1912 and back again.

 

James Cameron's Film might at first just look like a Love Story set against the most famous maritime Disaster in History, but there's a lot more to it than that.

Not only is it as Film about that famous Disaster, it also spans other things - from a Island off the eastern Coast of Canada to a Press Conference held in August 1990, and seems to have been prompted by an Image from 1993 and the Story that surrounds it.

It was 1990 and a Rock Music Album was compiled and released dealing with the Lebanese Hostage Crisis that had gone on through the second half of the 1980's. Anyone who was aware of things at the time would know Names like John McCarthy, Terry Waite, Brian Keenan etc and a few People in Bristol decided to do an Album Project to campaign for their release.

I was asked to write a Press Pack for it that would be sent to recording Artistes in the hope they would donate a Song for it. They did, and as Songs from the likes of Tina Turner to Dire Straits, Simple Minds to Peter Gabriel began arriving it started gaining a Momentum that would culminate in the Press Conference to launch it.

What was impressive was that it was held at the iconic Waldorf Hotel in London, which they donated the use of for free. Years later I began doing family Research and began wondering how, and did any of that have something to do with that Conference?

The Waldorf was built in 1908 by William Waldorf Astor - Cousin to the wealthiest Man on the stricken Ship - John Jacob "Jakie" Astor. The Astor's were close Friends of the Cecil's of Salisbury and Arthur Balfour who was related to them. So was Lord Harlech - David Ormsby Gore - whose Mother was one of the Gascoyne-Cecils. It turned out Harlech was also a Friend of my own Family who I was reunited with in 1996. It seems I had a connection with that Conference Venue that went beyond a 1990 Music Album launch.

The Hotel itself was actually used in the "SOS Titanic" Movie because it was contemporaneous with the Ship and had certain aesthetic similarities. There was also the Astor connection.

As for the Album Project .....

Dealing with Hostages the Balfour connection resonates with the most beloved Novel of Scotland - Robert Louis Stephenson's "Kidnapped". Balfour featured elsewhere in it all as the Project was invited to Prague in the newly democratised Czechoslovakia, a Country he helped create at the Treaty of St Germaine after the Austro Hungarian Empire was broken up in 1918.

I was supposed to go to Prague that time - but for reasons I didn't Questions should be asked of those responsible.

The Hand and the Rose ........

It was February 14th 1993 and someone opened an Envelope with a Card in it which had drawn Image of a Hand coming from a Lake holding a Rose. A Tor was shown in the Background and it was all evocative of the famous Arthurian Scene when Merlin receives Excalibur or when Sir Bedywr throws it into the Lake after Arthur is killed at the Battle of Camlann.

At the end of the "Titanic" Movie we see Rose throw a Diamond Necklace into the Sea - reminiscent of the latter and what would once have been called a Votive. This has it's modern equivalent with the Wishing Well, when you throw a Coin into it making a Wish.

The Necklace had a huge Jewel mounted into it and the Astor family Heirloom was the Sansi Diamond.

Could she have been returning it to its rightful owner - given that JJ Astor died on that Ship? In that context might he and Jack Dawson have been one and the same?

Or was it a metaphor for the Press Conference and how it might have happened - and how it seems to have launched rather a lot more than a Hostage Album Project? She goes on to become an Actress while a lot of creative Economics - from Fleet Street to independent Television - is attributable to those associated with it. More of some of that in a moment.

An earlier Voyage ......

We go back to 1621 when Welsh Sea Captain Edward Wynn, commissioned by George Calvert - aka Lord Baltimore - sailed to and established a Colony on Newfoundland called Avalon. It was named by Calvert after the Town in Somerset which he saw as the fount of Christianity in Britain. Obviously an adherent to the Story of Joseph of Arimathea.

This becomes poignant given that the "Titanic" Film was made by a Canadian and the Theme Song recorded by one of Canada's most famous Artistes - Celine Dion. 

It's also reminiscent of the Hand and the Rose - with it's Avalonian Imagery.

The Name Wynn is also evocative, being connected with the ancient noble Houses of Gwynedd and Deheubarth in Wales.

