-up gestures,
waves and salutes, while women wearing chadors appeared in doorways smiling and
waving. English-speaking Iraqis came up to reporters to express their own
delight. Among them was Saad Ahmed, a 54-year-old retired English teacher.
"We have been waiting for you for a long time," he said. "We are
now happier than you. You are victorious as far as the war is concerned, but we
are victorious in life."
- Daily
Telegraph, April 8, 2003

New Zealand paid an affectionate
tribute to its favourite son, Sir Edmund Hillary, yesterday at the start of
celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of his conquest of Mt.Everest. In a
colourful parade through the streets of Wellington, Sir Edmund and Lady
Hillary were driven in an open-topped car to parliament, accompanied by a brass
band, Indian and Nepalese marchers in national dress, and mountaineers wearing
climbing gear. With his Nepalese Sherpa guide, Tenzing Norgay, he reached the
summit of the 29,028 ft mountain on May 29,
1953. Their feat was seen as a glittering achievement for Britain and the Commonwealth,
coming as it did on the eve of the Queen's coronation.
- Daily
Telegraph, April 1, 2003

Three
hundred British soldiers were deploying to strategic positions in Sierra Leone yesterday as instability
again threatened to engulf the country which Tony Blair regards as one of his
foreign policy successes. With rebels from neighbouring Liberia threatening the border,
causing thousands of civilians to flee, an increase was ordered in Britain's military presence in Sierra Leone for the first time in
three years. It served to remind policy makers in London on the eve of a possible
offensive against Saddam Hussein that British troops could be required in Iraq for many years to come.
The company of troops from 2nd Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles, was deployed
in the capital, Freetown, and a Type 23 frigate,
Iron Duke, was ordered to the region to provide reinforcements.
- Daily
Telegraph, March 4, 2003

On
the Ides of March 100 years ago, a column of troops under Lieut.Col. T.L.N.
Morland encountered an army of some thousands of Hausa/Fulani horse and foot
drawn up on the hurumi (common land) to the south-west of the city of Sokoto,
and routed it. Attahiru Ahmadu, 12th Amir al Mumenin, 11th Sultan of Sokoto and
great-grandson of Shehu Usuman d'an Fodiyo, had assembled that army in the hope
of stemming the inexorable advance of British dominion throughout what is now Nigeria. Morland's force
consisted of 25 British officers, two British medical officers, five British
NCOs and one British medical orderly, together with 439 infantry (from the
recently created West African Frontier Force), with 68 gunners and 89 mounted
infantry from the same source. With them were four Maxim Guns and four 75mm
mountain guns. In battle array the Sultan's levy stretched for over a mile. It
had few firearms but many bowmen, shooting poisoned arrows. The main force was
cavalry, armed with swords or spears. All accounts bear witness to their
bravery, but, as Belloc observed, "We [had] got/The Maxim Guns and they
had not", and the engagement was short-lived. By the mid-1950s we (and by
"we" I mean the inheritors, on both sides, of the Sokoto fight, and
many more besides, drawn from every walk of life) were well on the way to
making northern Nigeria the veritable jewel in
the African crown. Hundreds of cement-lined wells had been dug, many with
windmills (manufactured in Worcester) pumping an endless
supply of clean water. A comprehensive review of criminal and civil law was
nearing completion. There was a bicameral legislature in being (modelled
precisely on the British Parliament). Guinea-worm was a thing of the past and
we were well on our way to eradicating smallpox, while polio and leprosy were
much reduced. We also had a public finance regime that was virtually
corruption-free. Then came independence on 1 October
1960. It was the murder of the prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa,
together with the murders of another minister and the premier of the Western
Region, of two brigadiers, two full colonels, four lieutenant-colonels, two
majors, several senior civil servants and their wives and children as well,
that ushered in an extended period of ignominy and chaos. From this outrage,
perpetrated by a few disaffected junior officers egged on by jealous and
disgruntled politicians, sprang decades of military dictatorship, the
dismantling of historic polities, fragmentation of the judicial process, the
collapse of agriculture and commerce, untrammelled administrative anarchy and
corruption and a civil war. Surely the time has come to question openly what
went so terribly wrong. How and why, under British rule, did matters progress
from mediaeval barbarity to emergent modern statehood in one 50-year timespan,
only to regress so soon after independence into mediaeval barbarity again? Is
it not time for us to call a halt to political correctness, self-abnegation and
cries of mea culpa, and to face reality for a change? A century after its
heyday is surely not too soon for Britain to start setting straight
the record of its Empire.
- article by
D.J.M.Muffett, The Spectator, March 1, 2003

