Dear Mr Kruschev: Morecambe Responds to the Cuban Missile Crisis... Very Politely.
Meanwhile, in Lancashire...
The Mayor of Morecambe, Charles Lonsdale, is hosting a shindig for members of the Labour Party on Battismore Road. Teapots are circulating and cucumber sandwiches are being nibbled. Hobnobbing with the Mayor are the MP for Barrow, Walter Monslow, and the Reverend W. G. O'Connor. Far from being your average jumble sale-hosting vicar, O'Connor had made a name for himself as 'Morecambe's political person', and was head of the local branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, frequently being seen around town wielding a 'Ban the Bomb' placard.
After ploughing through the hot topics bothering Morecambe that October – (The economy, the NHS and the cost of living. No change there, then.) – the Principal Speaker at the meeting, Walter Monslow, finally turned his attention to the small matter of the impending nuclear war.
"If there was another war, Hydrogen bombs would end civilisation," he told the group, cheering them up no end. He then went on to state that when "dealing with the threat of war, nations and their representatives had not yet learned the elements of international behaviour", sounding somewhat like a headmaster who's fed up with his pupils squabbling in the playground. It was then 'agreed unanimously' that in order to prevent the Cold War becoming hot, 'prompt, resolute and effective' action must be taken by the people of Morecambe.
So, what were the Sandgrown'uns going to do? Would they march in their thousands on London? Would they riot? Would they resort to violence, smashing their way into military bases to destroy the weapons lurking within? Was Morecambe about to be called to arms?
Um, no.
Rather than laying siege to Downing Street and sending a message of defiance to the world, Morecambe's MP and most-respected members of the clergy plodded down to the Post Office to send a telegram.
The telegram was written on behalf of 'the people of Morecambe', and was sent directly 'to Kruschev and Kennedy, urging the dismantling of all nuclear missile bases in all countries.' Further telegrams were to be 'sent to the Russian and American Embassies in London' demanding the same highly ambitious outcome. We can imagine the befuddlement of the Post Office clerk – who was probably used to sending telegrams to exotic locations as far afield as Fleetwood – as a group of irate local politicians placed orders for telegrams to Washington DC and Moscow.
Morecambe's response to the Cuban Missile Crisis might have been 'resolute', but one thing it certainly wasn't was 'prompt'. It, along with thousands of other pleading appeals for peace from around the world, most likely reached presidential desks long after the danger of armageddon had passed. Telegrams from Morecambe simply weren't top priority for delivery.
That being said, communication between the superpowers in 1962 wasn't exactly rapid. In a 1988 New York Times article entitled 'Moscow's Still Holding', journalist Webster Stone described how 'messages between Kennedy and Kruschev took more than six hours to deliver through regular diplomatic channels,' often relying on messenger boys running through the streets of Moscow to the nearest telegraph station with messages of global significance tucked into their satchels. But what would have happened if a messenger boy had been knocked down by a bus? Missiles could have been launching while a peace agreement was stuck in a haversack.
It's in the potential for dangerous delays where I feel the strength in Morecambe's telegram lies. As a form of political protest it might not have been aggressive or revolutionary, but it would have had power, not necessarily in words, but in timing. As I said earlier, messages pleading for peace would have been delivered days or even weeks after the crisis had diminished. Had the Cuban Crisis escalated into nuclear war, it would have been too little, much too late.
It was only after the world nearly ended in 1962 that it seems to have occurred to anyone that some kind of direct communication link between the superpowers might have been a good idea. Finally, an agreement to set up a 'hotline' was signed on June 20th 1963, and instantaneous messages could at last be passed between the US and USSR. A step had been taken towards preventing accidental nuclear war; perhaps Morecambe's very slow-travelling telegram played its part.
Sources
The Visitor, October 31 1962; 7th November 1962; April 20 1960.
'Moscow's Still Holding', The New York Times, September 18 1988, Webster Stone
Comments
Post a Comment