Here is an article elaborating who Edward Wynn was...

https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/NFLDS/article/view/12688/13593

George Calvert was sponsored by Robert Cecil of Burghley who acted as Guarantor to his rise through the Court and obtaining his Title..... becoming Lord to the Town of Baltimore, Ireland.

Calvert went on to establish the State of Maryland - Cecil helping him obtain it's Charter - and the City of Baltimore. As a tribute to his Sponsor Calvert named his Son Cecile.

This is why the City has Calvert Street as it's administrative District and I wonder how many Fans of the work of David Simon are aware of any of this?

Back to the Film and we see Jack and Fabrizio win Tickets for the Ship in a game of Poker and while they celebrate their good fortune we see People going aboard, so does everyone in Southampton, but one of those Passengers is a young Woman called Rose. "To everyone else it was the Ship of Dreams - to me it was a Slave Ship!" she says. Those on the Quayside just see the Glamour - they don't see what Rose is feeling.

The Name Wynne appears again - this time in the form of John Arthur Wynne who was involved in the process that would lead to the abolition of Slavery.

https://metrowynn.blogspot.com/2016/08/john-arthur-wynne-unsung-philanthropist.html?m=1

There are other things that allude to this ......

As the mighty Ship finally sinks the last thing we see is "Titanic - Liverpool" painted on the Stern. Mid 90's Britain was in the throes of a huge Beatles Revival, while the NME's Album of the year was their "Revolver" LP. Strange given it wasn't from 1996 at all, and was from 1966 - 30 years earlier, although it was that year I last saw my Family before the Reunion in 1996.

Unfortunately, Liverpool suffers from the Stigma along with Bristol, for being a Slave Traders Capital while James Penny whose Name was allegedly given to the Penny Lane the Song was about was one of its worst.

The Great Patriotic War ........

This is the eternal Flame - a Monument to the fallen at the Battle of Stalingrad, but it could be a Hand coming from a Lake holding a Sword - reminiscent of the Imagery from Arthurian Legend - or even holding a Rose like it did in 1993. In the Film we are shown Jack partially submerged in the Sea holding Rose's Hand as she floats on a Piece of Flotsam left by the Ship.

While James Horner did the Music for "Titanic" he also did it for "Enemy at the Gates", the Film about the Battle of Stalingrad and legendary Soviet Sniper Vasily Zaitsev. If you listen to the "Titanic" Soundtrack you will hear the Refrain he went on to use in the Stalingrad Movie.

Here's a Scene from the Film ......

Yours truly - 1996 - taken during the Reunion.....

A TALE OF 2 GRADS...

Anyone who speaks Russian will know that the Word Grad means City.

Somewhere in an archived Copy of Pravda or Izvestia is probably an Interview with the Man who conceived the Concept of that  Hand and the Torch in the Hall of Military Glory in the Stalingrad Memorial Complex.

As I mentioned, the Statue with the Hand coming from the Ground holding a Torch to anyone familiar with the Excalibur Legend seems reminiscent of the iconic Image of the Hand coming from the Lake holding the Sword - either about to be given to or returned by Arthur.

The two most symbolic Battles in terms of struggle of the Great Patriotic War were those of Stalingrad and Leningrad. Kursk might have been the biggest, but the Battle on the Volga and the Siege of Leningrad the most iconic.

In the Hall is the Inscription "Yes, we were mere mortals, and few of us survived (the German siege). But we all fulfilled our patriotic duty to our sacred Motherland" and the operative Word perhaps is "siege".

So it's like the Monument commemorates the Battle of Stalingrad - which was the turning point of the War in Russia and arguably that of WW2 itself, but also pays Homage to those who defended the City on the Shores of Lake Ladoga in the North. If it had fallen the Germans would have rolled up the Soviet Army and moved southwards towards Moscow.

Leningrad was supplied during this for nearly 3 years via the Lake which has a much older significance to the History of the Region and it's People.

It was from there the Rurikids established their first Citadel - Starya Ladoga - and began to consolidate and spread what would become the Rus. The City became a Hub of Commerce that would trade from the Baltic in the North to the Greek held Areas of Constantinople in the South. It became the most important in eastern europe They went on to create the powerful State of Kievan Rus.

The Route becomes a very potent metaphor for a Stream that winds its way through 1200 years of History from those early years of the 9th Century to those of Today - even in this Country, while a huge chunk of French history owes something to it, along with many other European dynasty's and histories.