Bermuda's Gombeys (Bermuda's cultural dance troupe) and the
Bermuda Regiment Band have been invited to perform at the 2003 Edinburgh
Military Tattoo - the world's most famous military tattoo. The event usually
attracts around 200,000 visitors to the Scottish capital and a TV audience of
some 100 million.
- report sent by
David Rogers, Coventry, February 16, 2003

A
British policeman has arrived in the Solomon Islands to take up one of the
toughest law and order posts in the Pacific. William Morrell was greeted by
screeching spear-wielding warriors as he landed in the capital, Honiara, where he will be based
as police commissioner. Members of the tribal welcoming committee hoisted Mr.
Morrell on to their shoulders and carried him to a waiting line of dignitaries.
Mr. Morrell, 47, a former chief superintendent in the Greater Manchester
Police, said "It's a great honour to be here and to take over the leadership
role of the Royal Solomon Islands Police."
- Daily
Telegraph, January 31, 2003

The
London Swinton Circle was honoured to welcome Mr. Albert Poggio, the U.K. representative of the
Government of Gibraltar, as guest speaker at their January 2003 meeting. Mr.
Poggio gave a powerful and well-received talk which covered the history of
British rule in Gibraltar, and explained why Spanish claims on the Rock are
completely groundless. He further emphasised the ongoing strategic and military
importance of the colony, and reminded everyone of the determination of the
vast majority of the people of Gibraltar to remain British - as
emphatically proven by the recent referendum.
- report sent by
HKH, January 16, 2003

Malaysia put the language of its
old colonial master back into the heart of its education system yesterday,
almost 30 years after expelling it. For decades, schools for the country's
different communities have taught in Malay, Chinese or Tamil, but now all maths
and science classes will be in English.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 7, 2003

The
Article 23 Concern Group, formed by Denis Chang, S.C., Ronny Tong, S.C.,
Gladys Li, S.C., Audrey Eu, S.C., Alan Leong, S.C., Professor Johannes Chan,
Professor Michael Davis, Margaret Ng and Christine Loh, has published a series
of pamphlets on Article 23 legislation with the view to identify the areas of
concern and to explain to people of Hong Kong how the proposed legislation will
affect the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Basic Law. The
pamphlets featuring seven topics, each focusing a particular offence or area of
concern are distributed among members of the public in Hong Kong and people are encouraged
to send the reply slip in the pamphlets to voice their views to the HKSAR
government. Now we need your help in extending our distribution to overseas
Chinese groups and human right groups. Electronic versions of the pamphlets are
available at: http://www.margaretng.com.
- report sent by
Fiona Shek, Assistant to Hon. Margaret Ng, December
13, 2002

The
Queen received unexpected affirmation yesterday from the South Pacific islands
of Fiji when the Great Council of
Chiefs declared that it still considered her Queen, even though the nation has
been a republic since 1987. Following a meeting of the chiefs, Epeli Ganilau,
the council chairman, said Fiji's status as a republic
only represented severance from the Queen as head of state at government level.
"The traditional link has never been severed," he said, confirming
the Queen's position as paramount chief of Fiji.
- Daily
Telegraph, November 20, 2002

The
British Raj was quintessentially an economic adventure. The British did not
interfere in the cultural and religious life of India. Nor did they force
religious conversions. This explains why, even after 200 years of British rule,
Indians still do not carry any resentment of, or hatred against, the British.
When the British arrived on the scene, Indians, especially the non-converts to
Islam, were more than grateful to them for having rescued them from the
clutches of Muslim tyranny. The British rule in India, apart from a few political
aberrations, was a blessing, for it brought new ideas and technology to the
country.
- Letter from
Randhir Singh Bains, Daily Telegraph, November
18, 2002

