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7.55 pm
Mr. Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock): I want to outline an amendment that I hope to canvass in Committee or on Report. It relates to the 300 British and empire soldiers who were executed in the first world war, who were found guilty of such charges as cowardice, desertion, sleeping at post, disobedience, throwing away arms and hitting a superior officer.
It has long been my view, and that of an increasing number of people, that those British soldiers were denied the rules of natural justice. A high proportion of them were suffering from mental illness caused by their experiences in the trenches, and it is now time that they were granted pardons. That would be the purpose of my amendment, and I understand from informal consultations with the Clerks Department that it falls within the scope of the Bill.
Although a long time has elapsed, the matter is of our century, and, mercifully, a few thousand veterans of the great war are still alive. Nothing would give them greater satisfaction than to know, albeit late in the evening of their lives, that their comrades in arms had been pardoned and exonerated by the nation. There is overwhelming support for those pardons among veterans and those who were close to veterans of the great war.
My postbag is full of letters from every part of the United Kingdom and around the world. Almost without exception, they support those pardons, as does the representative organisation of ex-service people. The Royal British Legion has passed resolutions requesting that the matter should be reviewed.
Although a long time has elapsed, the British establishment--I hesitate to use that word--suppressed the documents relating to those courts martial for 75 years. When they were released and examined and people argued that there had been a miscarriage of justice, the establishment said that it was "too late". That is not satisfactory, because dependants of those executed soldiers have examined the papers relating to their loved ones' field courts martial and execution and demanded a remedy. They have received a great deal of support.
I recently had a long conversation with Lord Houghton of Sowerby, who was a distinguished Member of the House for many years and who fought at Passchendaele.
He argues with immense conviction that there is a profound need for the wrong to be remedied, at least in terms of the public record.
I hope that, when hon. Members consider the matter in Committee or on the Floor of the House, there will be an opportunity to vote on it, and that there will be a free vote, because the proposal for pardons commands widespread support across the political spectrum, as it does in the country.
The Prime Minister has courteously written to me several times about the issue. While he expressed sympathy and acknowledged that there was injustice in the first world war because of the nature of trench warfare and so on, he said that there should be no pardons, because it is a matter of history. Of course it is a matter of history, but cannot be glibly dismissed as if it were the Napoleonic wars or the glorious revolution; it is of our century.
Comrades in arms and dependants of those soldiers are still alive. People who suffered shell shock and trauma in the second world war have written to me and other hon. Members saying, "I know what it's like. I suffered shell shock. I am pleased it didn't happen to me in the earlier conflict." There is an overwhelming demand to recognise the matter as not merely one of history but one which is still within our scope and time, and which it is our duty to remedy by granting pardons.
If we are to spend million of pounds each year teaching history to schoolchildren and college students, we need to write it with clarity and precision. That includes declaring and writing about some of the uncomfortable aspects of our history. I venture to suggest that this is an uncomfortable aspect, because, in retrospect, we did an injustice to those British soldiers. We must now acknowledge that, and should put the record straight.
There is immense interest among schoolchildren in the subject. I make no apology for saying that. Many schools have based lessons around the executions. They do so to demonstrate the trauma of warfare in the first world war and the fact that, while we are proud of our system of justice, it is fallible. I hope that the House will be minded to consider the point.
In my previous ten-minute rule Bill, I suggested that there should be some system whereby those field courts martial could be reviewed. My hon. Friend the Member for Motherwell, North (Dr. Reid) referred to another episode, with which I am less familiar but about which there is powerful evidence suggesting that it should be reviewed--the so-called Salerno mutiny in world war two. It would be sensible and sensitive of the House at least to put into the Bill the facility for such matters to be reviewed.
I said that the field courts martial were unjust. People might ask how that could be so, and how all 300 soldiers could possibly be innocent of wrongdoing and all simultaneously suffering from trauma and shell shock. In fact, I do not argue that, but a very large number of those men were in those categories. That is demonstrated, and documented in detail, by the papers that were suppressed for 75 years. Even the most cursory examination of those papers by appropriately qualified legal and medical people would conclude that it was wrong for those men to be executed.
The common factor for all 300 men is the fact that they were denied the rules of natural justice. Those rules were not invented just recently; they have been a theme of our
justice system for centuries. The standards that applied in the earlier part of this century are no different from those of today.
The men were not given the opportunity to prepare an adequate defence. Many of them were not represented at all; if they were represented, it was by somebody who was demonstrably not qualified to do so. After their field courts martial were completed, they were often not told what their sentence was until between 12 to 24 hours before it was carried out. Not only is that demonstrably unfair and unjust, but for all the 300-plus soldiers, there was no right of appeal against the sentence of death.
Therefore, I say with confidence that all 300 cases justify pardons. In many cases, the arguments are not only buttressed but redoubled by the fact that the documents show that many men were sick, traumatised and suffering from appalling conditions that no man could endure.
I meant at the beginning of my speech to apologise to the Minister for missing his opening remarks. I do not think that he currently has a tremendously high opinion of me, but no discourtesy was intended. I am prompted to refer to the hon. Gentleman because his late grandfather's doctor, Lord Moran, wrote extensively in his diaries and memoirs about shell shock in the first world war. In moving terms, he demonstrated, as a contemporary witness of the executions, the fact that the men were sick and traumatised.
I invite hon. Members, between now and when I hope to be able to table an amendment, to examine the documents of Lord Moran, the powerful book "For the Sake of Example" by His Honour Judge Anthony Babington, and the well-documented book "Shot at Dawn" by Julian Putkowski and Julian Sykes. They show that wrongs were done.
While it is a matter of some regret that previous generations were responsible for those wrongs, it could be a matter of national pride for our generation that, towards the end of the century, we put the record straight, drew a line under this unhappy episode and included the names of those soldiers among those that we honour and respect every year at the remembrance services.
It is interesting that the regimental association of the Durham Light Infantry has already included the names of that regiment's executed service men in its book of remembrance. It considers that no shame attaches to those people. The memorial to the Black Watch in Dundee includes the names of the executed soldiers.
In the wonderful graves administered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in Flanders and on the Somme, those men in death lie alongside their comrades in arms. They are not discriminated against. That suggests that, in the years immediately after the first world war, albeit silently, there was recognition among those who made decisions that those men should not be discriminated against. There was a mood for such recognition of their service to be extended to them in death.
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