Through every epoch, from it's Varangian Origins, the Rus, the Regions subjugation by the Khanates and the Golden Horde, the attempts of conquest by the Teutonic Knights, Sweden, the Polish Commonwealth, Napoleon, Tsarist rule and even during the Rule of the Bolsheviks.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Soviet Fortunes during the Great Patriotic War improved when even dyed in the Wool Communist Stalin decided to change the Narrative; instead of fighting for Bolshevism or the glorious Revolution the Soviets were fighting as Patriots for Mother Russia, for something far more ancient and sacred than a 19th Century Ideology being applied in the 20th.

It was only recently People decided to mess with all of this and the Tragedy in Ukraine, with the ripple effects felt everywhere else, is the Result.

Artificially cultivated Ukrainian Nationalism tries to make it their own - even appropriating the Rus Symbol - the Flag of Starya Ladoga - and turning it into the horrible Wolfsangel they carry during Marches through Kiev, Lvov and other Ukrainian Cities.

Others, that Robin Day once called "here today, gone tomorrow Politicians", opportunistic Academics, Media Types and the whole Shebang act like they are no better than those Nationalists as they try and exclusivise it to their own ends too.

Maybe when there are those moments when an understanding is reached - particularly during the Cold War, and the 1962 Missile Crisis, or even when the Tsar and the Kaiser tried desperately to prevent WW1 which loomed and threatened in the Summer of 1914, there was something very archetypal happening that recognised that 1200 year History as the Thread that held it all together and should never be broken.

Something that acts like a giant Bungee - and pulls everything back from the Abyss.

A once and future Entity that establishes Unity when everything looks so irredeemably fractured.

"Titanic" the Film was an Example of when the West and Russia worked together on something as the Hollywood based Canadian Film Maker used the Services of the Russian Research Vessel RV Akademik Mstislav Keldysh for those deep Dive Scenes in a Film peopled by British and American Actors.

It turned out to be a very big Example - being the most successful Film ever made up to and even after it appeared. 

Yet more creative Economics activity .......

Wonder how many People have met here .... A Scene from the Waldorf.......

Rather like this .......

...... After the Ship has sunk this was the Scene that was described as one of the most emotive in any Film ever ..... Rose on the Piece of Wood from the above Scene ..... just before Jack dies.

Here is a Montage done by someone showing what happened after ..... Rose is rescued by 5th Officer Harold Lowe - a Gwynedd Lad - played by Ioan Gruffudd who went on to appear as William Wilberforce.......

And what of that Image of the Hand and the Rose?

Here was another Montage someone did alluding to other Films that continued the Theme .......

Yep, from Jack Dawson to Jack Sparrow - and anyone who has seen those "Pirates of the Caribbean" Films will know that "The Curse of the Black Pearl" started with the young William Turner being found floating on a piece of Driftwood wearing a Pendant made from Aztec Gold. He becomes an Artificer and fine Sword Maker.

So it seems the Hand and the Rose went on to prompt those "Pirates of the Caribbean" Movies via "Titanic".

So you can see there was a lot more to "Titanic" than a Film about a love story set on the famous maritime Disaster.

And watch this space as we will go back to the roaring Twenties and why Leonardo Di Caprio might have been chosen to play Gatsby.

The OSCE or NATO?

 The OSCE ...... or NATO?

Many of the Problems we have now are due to the gradual neglect of the OSCE or Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

This was an initiative that was meant to establish a working relationship of Security from Portugal to Vladivostok and a way forward in the post-Cold War World Order.

Originally conceived between European Countries, America and the Soviet Union, as Sergei Lavrov says it could very easily have continued with post-Soviet Russia.

Indeed, in conjunction with the CFE or Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty - signed by western European, former Warsaw Pact and Soviet Countries - it would have acted as a Guarantee against where we are now. Because everyone is in it - including Ukraine and Georgia - Russia would feel no Threat to it's Security.

Thus, there would be no War in Ukraine, while the Dynamic affecting the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement would have been very different.

It would also have had other effects far beyond the Lisbon-Vladivostok Corridor.