Jack
Straw is to re-think his Gibraltar policy after a referendum on the
Rock overwhelmingly rejected the principle of joint sovereignty with Spain. On Thursday, in a
pre-emptive referendum, 98.97% of Gibraltarians voted against joint sovereignty
on an 88% turnout. Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, argued that
the vote showed that joint sovereignty had come to a "dead end". He
said "The vote was about the democratic expression of the wishes of the
people of Gibraltar, which in this case have to be paramount." Gibraltar's chief minister, Peter
Caruana, said the result meant "a dead end" for further talks on
joint sovereignty.
- Daily
Telegraph, November 9, 2002

On
Thursday 7 November a very successful and well-attended pro-Gibraltar
demonstration was held in Whitehall outside Downing Street in order show solidarity
with the people of Gibraltar on the occasion of their referendum
on the matter of sovereignty. During this demonstration a letter was delivered
to 10 Downing Street addressed to the Prime
Minister asking him to accept the decision of the people of Gibraltar regarding their future
constitutional position.
- report sent by
HKH, November 7, 2002

A
group of former members of the Parachute Regiment who were badly wounded in the
Falklands plan to complete their
march into Port Stanley 20 years after the conflict. The group, at least four
of whom lost limbs at the battle of Mount Longdon, are determined to walk
the final four miles across marshy ground from the peak to the islands' capital.
They are among more than 200 veterans returning to the Falklands this week. One of the
group, David Kempster, 43, now a civil servant in Northampton, who lost an arm in the
battle, said "At the time I never thought about walking into Port Stanley. I was grateful to be
alive, which was luckier than some. But since then it has been a goal to
complete the march."
- Daily
Telegraph, November 4, 2002

[A
recent] Kenya news story was not [as
claimed] about landmines from the 1940's and 50's, but unexploded ordinance
from the British Training Base in Kenya today. The problem with
the whole issue is both British and Kenyan forces use the base and while the
British have done their best to clear ordinance, the Kenyan forces have not.
Locals who shouldn't even be on the base were contacted by British lawyers
after hearing about a few instances of people losing limbs etc. in the British
news (an excellent post-colonial news story for our time!). Given a choice
between taking a case against the Kenyan government and the British which would
you choose to win?
- report sent by
David Rogers, Coventry, October 7, 2002

After
dozens of setbacks and nearly 30 years of preparation the country's newest
museum, the first to be dedicated to the subject of the British Empire, has opened its doors in
the former slaving port of Bristol. Trapped between the
competing demands of jingoism and the political correctness of modern Britain, the British Empire
and Commonwealth Museum was turned down for lottery funding and has been
refused public money. It has struggled into existence with £8 million
from private benefactors, a far cry from the £20 it hoped for. Dr. Gareth
Griffiths, the museum director, said he believed the people of Britain were more empire-friendly
and more open-minded about the history of the greatest modern empire on earth
than they were a decade ago. Then he said, "We were in effect
cold-shouldered by the museum world who thought the project would be a
Right-wing, jingoistic glorification of empire." He added "But it is
a museum's job to throw light upon the past, not to make moral judgments. By
describing the story of the British Empire from everybody's point of
view, with a multitude of sources and voices, we believe we have done
that." Housed in Isambard Kingdom Brunel's 1842 Temple Meads Station, Bristol's first railway terminus
and itself a monument to Britain's engineering genius, the
museum may surprise traditionalists. Few of the displays, supported by
artefacts, film and aural histories, celebrate military conquest. The 16 galleries
take a gentler line with displays about trade, slavery, colonial
administration, missionaries, problems of industrial development, environmental
damage, and at the end, a room about how the influences of empire have shaped
modern Britain. Museum staff have
recorded interviews with 2,000 people, including ex-colonial officers,
missionaries, Sikhs, Muslims, Hong Kong Chinese and West Indians. The story of
Commonwealth troops who fought in two world wars is told as well as the history
of British soldiers in campaigns from Benin to Canada and Cyprus to South Africa. Mr. Letts, the former
chairman of National Heritage, said "We can't wish away the bad things
that the empire did, but we also we can't wish away the good things that we
pushed into other countries." The long birth of the museum could not have
been more painful. In 1975 Mr. Letts realised that of all the museums across
the country, not one told the history of the empire. But lottery boards,
suspicious of the project, turned him down, and the City of Bristol, run by the hard-Left
until a few years ago, also rebuffed him. It was Sir "Union" Jack
Hayward, the British patriot and millionaire living in the Bahamas, who came to the rescue,
eventually giving the museum £3 million. Lord Baker, the former
Conservative Education Secretary, Jan Morris, the travel writer and historian,
Lord Rees, former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and Lord Dholakia, the
Liberal Democrat peer, became trustees. Dr. Griffiths said it was a mark of the
progress the project had made that the Princess Royal would perform the
official opening next month. Mr Letts said "To think of empire as a dirty
word that you can't mention is absurd because you are ignoring the effect on
ourselves and on all the people that it governed. It is ridiculous to pretend
that empire didn't happen."
- Daily
Telegraph, September 28, 2002

