The Foreign Office

When I was a lad wandering the streets of London with my Dad. I remember him pointing out the Foreign Office and his describing the importance this building and the decisions made in there which effected results in many parts of the world.
This was before "The Winds of Change" when Britain held its Empire together by diplomacy and occasionally the gun boat. To my young impressionable eyes this building and the Admiralty Building further down Whitehall were the nub of our external power. The array of antenna on the roof of the Admiralty Building spoke of warships ranging around the oceans of the world, at this very moment, in my youthful eye massive battleships plunging through the waves off to deal with 'Johnny Foreigner'.
Today our reach is off Falmouth with the occasional sallies into the Med and our communications go through Washington. But we have attempted to retain the pomp of a circumstance long gone.
The Admiral of the fleet in all his gold braid speaks longingly of his Aircraft Carriers still being built and the day when the aircraft to land on them will be conjured, probably from some redundant American stock sitting in mothballs.  
The Foreign Office itself is a splendid example of display without power. 

The huge stately offices and grand staircases all contribute to a past glory. A time when a foreign diplomat had impressed upon him that this was the centre of world influence, "where the sun never set", and one had better listen or we will send those pesky gunboats around.
The Tunisian massacre the other day was evidence of how far we have slipped.
More then 30 British holidaymakers were gunned down on the beach. The media were there filming and informing but the Foreign Office was silent. The families of the dead along with the worried families of the survivors were unable to have any assistance or information regarding who was dead and who was injured. This was not an event in a Borneo jungle but in a seaside resort flanked by attractive hotels with rooms and a check-in procedure to enumerate who was there. The dead and wounded were one assumes, killed by  bullets and not high explosives and therefore should be recognisable. They must have had their wallets and other means of identification on them and yet over 4 days elapsed before the Foreign Office swung into operation and began to communicate with the desperate relatives and the public at large.
This was presumed a major terrorist attack and yet no instructions were issued to the travel agents or the airlines with regard to how safe or unsafe Tunisia had become.
The massacre occurred on June the 26th !  Today, July the 9th, the Foreign Secretary has announced that the Foreign Office have advised everyone that Tunisia is too dangerous and that anyone from this country are warned against going. Two weeks to the day, one wonders how many meetings and sub meetings had to be constituted to be sure of action !!!
100 years ago one can imagine the worried officials scurrying around, in and out of meetings as the "Fleet"  put to sea off the Scapa Flow to prevent the German Navy from leaving their base in Wilhelmshaven. The air waves must have been humming with cryptic orders too and from the fleet.
What a change 100 years brings when not a peep is heard other than the hollow footsteps as the officials busied themselves away from their posts, hoping the trail of emails didn't land on my desk !!!