The enmity with Iran wouldn't exist because as an OSCE Partner Russia would use it's substantial Leverage with Tehran while Relations with China would be more inclusive than fractious. Even North Korea would see the Writing on the Wall and adjust accordingly.

So instead of green lighting NATO expansion President Bill Clinton and others like the UK Prime Minister and German and French Leaders ought to have been working to develop the OSCE.

The CFE Treaty was adapted at a Conference in Istanbul in 1999 so former Soviet States could ratify it on a national rather than soviet Basis.

The Arrangement began to unravel in 2007 when Russia cited NATO enlargement and how it increased Weapons in signatory Countries as the reason for their suspending it. They mentioned Missile Systems in Poland, Bases in Romania and other things which rendered the Treaty meaningless.

NATO responded by criticising Russian Troop presences in both Moldova and Georgia.

This was before the Georgian War of 2008, which gave Russia some justification for being there as Peacekeepers when Georgian Artillery began firing at South Ossetian Villages and the enclaves Capital Tskhinvali. Even the EU found in a subsequent enquiry against the Georgians for deliberately targeting Civilians and dubbed the episode a War Crime.

The Moldovan Story goes back to the Transnistria War where ethnic Russians - backed by Ukraine - fought for independence against the Romanian Moldovans, and it could be argued that Russian Soldiers were there to act as guarantors, particularly as the Chisinau Government were veering towards Europe and maybe even NATO.

As the War in Ukraine began after the Russian Military Operation of 2022 there were fears in Moldova that they might become the "next Ukraine", and even Sergei Lavrov once mentioned this. It was because of Moldova's proximity to Odessa.

Except, shouldn't this have been added to the Reasons why Zelenskiy ought to have ratified the Istanbul Communique in April 2022?

The Treaty guaranteed Ukraine's possession of the famous Black Sea port, and thus, a sizable buffer between Moldova and the Russian held Oblasts of the Donbas and Crimea.

Any Russian Troops in Transnistria would have been bound by the Treaty, while Fears surrounding their Presence and Moldovans position in European-NATO Geopolitics ought to have been the subject of further negotiations and a Treaty.

The OSCE and CFE Treaties - along with the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty - were the things that prevented Missiles from crashing into every European Capital and City. These were the Frameworks for how the post-Cold War World Order would look, while the START Treaty covered strategic Arms that meant the rest of the World.

As these formed Lines that should never be crossed the World becomes increasingly dangerous as each one becomes fainter by the Month, or erased completely.

NATO expansion effectively cancelled the CFE Treaty as Member States increased their Military beyond it. An Irony probably not lost on Russians who see it as akin to Germany violating the Versailles Treaty when it expanded it's Armed Forces in the 1930's.

One Problem President Trump has with anyone who has been paying attention is how he was the one who walked out of the INF Treaty - and then did the same with the JCPOA Deal with Iran. The latter was a Deal with Tehran that they should curtail their Nuclear Program in return for Sanctions relief. Because he did this, not only were Sanctions reapplied, we are now in the very ambiguous position of having to guess what Iran's Nuclear program might be doing. The latter is proving very dangerous, with Trump deploying Aircraft Carriers to the Region and rattling a very large Sabre.

None of this would be happening if he hadn't left the JCPOA.

Not helped by the growing Iranian enmity with an Israel that does have the Bomb.

Meanwhile, Russian fears of western Militarism shouldn't be underestimated.

It took heaps of reassurance from a plethora of western and NATO Leaders to convince Gorbachev to support German reunification. Everyone, from James Baker to Margaret Thatcher, Manfred Woerner to Helmut Kohl, and French Leaders, all told him "not one Inch eastward"!

Despite nearly 45 years of liberal democracy in the Bundesrepublik or West Germany, Gorbachev was still wary of how a unified Germany would bring NATO further east and nearer to his Border, such was the impact of Operation Barbarossa on the Soviet/Russian Psyche.

Subsequently how could People be shocked when "Gorby" came down firmly in support of Putin over Ukraine, rather than condemn him? But then, he was the one who must have felt most betrayed when NATO did expand, being the Leader in the Kremlin when those pledges were made.