President
Bush is a great admirer of Sir Winston Churchill and keeps a bust of the
wartime leader on his desk at the White House. Yet while attempts to compare
the two men have been dismissed as fanciful, it now turns out that they are
from the same English stock. Their common ancestry has been traced to the 15th
century Northamptonshire squire Henry Spencer. The President is also related to
Princes William and Harry [of Wales].
- Daily
Telegraph, September 18, 2002

A
Pro-Gibraltar demonstration took place on Gibraltar Day, Tuesday 10 September,
outside the Spanish Embassy in London. Dozens of British
supporters of Gibraltar were joined by a sizeable contingent of Gibraltarians
living in the UK for what proved to be a
very effective demonstration in support of Gibraltar's right to remain British
- which was greeted by continuous hooting and "thumbs up" signals
from passing traffic.
- Report sent by
HKH, September 2002

There
was a vivid moment a couple of years ago during the first stage of the British
intervention to support the struggling government of Sierra Leone. Its prime minister asked
a visiting British politician, in the presence of journalists, if it might be
possible for his country to become part of the British Empire again. Most of those
present believed that the Sierra Leonese leader was serious. The problems of
African societies are so huge, so deep-rooted, that the few honest and decent
politicians despair. They grasp at any straw to rescue their countries. It is a
tragic spectacle and few experts see a way out. When the West does intervene in
any African society, it is essential to stay for at least 10 years or more to
have any hope of making lasting progress. The Americans failed miserably in Somalia a decade ago, because they
treated it as a short term problem. The British Army training team in Sierra Leone has done a good job, but
the lasting need is for civil assistance - to teach people to collect taxes,
administer courts and run infrastructure projects. We are talking, of course,
about something close to neo-colonialism. Many Africans would be delighted if
there was more of it about.
- Max Hastings,
writing in the Daily Mail, August 13, 2002

A
large majority of St.Helenians voted for air access in a referendum in January
in preference to an eventual replacement to the vessel RMS St.Helena
that now serves the island. Air access has long been discussed in St.Helena. It
will end the isolation there and bring much needed economic development -
particularly tourism. Despite the rugged nature of the island, a suitable site
for an airport exists on the North West Coast. Full British citizenship
is also being restored to St.Helenians and other citizens of Britain's Overseas Territories this month. This will
give them back the full rights they were deprived of in 1981 by the British
Nationality Act.
- Falkland Islands Newsletter, May 2002

