Letter to the Sydney Morning Herald, Wednesday 18th April 1984



Sir



Your article (16/4/84) highlighted the efforts being made by the United Nations to combat the further development of nuclear weapons by the incumbant regime of the United Republic of England or Oceania, as it wishes to call itself, and focussed on the threat of yet more economic sanctions by the nations of the former British Commonwealth on the old "mother country". Efforts over the last twenty years to return Britain to its place at our family of nations have failed miserably, and I believe that military force is becoming the only option to unseat the regime in London.



Following the end of the Second World War in 1946 with failure of the Normandy landings and the subsequent Soviet advance to the Rhine, the British people needed drastic change. The election of Mr Atlee in 1948, led to my own first cabinet post, and I believe that I am well placed to comment upon what occured in British Society at that time. The wide ranging nationalisations, and the bankruptcy of the country brought tremendous upheavals to all, something not helped by the relection of Mr Churchill in 1953. The Tory government failed to identify the need for change in 'fifties Britain, and their policies of widespread privatisation and continued rationing led to the General Strike and indirectly to the First Revolution. For your article to blame the current situation on these socialist pioneers is inaccurate and unfair to their memories.



I was a part of the interim government of 1955-7, but fled the UK after the purges began. The Unions had too much power and this led to the rise of the regime and advent of the Second Revolution. It is crucial to remember that Britain is the only country to have used an atomic weapon against her own people, with the destruction of Colchester during the civil war in 1959.



Britain today is a country under seige from itself. The people are starving, locked in an artificial world where they are told that they are part of a global empire, not a crumbling nation-state. For all the talk of the Commonwealth, and the reluctance of the United States to ever intervene in Britain, it is sad to say that military action still appears to be a dream.



Perhaps the recent discoveries of further gas and oil reserves in the North Sea will lead to a proactive international response to the inhumane treatment of the people in the British Isles, but I am growing older and sick of hearing broken promises.



For twenty-five years the regime has waged war and dicatatorship in the name of socialism upon its own people with little international condemnation. The time to act is now, and whilst I am not advocating a land invasion and the massive cost to life that it will incur, I feel that an air war would bring the country rapidly to its knees. The continued use of the term "Airstrip One" by the regime highlights their fear of attack from the air. They know that as an island they have a great natural advantage, but from the air they are weak, their equipment dated.



The Commonwealth and the United States must act to save the people of Britain.



Yours faithfully



Harold Wilson

Former cabinet minister, and representative of the British government in exile, Canberra