The OSCE - along with the supporting Treaties - was supposed to be how the World would be once the NATO-Warsaw Pact Stand-off ended. Even Vaclav Havel alluded to this when he suggested a similar Arrangement in 1990, saying; the Soviet Union should join NATO, or the Organisation be dismantled as it's Warsaw Pact Opponent no longer existed.

Moscow didn't join, but this was finally deemed unnecessary as the OSCE and Treaties of Paris and Helsinki would facilitate the alternative.

What we are seeing now is the consequences of all this being neglected.

..........

WHY ARE TREATIES IMPORTANT?

Treaty's are crucial to maintain some semblance of international Law.

History shows us what happens when they are violated, the most significant being that of Versailles and Munich. The former restricting Germanies Military expansion, the latter meant to prevent it's geographical equivalent, violation of both resulting in WW2. Reparations being the formers Weakness and warned against by several People, including the Architect of the League of Nations Robert Gascoyne Cecil.

The subsequent War cancelled the Treaty's of St Germaine as Countries disappeared into the Reich.

In recent years the Oslo Accords died with the Zionist Bullet in 1995 and Nablus now has empty would-be Government Buildings, Gaza is reduced to Rubble, West Bank increasingly annexed and Palestinians decimated.

The CFE Treaty effectively cancelled by NATO expansion while the OSCE, with its origins in Helsinki and Paris, sidelined by it. The INF Treaty was rendered meaningless by further NATO deployment and development of dual purpose Weapons that could be turned into Nuclear Missiles. That finally died when Trump #1 abandoned it.

The JCPOA was meant to ensure Iranian cooperation in not developing Nuclear Weapons and Trump #1 abandoned that one too.

By her own admission former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said how the West used the Minsk Accords as a way to buy time to further arm and militarise a Ukraine that was being brought closer to NATO Membership.

And the very reason NATO expanded was because, while both Gorbachev and Yeltsin were given assurances it wouldn't there was no Treaty to ensure it.

There are others which have now become nominal as the Situation is anathema to their aspirations.

So, as these disappear or are made impotent by belligerence or contempt we could descend into a neo-dark Age like the time when arbitrary Powers could War with each other on a Whim.

What we are seeing is the gradual erosion of the Peace of Westphalia.

This was a series of Treaties signed in Osnabruck and Munster in 1648 to end both the 30 year and 80 year Wars.

It was felt that if these continued there would be nothing left of Europe as all combatants would have fought each other to death and that had to end.

It established several principles ....

Ending religious Wars between Catholics and Protestants.

The rise and sovereignty of nation states.

Foundation of international Law.

All of this being the premise upon which other Treaty's are built.

So, Treaty's are important to maintain a World Order that means Countries and their People can develop and live in Peace. Europe after WW2 enjoyed 40 years of it until the Balkans descended into Wars of the 1990's with the break up of Yugoslavia and the Transnistria War.

Compared to the Ukraine though these were very regional Conflicts that didn't draw the whole World into them. The Ukraine Conflict has caused Europe to move even further away from the Treaties that bound it, including it's very existence, meant to prevent War in Europe.

VE Day - 80 years ago!

 Here is a Snapshot of what the Celebrations of the 80th anniversary of VE Day are about on May 8th 2025

 Lord Lovat at Pegasus Bridge June 1944......

          Fitzroy MacLean with Josip Broz Tito......

As the Poster suggests - the historic Meeting of American and Soviet Troops at the Elbe.....

More Meetings - Scotland meets USSR Allies......

.......and to show that Victory was owed as much to the many Women who fought. British and Soviet Men and Women celebrate......

The iconic Image of William Robertson and Alexandr Silvashko - seen as a symbol of post War Peace and Hope........

Comrades in Arms.......

Several Allied Headlines on the day ...... starting with Britain......

America .......

France .......

The Soviet Union .......

I could mention 100's of others ....... all brilliant

On the Day ..... Street Scenes .....

Churchill addresses the Crowd in London....

Trafalgar Square ......

New York ......

Paris .....

Moscow ......

And we could have visited every Allied City and Town on the day and seen similar Scenes as People celebrated the end of nearly 6 years of War in Europe.

And to show none of it would have been possible without each other ..... The famous Handshake Poster of some of the Allies who fought .......

Happy VE Day - 1945 - 2025!!!!!!!!