St.Helena's
5,000-strong population on the remote Atlantic island staged a noisy double
celebration yesterday marking 500 years since the island was discovered, and
the restoration to the islanders of full British citizenship. A Salvation Army
brass band and the bugles and drums of the local Scouts played as Governor
David Hollamby, in full ceremonial rig, represented the Queen at a march past.
As church bells rang out and a sun-drenched drizzle broke the heat, Saints - as
the islanders call themselves - broke into applause at the news that the
Princess Royal would visit in November. Islanders welcomed the news as
recognition of their restored status. Yesterday's events marked the high point of a week of celebration
for the island. The island, which has recently voted for an airport but is
currently dependent on ships for contact with the outside world, was swollen by
about 700 outsiders for the celebrations. Among visitors were the crew of the
Royal Fleet Auxiliary Grey Rover.
- Daily
Telegraph, May 22, 2002

Months
of negotiations on Gibraltar's sovereignty are close to collapse
over Spain's refusal to accept that
any agreement on the Rock's future status must be final. Jack Straw, the
Foreign Secretary holds talks in London today with Josep Pique,
his Spanish counterpart, but the Government is not expecting a last-minute
breakthrough. "It's all gone pear-shaped," one source said.
"Both sides have negotiated in good faith, and more progress has been made
than the sceptics thought possible. But the red lines are such that with the
best will in the world it may not be possible to proceed." The collapse of
the talks would delight Gibraltarians, who are overwhelmingly opposed to any
dilution of British sovereignty.
- The Times, May 15, 2002

A
revolver carried by Winston Churchill in his escape from his Boer captors in
1899 was back with his family yesterday after it sold at auction for
£32,000. An unidentified member of the Churchill family competed with a
telephone bidder and was given a round of applause when he identified himself
by surname. "It's going to a good home," he said. The young Winston
Churchill, serving with the 4th Hussars and working as a war correspondent, was
on an armoured train attacked and derailed by Boers. Three weeks later, unarmed
and with a "wanted, dead or alive" ransom on his head, Churchill
escaped and found his way to a homestead owned by an Englishman, John Howard,
Mr. Howard arranged for the future British prime minister to be hidden under a
tarpaulin on another train and gave him the revolver and provisions. Churchill
slipped across the border to Portuguese Mozambique. In London in 1901, he arranged for
the six-shot pinfire revolver to be returned to Mr. Howard in an inscribed
ebony box with a glass brandy flask and fitted silver cup.
- Daily
Telegraph, May 2, 2002

People
at the Foreign Office believe there is a need for the British to behave
Imperially again.
- Newsnight
report, BBC2, March 28, 2002

Gibraltar came to a halt yesterday as thousands of residents
held one of the biggest demonstrations in the 300-year-old colony to protest
against plans for Britain and Spain to share sovereignty.
About 10,000 flag-waving protesters marched along the foreshore with up to
5,000 more lining the streets in support of a declaration stating that they would
resist moves by Tony Blair's government to sign an agreement with Madrid. In an impassioned
speech, Peter Caruana, Gibraltar's chief minister, called any such
agreement a "betrayal". "We the people are gathered here to
declare that the future of Gibraltar both in practice and principle,
including our sovereignty, can be decided only by the people of Gibraltar in exercise of our right
of self-determination," he said. "We reject and condemn as betrayal
of our right and wishes as a people any declaration or agreement that makes
in-principle sovereignty or other concessions to Spain against our wishes. We
therefore call on the British government not to enter such agreements."
- Daily
Telegraph, March 19, 2002

During
an average month, British diplomatic posts in the Eastern Caribbean receive one or two
enquiries from young men and women interested in joining HM Armed Forces.
During the week of 20 November, our offices in Antigua received 10 enquiries;
many more were received in Guyana [British Guiana] Trinidad, Grenada, St.Lucia and Barbados. This was a direct result
of widespread media coverage of the arrival in St.Vincent on 16 November of a
team of 26 officials, both civilian and military, to select recruits for the
British Army. Last spring the High Commissioner of St.Vincent and the Grenadines in London, Carlyle Dougan,
contacted the British Army with an invitation from the St.Vincent Government to
send a team to the Caribbean where a large number of
St.Vincentians had expressed a wish to join the British Army.
- Report sent by
David Rogers, Coventry, March 19, 2002

