Notebook
As the modern jargon would have it, the Falklands crisis is 'an ongoing situa- tion'. So ongoing, in fact, and so liable to change, that for a daily newspaper — and, more significantly, for a weekly journal there is an ongoing risk that the commen- tator on events will find that his comments and analysis may be superfluous by the time they reach the readers. Having given notice of our difficulties, there appears to be no immediate solution to the present crisis. Mrs Thatcher told the House of Commons on Wednesday that Mr Haig's next trip to Buenos Aires would be `crucial'; and the Royal Navy proceeds on course towards the South Atlantic. Captain Stephen Roskill, in an article on another page, considers some of the hazards facing the task force, and he gives proper emphasis to one factor which has been largely ignored in the press: the weather. I have been reading in Sir Ernest Shackleton's book, South, his account of the journey he made in an open boat in 1916 from Elephant Island, on the edge of the South Shetlands, to South Georgia. His ship, the Endurance, had been crushed by pack ice and he set off on 23 April, with five companions, across 800 miles of open sea. That part of the ocean in early May, Shackleton wrote, 'is known to be the most tempestuous storm-swept area of water in the world'. 'There were days and nights when we lay hove to, drifting across the storm-whitened seas and watching ... the uprearing masses of water, flung to and fro by Nature in the pride of her strength.' Shackleton's story — he landed on South Georgia on 10 May — is terrifying to read; if it comes to a fight in the South Atlantic the problems which the weather may cause the Navy, whatever the size of its ships, should not be understated. Another in- teresting point emerges from Shackleton's book: in his attempts to relieve the re- mainder of his crew he received valuable assistance from the Uruguayan and Chilean governments — but none, apparently, from Argentina.
While our nuclear submarines continue their silent patrol beneath the South Atlantic Ocean, waiting to blow the Argen- tine Navy to bits, hardly a squeak is heard from our anti-nuclear protesters. The several CND demonstrations held last weekend, as the climax of Peace Week, seemed to be concerned only with pro- testing against the Trident missile pro- gramme. There were a few who urged Mrs Thatcher not to shoot first at the Argenti- nians, but that was as far as they would go in criticising the Government's handling of the present crisis. (Of course, it would have been rather different if General Galt ieri was
known as a communist dictator.) The pro- testing voices of the acting profession have not, thankfully, been heard in recent days. One of the more unattractive habits of ac- tors (or, more often, actresses) is to sound off on almost any subject on which they are unqualified to speak. Presumably they im- agine that their names and reputations will lend weight to the causes which they sup- port, while in fact they make a mockery of them and of themselves. Animals have recently had to suffer the attentions of the acting profession: Julie Christie — an old CND campaigner — was photographed last week with a man in a mask who belonged to something called the Animal Liberation Front. Miss Christie announced to her ad- miring public that she tried 'not to use any of the cosmetics or shampoos that have been tested on animals'. It might be thought that if they do us no harm, they will also have been found to be harmless to animals; but no doubt that would be quite wrong. The culling of seals is another old favourite with theatrical protesters. For all I know seals may be brutally treated and made to suffer unnecessarily, but surely they would rather that Spike Milligan and Joanna Lumley were not fighting to save them. Let us hope that the seals of the Falklands may be spared the concern of English anti-nuclear actors.
(-Nur wonderful British Airways have N...., just put out an advertisement on televi- sion to boast about the cost of their trans- atlantic flights. Little animated images of aeroplanes pass across the screen, showing the different prices to New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami. Only a few feet below there is the heaving swell of a grey and threatening sea. The BA voice informs us — I have checked the words twice — `No other scheduled airline flies lower across the Atlantic than British Airways.' Some travellers might prefer to fly a bit higher.
On Maundy Thursday, following the traditional practice, the annual list of new Queen's Counsel was announced. Lit- tle is known about the process of selecting those who take silk. It is the sort of arcane system that one expects from the Bar, yet it seems to work pretty well. Taking silk is a bit like applying to join a club, except that the consequences of being blackballed may be rather more serious. Any barrister who has practised for at least ten years may app- ly to the Lord Chancellor, giving the names of two judges as his sponsors. If an appli- cant is turned down, no reasons are given; however, he may try again. It would be fascinating to learn what criteria are applied by the Lord Chancellor: why some are re- jected, and indeed why some of doubtful repute have got past the judicial scrutiny. This year has seen something of a break- through for women at the Bar. In the past two years only one woman has taken silk; last week four women QCs were appointed (raising their number by about 25 per cent). Is the great citadel of sexual discrimination at last beginning to crumble? The delay in reopening the frontier between Gibraltar and Spain — it has now been postponed until the end of June because the Foreign Office feels unable to deal simultaneously with the problems of two colonies — will also be welcome to the Spanish government. By that time the trial by court-martial of 32 army officers accus- ed of plotting a coup against the state last year should be completed, and the sent,: ences handed out. There has been much speculation that, whatever the result, another coup will be attempted; that the army will be encouraged by acquittals or lenient sentences, and that they will be rous- ed to further action if long prison terms are imposed. However, the trial has alreadY done much to weaken the influence and credibility of the army. It was clearlYa mistake for the two principal accused, WW1 telling entirely different stories, to try an' implicate the king. But the Prime Minister, Sr Calvo Sotelo, will be glad to have this embarrassment out of the way before talks are resumed on Gibraltar, not least because of the trial's associations, through its main characters, with Spain's past. General Alfonso Armada Comyn's godfather was King Alfonso XIII, and he was appointed tutor to the present king by Franco. The man who denies General Armada's account of the plot, General Jaime Milans del Bosch, Bosch, fought for Hitler in Russia durla the last war. His grandfather was 3 notorious captain-general of Catalonia at the end of the first world war who used German agents to foment trouble among the working classes. He was succeeded by Primo de Rivera who, when he became rh.e" tator, appointed as his finance minister. 10 the Twenties the uncle of the present Prime Minister. In 1928 an abortive coup agallisAt Primo, resulting in the court-martial an acquittal of its leader, forced the dictator. in recognise that the army was against 1101!'t and his government fell. Fascinating as may be to recall these links with the Pas:' there is little danger of history being repeated. The king's reputation is luta'4 , and the government, with the general sup' port of the two main opposition parties of the right and left, is looking secure, at leas until the general election next year. Tn.e spirit of compromise seems at last to hfi' winning in Spain — which should bode we° for negotiations on the future of Gibraltar' We are in danger of losing our elvers:- those baby eels which, like most o' their genus, come from the Sargasso Seas. They are caught in the Severn estuary at time of year; but there is now such a mand for them in Eastern Europe and Japan that there are very few left for us' and only at the same price per pound as salmon. I do not think elvers are to be found except in the west of England, where they are usually eaten fried with an egg, ‘)r „ in pancakes. If you can get them, for recipe of the week I recommend cooking elvers in olive oil with plenty of garlic.
Simon Courtauld
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