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Downing Street Petition Handed Over - Editorial Report
3,834 people signed the petition which called on Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, to back the designation of the Lancastria as an official maritime war grave under the Protection of Military Remains Act. Among those supporting the petition were politicians of all parties, including members of the Lords, the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments, members of the armed forces of all ranks and services, and of course many ordinary people from across the UK, Europe and well beyond.
The petition was started last year in an effort to try and circumvent the MoD bureaucrats who have consistently moved the goal posts on designation of Lancastria since the Association first raised the issue back in 2005. Freedom of Information returns from the MoD showed an almost callous contempt for our efforts. Officials believed that the issue would fizzle out and go away quietly over time. They were wrong.
The basis of the petition was founded on a crucial email between legal officials at the MoD and the Department's Heritage wing in Portsmouth, headed by the Royal Navy's Heritage civil servant Peter MacDonald (no relation to the Rev MacDonald at St. George's West Church). The reply from MoD legal officials in response to Mr MacDonald's query over the possibility of designating Lancastria, despite her being in French waters, was straight forward and in simple language. After quoting the relevant parts of the Act (The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986) the official concludes: "It seems, oddly, that a vessel sunk in French waters could be designated but this would not have the effect of making the place comprising its remains a protected place." Designation would however allow for the pursuit and prosecution of British citizens or British flagged vessels known to have dived the site and evaded the French authorities. The French move, following directly from pressure from our members, was a highly welcome move. Designation under UK law would of course not allow for the site to be policed by vessels of the Royal Navy, but would allow for the law to be used when evidence was produced at a later stage of interference. It would give the maximum protection under the law. It would also act as a serious deterrent to British divers contemplating interfering with the wreck.
When our Association wrote to Mr MacDonald to reaffirm our commitment to seeing the site designated in light of the email written in January last year, he replied that the MoD had taken additional legal advice (pourquoi?) and this contradicted the earlier advice which appeared in the email of January 2006. The Association then submitted a fresh Freedom of Information request to enable us to see this "additional" advice but this was turned down and an exemption stopping disclosure on the grounds that there may likely be legal action by our Association challenging the MoD's legal position! If their position was so definitive then one might be forgiven for thinking they would have been very inclined to release this new advice on designation. The whole episode simply underlines their hostility to any attempt to protect and remember the sacrifice aboard the Lancastria on 17th June 1940.
Anyway, back to the Downing Street handover. Finally the day came to make our representations direct to the door of the Prime Minister. Initially there was some indication that a "duty" Minister from the MoD would be available, but at the last minute, the day before our delegation was due to travel to London, he pulled out.
The preparations for this visit should have been straightforward. In the two weeks leading up to the handover the Association managed to secure a great deal of media coverage across the UK. Lancastria survivor and Association member Reg Brown did an absolutely outstanding job and conducted numerous TV, radio and newspaper interviews. Three days before the petition handover the Secretary received a call from Canada from a film production company who were proposing to travel to London to document the story for a series to be shown on the History Channel later in the year. This was a major commitment from them and a way to bring the forgotten story of Lancastria to a much wider audience.
On the Friday, the day before the delegation went to Downing Street, the Canadian documentary filmmakers went to film Reg at his home near Coventry. That morning Reg and the Association's Secretary, Mark Hirst, did a live phone interview for BBC Radio, some of which was used in bulletins on all BBC Radio programmes the following day.
It was an early start for the members from Scotland and the North of England who travelled down to London, by plane, train and automobile. Downing Street police have a fixed restriction on the numbers visiting Downing Street and so the group would comprise Fiona Symon, our Chair, Reg Brown, David Parton, John Hirst and Jim and Rita Hingle who had come down from West Yorkshire. Mark Hirst gained access to the press enclosure to take pictures of the handover. 
The group met up at the Union Jack Club near Waterloo, despite the best efforts of GNER's Edinburgh to London service which as predicted broke down two hours north of London. A replacement train ensured the group made it on time, but it was very tight. On arrival the group quickly travelled by taxi, with the Canadian documentary crew of four, filming away in the background. Once at the gate of Downing Street we met with Lancastria author Jonathan Fenby who had come up to welcome the delegation and take part in some of the press interviews with Channel 4 News, Press Association and BBC News 24 before we walked towards the big black gates which now guard the entrance of the street. The armed police officer at the main entrance wanted to know who the documentary filmmakers were. "These are the film makers whose details I faxed to Number 10 Press Office yesterday", Mark Hirst said confidently. "We don't ave em on the list" came the stark response, but obviously judging from the expression on Mark's face added sarcastically: "The well oiled wheels of government move effortlessly once more. I decide who gets in and who doesn't and they can get into the press pen with you." Another close shave averted!
Once through the security screen the delegation walked up to the door, stopping for a short while for pictures, then Fiona knocked the door with some considerable and not unnoticed conviction. If Mr Blair had been enjoying a quiet snooze on the sofa he would surely have been awoken.