For
someone who blames Britain and colonialism for all
that is wrong with his country, Mugabe displayed a steadfast enthusiasm at the
presidential swearing-in ceremony. Chiefs in pith helmets; presidential guard
in dark green uniforms and white gloves; a backdrop of a gabled Dutch colonial
state house. It would not have surprised me one bit had onlookers risen to sing
God Save the Queen.
- Letter from
Annabel Hughes, London - Daily Telegraph, March 19, 2002

The
Gibraltar Government yesterday rejected the idea of accepting £35 million
of EU funds aimed at inducing the British colony to integrate with Spain. Gibraltar's Chief Minister, Peter
Caruana, said: "Gibraltar's sovereignty and our rights and
wishes as a people are not for sale."
- Daily
Telegraph, March 18, 2002

Mugabe
believes that Mr. Tsvangirai was a front for a British effort to re-colonise Africa in alliance with other
Western nations.
- Daily
Telegraph, March 14, 2002

Speakers addressing a massive Keep Gibraltar British rally in
February 2002.

A
detachment of Royal Marines accidentally invaded Spain at the weekend. Using two
landing craft, 20 commandos launched an amphibious attack at La Linea, near the border with Gibraltar, instead of their
intended target a few hundred yards away on British soil. The Ministry of
Defence said the Marines were involved in a "low-key" exercise but
instead of being met by a mock enemy they were greeted by two Spanish policemen
who stopped the "invasion" with the international signal of raised
arms. The Royal Marines display only one battle honour on their cap badges and
that is Gibraltar. It dates from 1704 when 1,800 Marines stormed the
Rock, which was ceded to Britain in perpetuity by the
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
- Daily
Telegraph, February 19, 2002

Opinion
polls show that the majority of Jamaicans - 57% - believe that the Queen's
Golden Jubilee visit is important. Most Jamaicans are in awe of their Queen,
according to the Jamaican polling organisation Stone, which said: "Over
the years local social scientists have been confounded by the fascination that
Jamaicans have for Queen Elizabeth."
- Daily
Telegraph, February 19, 2002

So
vigilance must be continued. This is all the more important with the risk of a
sell-out now of Gibraltar to Spain. Argentine press reports
reveal that this is encouraging Argentina in its claim to the Falklands. So Falkland Islanders
and Gibraltarians stand shoulder-to-shoulder in resisting attempts to force
another nation's will upon them.
- Falkland Islands Newsletter, January 2002

A
Royal Navy petty officer who discovered an island in the South Atlantic which did not appear on
any charts may have the rocky outcrop named after him. Mark Robinson, 28, a
medical assistant, was serving on Endurance when he saw the island, which is
just a quarter of a square mile in size with a peak of 18ft. He was the first
to step ashore when Endurance sent a party to investigate.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 25, 2002

Britain and Spain engaged in a little gunboat
diplomacy off Gibraltar yesterday when the Navy warned off a Spanish vessel
disputing the ownership of an unexploded Second World War bomb. The minehunter Grimsby was recovering the 500lb
bomb 300 yards inside Gibraltarian territorial waters when the Spanish patrol
boat Conejera entered the temporary safety exclusion zone. The British patrol
boat Ranger then approached the Conejera and politely asked her to vacate the
area.
- Daily
Telegraph, January 25, 2002

Africa like many areas of the world seems unable to govern its people in any
semblance of fairness when left to itself. The radical Marxist methods used in Zimbabwe to steal land from White
owners is also being done in South Africa. Can any person who is
not blind see that the people are far worse off now in almost the entire
continent? The Middle East would not be the problem it is if the civilized
European nations were still in control. Of course it's not too late to restore
order. It's not the lack of mental ability among the people, it's the
irrational tribal, religious beliefs etc that so enslave and doom them. Add
greed and utter ruthlessness and you have chaos.
- report sent by
Charles Payne, December 11, 2001

