broderick@vax4.DEC (07/16/84)
<> I saw Breaker Morant over the weekend and (having previously seen a part of the movie ) I realized that it was a story that required careful attention. Even so, I think that I missed something. My question to the audience is : if the reason for the trial was ostensibly to appease the Germans for having killed Hess (the preacher) then, why was that the only charge that was dropped? Or, why was the trial continued to such a final finale after that charge was dropped? inquisitively yours, Peggy Broderick (decvax!decwrl!rhea!vax4!broderick)
tmh@ihldt.UUCP (Tom Harris) (07/19/84)
> if the reason for the trial was ostensibly to appease the > Germans for having killed Hess (the preacher) then, why was > that the only charge that was dropped? > Or, why was the trial continued to such a final finale after > that charge was dropped? Appeasing the Germans was only a small part of the reason the trail was held. The real reason lies heavily with the nature and current state of the Boer War. The Boer War was the first modern Guerilla (i.e. Vietnam type) War. By the time the three officers were charged the active part of the war was starting to wind down and the British were facing a long unproductive and draining occupation of the Boer states. The Boers, because of the bitter nature of the war were reluctant to come to terms. Kitchener decided that if the British took the first step (i.e. shot some of there own officers for war crimes) the Boers would be more likely to come to talks. So he picked a board of professional military men all of whom knew what was at stake. His object was to have a unanmous decision against the three so that there would be no doubt or problems with shooting them (the fact that the board failed to vote so is a pretty clear indication that the three should have gone free {of course the two who were shot were guilty of the murder of Hess so justice was served in the long run}). Also the hope of German intervention was one of the few things that had kept the Boers going up to that time (and the trial smashed any hope of that). The trial from Kitchener's point of view was a huge success. The Boers came to the peace talks and the war ended. Several footnotes on the trial: the month after the executions the Australian Parlement sat for the first time and one of the first bills passed was that no Austrailian citizen could be tried by a British Military court-martsial unless at least one Austrailian member was on it (i.e. they realized that had there been an Austrailian on the board the three would have gone free). Kitchener gets his during WWI when the cruiser he is on is torpedoed and sunk. The Boers on Kitcheners advise accept a rather unfavorable settlement, which causes the Britsh goverment to change and gets them rather more when (the new goverment renegotiates) than they would have got had they let the talks drag on. Sort of interesting to note that the U.S. did the same thing to Calley, but didn't follow through on the execution (of course press was allowed at the trial so public opinion was a factor). Delenda Carthago Est, Tom Harris P.S. I found the movie to the most supurb historic portrail ever put on film. The attention to details is amazing (all the pictures of Queen Victoria even have black crepe at the corners).
michaelf@ism780.UUCP (07/27/84)
#R:decwrl:-260200:ism780:18000014:000:186 ism780!michaelf Jul 19 13:29:00 1984 They needed a scapegoat(s). The Brits needed to have something to appease the gods and the "trial" had been snowballing into a railroading so there was no stopping them. I think.