Almost 67 years before, as Winston Churchill relaxed on a warm June evening in the garden at the rear of Number 10, news reached him of the disaster involving the Lancastria. It was there and then that he made the decision to censor all news coverage for fear that it would undermine public morale. It was a decision heavily criticised just 6 weeks later when the UK press learned of it, suggesting the Government leave state censorship such as the Lancastria D-Notice, to the Nazis.
On 3rd March 2007 however a Downing Street official opened the door and received the petition sheets with no attempt to censor press coverage of the event. Afterwards the delegation gave an impromptu press conference to the waiting journalists and film crews in front of Number 10.
The Association did not believe that on delivery of the petition Mr Blair would personally and immediately accept the request of the thousands who had backed the petition. We had on one level significantly increased the profile of the sacrifice of those lost on Lancastria through the process of organising the petition and that in itself was a considerable achievement. Dozens more people came forward including many survivors who previously had not know there was an Association. Many more relatives of victims made contact, still searching for information and details about what had happened that day and which led to the loss of their loved one.
Coverag e of the petition was extensiv e, with several UK national and local newspa per articles and coverag e on UK national radio and televisio n. The traffic to the Association website went through the ceiling. On the day of the handover the site received an incredible 16,800 hits, far and away its largest amount of traffic one single day.
A few short days later and Fiona Symon received a short letter from an official at Downing Street thanking her for the petition and advising that the petition had been sent to the MoD for them to answer. One month on and there is still no response, although we are certain it will be yet another tired old line about it not being practical, or would that designation would bring "undue attention" to the disaster, or such a move would be "purely symbolic" or have "little effect", or would cause "diplomatic challenges" with the French or perhaps we might get a new excuse again to add to the growing pile of indefensible reasons for not recognising and fully protecting the site of UK's worst maritime disaster.
So what really is behind the MoD's refusal? It has been suggested that they are worried that greater awareness of the disaster may bring with it the risk of legal action by relatives of the dead who believe the Government were ultimately responsible for issuing the order to load as "many men as possible without regard to the limits set down under international law" as Lancastria's First Officer Grattidge reported in his account of the disaster. Of course none of the relatives of victims in contact with our Association are remotely thinking about taking such a legal course of action.
The French "diplomatic difficulties" is a complete red herring. The French Government at both local and national level have been entirely supportive of efforts by us to remember and protect the memory of Lancastria and the victims, going as far as saying that they had no difficulty with the UK Government designating Lancastria under their own laws.
The Chairman of the Hastings based HMT Association suggested through his very close links with the MoD that designation would result in a quid pro quo arrangement with the French which would then lead to British divers being banned from diving French vessels sunk in UK waters. The former government Minister, QC and Army officer, Lord James Douglas Hamilton described that position as "ridiculous" and no excuse not to designate Lancastria.
Lord James was one of a number of senior politicians with legal experience to sign the petition in support of designation, in stark contrast it has to be said to the Hastings based HMT Association Committee which sadly not only refused to support the petition but in correspondence to the MoD obtained under Freedom of Information is clearly in a process of appeasement with Ministry officials and the UK's Ambassador in Paris. It's a strong crutch for the MoD to hide behind despite the obvious unrepresentative nature of the present HMT Committee which not only fails to consult with its members properly, but has actively sought to censor them when they have taken an alternate view.
So what is left in terms of real excuses not to designate Lancastria? As the BBC Newsnight programme said: "This was dark period for Britain. The Government at the time was already building the concept that despite the obvious failure, Dunkirk (which took place two weeks before the loss of Lancastria) was a miracle. However no amount of spin could turn the loss of the Lancastria into victory." That is as true then as it is now. British politicians do not like remembering and commemorating defeat. From our perspective that seems highly unfair and illogical. These, mostly men, died for their country. Perhaps their loss was the result of a combination of errors and misjudgements on the part of those managing the loading, those giving the orders to cram people aboard, the Captain for not setting off when he had the opportunity or the Army chiefs in London who had ultimately not been prepared for the scale, speed and tactics of the Germans which directly resulted in the British Army being pushed literally into the seas right along the French coast. But so what? The men aboard Lancastria did not die as a result of cowardice but till the very end fought, with the little they had to fight back and stood in defiance to the very last.
The Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair is no stranger to wars. Before backing the Iraq invasion he said that there would be a "blood price" to be paid for this country's involvement in that war, and in that respect at least he was certainly correct and not just in respect of UK service personnel. But so far, it seems, the "blood price" paid by those lost on Lancastria is not worth using the powers he has to give the maximum protection to what should have automatically become an official maritime war grave.
Those in Downing Street who have sought for decades to hide the loss of the Lancastria have done a great disservice to the memory of the victims and one day there will be a price to be paid for that also.
This Association's campaign to have the wreck designated will continue and the matter raised again with the new incoming Prime Minister later this year.
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