Tony
Blair recently borrowed a copy of Rudyard Kipling's Kim from the
Chequers library. The novel's plot is pertinent - the hero becomes a British agent
and embarks on the "Great Game" in Afghanistan - but even more relevant
are the author's themes. The Prime Minister is, as he sees it, taking on the
modern version of Kipling's "White man's burden" as the West creates
a new kind of empire. At the beginning of the 20th century the map of the world
was dotted with pink. There is much thinking going on in Downing Street and the Foreign Office
about how "empire" should be re-invented. The key adviser is Robert
Cooper, the Prime Minister's foreign policy "guru", who was this week
seconded to the Foreign Office to try to sort out the future of Afghanistan. "The non-existence
of empire is historically without precedent," he wrote recently. "The
question is whether this can last. There are both theoretical and practical
reasons for thinking that it won't ... All the conditions seem to be there for
a new imperialism." The Cooper theory, set out in a pamphlet last year, is
that the world is divided, as it was during the Cold War, but in a different
way. There are three types of state: "pre-modern", defined by a
post-colonial chaos (such as Afghanistan); "modern", the
nation state within clear boundaries, and "post-modern". There is a
"basic incompatibility" between the pre-modern world, which survives
on a balance of power between enemies, and the post-modern world. In a
chillingly accurate passage he warns: "where the [pre-modern] state is too
weak to be dangerous, non-state actors may become too strong. If they become
too dangerous for the established states to tolerate it is possible to imagine
a defensive imperialism. If non-state actors, notably drug, crime or terrorist
syndicates, take to using pre-modern bases for attacks on the more orderly
parts of the world then the organised states may eventually have to respond."
In an article for Prospect magazine, written before September 11 but
published since, Mr. Cooper describes the need for a "new
imperialism" to "create stability" in the anarchic pre-modern
states. The new imperialism must, he says, be voluntary - it might involve UN
support in return for certain conditions - but it is still ultimately about
control. He sees globalisation as one form of it. Aid agencies are, he argues,
the missionaries of their day. Mr. Cooper's view is that nation states do not work
on their own. There are implications beyond Afghanistan. Kipling would be proud.
- Article by
Rachel Sylvester, Daily Telegraph, October
25, 2001

"May
I congratulate the Republic of Ireland in their World Cup
attempts. They are the best team in the United Kingdom."
- Letter in the
Irish Post, quoted by Daily Telegraph, October
19, 2001

A
defining moment in the history of the Gurkha regiment is being commemorated by
an important new work of art. The painting, more than seven feet long, depicts
the battle of Delhi Ridge in which the Gurkhas, recruited from the mountains of
Nepal, first displayed loyalty
to the British Crown. It is being painted for the regiment by Jason Askew, the
celebrated equestrian artist. In 1857, during the Indian Mutiny, the Gurkhas
remained loyal and fought alongside British troops. Mr. Askew's painting
focuses on the point at which the Gurkhas and the 60th Rifles (now the Royal
Green Jackets) repelled the Indians as they tried to capture the strategic
Hindu Rao House, belonging to a merchant, on the ridge north of Delhi. The battle has become
the keystone of Gurkha history - featuring on the decorated truncheon that was
given to the Gurkhas by Queen Victoria in 1863. However, until
now, no major painting has depicted the event. "The reason why this
picture is so important is that it portrays the defining moment when the
Gurkhas routed the Indian mutineers by standing fast with the British
soldiers," said Lt.Col. Craig Lawrence of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
"It marks the beginning of the friendship between the Nepalese and British
troops that has lasted to this day."
- Sunday
Telegraph, September 2, 2001

According
to the latest census, the population of the Falklands is 2491, which excludes
112 people temporarily absent from the Islands; the garrison and 534
civilians working for the military. Stanley itself has a population
of 1989, 21% higher than it was at the last census in 1996. The working population
has grown 17.5% and 98.5% of men and 79.3% of women of working age are in work.
288 run businesses, a rise of 10%, and the number of dwellings has gone up to
1073 from 865 in 1996.
- Falkland Islands Newsletter, August 2001

