Sentence:  L'Unita and Hoy published identical denunciations of Short 's elevation , l'Osservatore Romano and the Christian Science Monitor ignored it , Times of India snickered at it , and the Manchester Guardian simply reported it - the Fosterites in England <WSD>were</WSD> few but extremely militant . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)