The Generals Read Free Page B

place, Lieutenant Brown?
    Major von Peters
: Loud and clear, now, Brown.
    Lieutenant Brown
: Yes, sir.
    Major von Peters
: Just a moment. This is directly relevant to my question on the reason for the accused enrolling in the Army, isn’t it?
    Captain Schmidt
: Yes, in my view.
    Major von Peters
: Then there’s no real reason why the accused should not stand to attention during the report.
    Colonel Orbal
: Exactly. Yes. Stand to attention, Velder.
    Lieutenant Brown
: Appendix V 1/33. Reference to National Liberation. Compiled from Volume Six, prepared by National Historical Department, General Staff. Marked Secret according to paragraphs …
    Major von Peters
: We’ve heard all that before. Get to the point.
    Lieutenant Brown
: … paragraphs eight, eleven and twenty-two. National Liberation was an historical necessity, which over the centuries was delayed by the systematic oppression and exploitation of the extant colonial power. In an account from the period of time shortly before the liberation, the island was described as ‘a calm and idyllic out-of-the-way spot, forgotten and thinly populated’. It lacked industries and modern buildings almost completely, and the few communities that existed were what might be best described as villages. Despite the favourable climate, especially during the six summer months, the tourist trade was not developed, mainly due to lack of good roads, poor communications with the mainland and lack of initiative on the part of the local government—the political majority was moderate socialist.
    The principle activity of the island was agriculture and—in the coastal communities—fishing. The arable land, which consisted of more than ninety per cent of the island’s total area, was divided into large farming units. These were well mechanised and gave good crops; the result was a marked over-production of food, which was then transported to the mainland in barges. The neglect of industrialisation and consequent lack of employment opportunities led to considerableemigration to the colonial power or—as the terminology of the day stated—the mother country. This emigration caused an increasing decline in population, which at the time of national liberation had gone so far that the number of inhabitants had fallen to a fiftieth of the population figure considered to be reasonably relative to the area of the island.
    Military installations on the island consisted of a chain of unmanned coastal defence installations, and military stores of arms and ammunition in eight underground concrete casemates. For protection and maintaining guard over these, there was a minor force, mainly composed of national servicemen whose homes were on the island. Maintenance of law and order was in the hands of the local police organisation. This was built up on the principle of one policeman per six hundred inhabitants, and both its personnel and material resources were extremely limited. Such was the situation immediately prior to the action which finally led to the country’s autonomy.
    Round the great thought that lay hidden in the concept of national liberation gathered people of all kinds; the fact that by no means all of them—not even the leaders—had sufficient moral and spiritual qualities to be able to take the responsibility of liberators was soon apparent. The plans for the take-over of power were worked out with the greatest care and during the last two-year period of time, they entered, as far as can be established, into an intensive stage. The leaders of the operation, which went under the cover name of the Project, included men of the noblest elevation and moral qualities, as well as people less well qualified for national leadership. These people were united by two powerful motives: the will to throw off the yoke and give the island independence, and a feeling of repugnance and contempt for the circumstances in the mother country. For these reasons they sought each other’s support, a