Under
ANC rule there are more Black people in prison than under apartheid. The jails
are full. What people forget is that colonialism in Africa brought law and order to
a continent which had none. In Zimbabwe Blacks are saying: Don't blame the
Whites. Life was better under White rule. Blacks all over Africa are saying this sort of
thing nowadays. One day people will say: Colonial rule was the best thing that
ever happened to Africa.
- Boernews, August 15, 2001

A
Canadian Alliance MP yesterday blocked plans to give honorary [Canadian]
citizenship to Nelson Mandela, accusing the former South African "president"
of being a terrorist and a Communist. Rob Anders, a two-term Calgary MP,
shouted "No" when John McCallum, the Liberal MP for Markham, sought unanimous
approval for the motion. McCallum later pleaded with Mr. Anders to reconsider.
"He told us: 'I will never support Mandela's citizenship. He is a
terrorist and a Communist,'" McCallum quoted Mr. Anders as saying.
- National Post (Canada), June 7, 2001
(I hate to tell
you, but it [the granting of honorary Canadian citizenship to the terrorist
Mandela] has been passed regardless of what anyone thinks. There was a poll
taken and 57% said NO but it was still granted. Unbelievable. Peacemaker??? We
as South Africans certainly question the peacemaker! - report sent by I.B., Calgary, Alberta)

More
than a million voters in the former British protectorate of [British] Somaliland turned out to vote
yesterday in a referendum on independence from the rest of Somalia. Early indications from
the polling suggested overwhelming popular support for independence. Somaliland was officially
independent for four days between the end of British colonial rule and
integration with Somalia, a former Italian colony,
in 1960.
- Daily Telegraph,
June 1, 2001

He
may not have walked away with an Oscar to call his own, but by the end of the
73rd Academy Awards ceremony the night belonged to Englishman Ridley Scott. As
his sword and sandals epic Gladiator took the year's biggest haul -
including Best Picture and Best Actor - the stars paid tribute to the
"gentleman genius". Picking up a statuette for the role of
general-turned-gladiator Maximus, [New Zealand-born] actor Russell Crowe
drawled: "Really folks, I owe this to one bloke - and his name is Ridley
Scott." Wearing his late father's MBE, awarded for his photographic work
during the [Second World] War, Crowe thanked both him and his uncle, who had
worked in the film industry and were his inspiration.
- Daily
Telegraph, March 27, 2001

I
refer to Paul Bew's article in the Daily Telegraph on 2nd January on the
need for an official celebration of the Act of Union bicentenary. The
Government should instruct the Post Office to bring out a special commemorative
stamp as quickly as possible. Of course the failure to commemorate this
bicentenary should not come as a surprise as the government is pursuing
policies which will lead to the abolition of Britain. It should also start to
plan how to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21st, 2005.
- Letter from
Allan Robertson, London SE8 - Daily Telegraph, January
4, 2001 [full original version]

Reports
indicate that the people of Sierra Leone strongly wish to return
their country to the status of a British colony, so as to restore competent and
honest administration. This takes me back some 40 years. On secondment from Whitehall in 1959/61, I found
myself in West Africa as a constitutional adviser. James, my excellent
steward from Nigeria, continually lamented the
withdrawal of British rule. Foolishly James seemed to think I had some
influence back home. He refused to believe that no notice would be taken if, on
return, I told my Prime Minister that right required his government to resume
control. Poor James was truly sincere about this. On many occasions when he
pleaded with me, his eyes filled with tears. I felt ashamed that I was unable
to give him any reassurance.
- Letter from
Francis Bennion, Oxford - Daily Telegraph, September 22, 2000

Kenya's new head of public
service, Richard Leakey, a White known for his staunch criticism of the
government, promised yesterday to fight corruption among civil servants. Mr.
Leakey, named on Friday by President Daniel arap Moi as secretary general of
the government and director of the civil service, said: "The support of
the head of state is unequivocal." The appointment was not made "for
cosmetic purposes", Mr. Leakey said. "I am sure that the government
and President Moi are serious when they say they want an end to
corruption," he added.
- A.F.P., Nairobi.
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