Generale Greco adjusted his notes, then stood and addressed the room.
"As you probably know, the Philippines, along with the British, were involved in a small conflict a few years ago in Mindanao and northeastern Borneo. This conflict, with the group known as the 'Sons of Allah for the Liberation of the Sulu Archipelago', or SALSA, provided some valuable lessons, which I would like to discuss.
"First, I would like to point out that there may well be some groups with legitimate greivances, which are forced to resort to force of arms to eliminate their oppressors. However there are also groups which are led by madmen who are out for personal glory. SALSA was one of the latter.
"The former Sultan of Sulu, whom I shall not dignify by naming, apparently decided to set up his own little fiefdom in the southern part of our country, and attempted to take advantage of an old, perhaps apocryphical claim by his family on the Sabah region in British Borneo to acheive it. He acquired a seemingly strong following by a combination of false religious fervour and threats, and then attempted to stage his little rebellion.
"Fortunatly, although this conflict cost us three ships in the initial, admittedly spectacular anarchist attack, was quickly stamped out by a rapid, well-applied application of force.
"This is the point I wish to make. A government cannot afford to treat these kind of situations in a lackadasical manner. We went after the forces of this rascal in a prompt and vigorous manner, and after he was eliminated, the 'revolution' fell apart, and discussions with former SALSA members have revealed that they actually hadn't had any greviances against the government until the late Sultan told them they did!
"So basically, if any of those countries represented here find themselves confronted by an insurrection, I would suggest taking the following steps:
"Respond promptly. Find out why these people have taken to arms. If there's a legitimate problem - fix it!
"If there isn't, and they are simply follwing the lead of some rabble-rouser, however, it is important to eliminate him as quickly as possible. It's true; cut off the head and the snake will die. Do this in a manner sure to shock and overawe the rebels. Naval gunfire proved decisive in squashing SALSA - the battleship sent by our fine Indian friends proved most terrifying, we have heard, and His Majesty's Ship Tiger has been credited with killing the Sultan in a bombardment on what proved to be his island hideout.
"At the same time, in these cases where you might say 'the sheep have been led astray' - offer generous terms to those who have been misled. Don't punish them too severly for the sins of their leaders. Once the SALSA Rebellion was over, we offered clemency to those who would turn in their arms - and not only did we get a nice haul, the former rebels enlisted in the Army en masse - enough men to form two divisions, in fact!"
Señor Greco took a sip of water from the glass next to his seat, then continued.
"Another matter I would like to comment on, and which concerns me greatly, is that it would appear that there was, perhaps, some outside meddling in the SALSA affair. Nothing obvious, mind you, but while most of the gear recovered from the irregular forces was old Iberian kit, obviously having been hidden away for years, some was suspiscisouly new...not guns or ammo, but personal gear, canteens, knives, that sort of thing.
"We have no indications on who provided this equipment, however the issue is there, and it would be wise to consider the implications of this should violence break out somewhere else.
He paused, then continued "I believe that's just about exhausted my notes on this topic, so I yield the floor to the next speaker. Thank you."