Chessa-lee: Breaker Morant

17 Feb 2010

Lame Excuses - who's next?

The Queen is being asked to grant a royal pardon to Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a soldier executed by a British firing squad for the murder of prisoners in the last days of the Boer War.

Somerset-born Morant – the subject of the film Breaker Morant starring Edward Woodward – sailed to Australia in 1883 at the age of 19 and became a skilled horsebreaker.

He was among thousands of men from Australia who volunteered to fight against Dutch settlers in South Africa. In 1902 he was convicted at a court martial of murdering 12 Boer prisoners.

During a savage guerilla campaign, when numerous atrocities were committed by both sides, Morant is said to have intercepted a group of eight prisoners being brought in for questioning. He ordered them to be shot at the side of the road.

Later other Boers who had waved a white flag of surrender were also disarmed and shot under Morant's command.

Now a petition has been sent to Australia’s Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, by military lawyer James Unkles, who claims shooting prisoners was Army policy and Morant and codefendant Peter Handcock should be pardoned.

He claims Lord Kitchener, the British commander, ignored recommendations for mercy because he wanted the pair shot to discredit claims he had ordered the execution of prisoners to speed up peace talks with the Boers and appease Germany, which was considering entering the war. --- read the complete article HERE and another in the Sydney Morning Herald here.

Shall we - or shall we not...no...we shall not! I agree with Derek from Durham saying the following in the comments on the first link - link of the Mail Online.
"Sounds to me he commited war crimes then and by any stretch of the imagination would have been founld guilty then and at any time since.

A war crime is a war crime in no matter what era or by any country .

What next shall we pardon members of the SS, or maybe even Goering or Rudolf Höss the Commandant of Auschwitz,

I was just carrying orders , mmmm sounds a lame excuse sure the SS used something like this in their defence."
See also these links:

http://www.archive.org/stream/westpointerwithb00blakrich#page/300/mode/2up
Australian Goverment NOT to support the Pardon of Breaker Morant! - update 2012 http://breakermorant.com/blog/?p=388 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/287483

A new book published in South Africa has Australians-Breaker Morant-supporters furious. Well, it's only about the truth, isn't it? http://www.beeld.com/Boeke/OnlangsVerskyn/n-Legende-ontmasker-20120603

Geniet wat jy hier vind....Enjoy what you found here...

God created the world just like a knife and left it up to us to take it by the handle or the blade--C J Langenhoven...Seek in the past everything that is good and clean and build thereon your future...Paul Kruger... Vriende moet soos boeke wees, min, maar goed uitgesoek --Langenhoven... Friends should be like books, few, but hand-selected --Langenhoven... Goeie boeke en musiek verryk jou siel -- Good books and music enrich your soul --Langenhoven... Let those love now who never loved before. Let those who always loved now love the more. --Thomas Parnell

You cannot step twice in the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in--Knowing not how to listen is knowing not how to speak--Heraclitus, Fragments. Vuil wasgoed is om te was!-- Langenhoven 'I think one move ahead - but it is always the best move'-Reti Some part of a mistake is always correct. - Savielly Tartakover

There is no failure except in no longer trying--Elbert Hubbard. The secret of success is the ability to survive failure --Noel Coward.

Music expresses feeling and thought, without language, it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words.~Robert G. Ingersoll

Avoid the crowd, think independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece! - Rumi.

It is better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation - Herman Melville. While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy. Chess is the touchstone of the human intellect.-John Wolfgang von Goethe.

The chessboard is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the Universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature and the player on the other side is hidden from us. - Thomas Huxley.

Jou persepsie hang alles af van hoe wyd jou opvatting van die digkuns is. - Joan Hambidge.

Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom. - Proverb.

I doubt, therefore I think, I think, therefore I am - Rene Descartes.

Doubt is not the opposite of faith, it is one element of faith. - Paul Tillich

He who knows nothing, doubts nothing. Spanish proverb.

Wisdom begins in wonder. - Socrates.

Val eerder in my sop as in my rede. - Langenhoven.

See in the past everything that is good and clean and build thereon your future..Paul Kruger - President of the ZAR. Vriende moet soos boeke wees, min, maar goed uitgesoek. - Langenhoven. Friends should be like books, few, but handselected...Langenhoven.

Good books and music enrich the sould - Langenhoven. The secrete of success is the ability to survive failure. - Noel Coward.

You cannot step twice in the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in..knowing not how to listen is knowing not how to speak. --Heraclitus, Fragments.

Chess teaches you to control the initial excitement you feel when you see something that looks good and it trains you to think objectively when you're in trouble. - Stanley Kubrick.

A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator, the smaller the fraction. - Leo Tolstoy

The pawns are the soul of chess. - Philidor

Corus 2010

Linares 2010