16 JUNE
FIELD MARSHAL ROBERTS – DETAIN BOER CIVILIANS AND BURN THEIR HOMES
[ 16 June 1900 ]
In October 1899, Boer settlers in the Transvaal and Orange Free, faced with a tightening circle of British troops advancing from Cape Colony and Natal, had declared a war against Britain. It was a desperate act of rebellion, which most British officers and officials were confident could be crushed within a few days.
SIX THOUSAND GIVEN A FEW HOURS WARNING OF COMPULSORY DEMOLITION
[ 16 June 1936 ]
On 16 June 1936, six thousand Arab residents of Jaffa’s Old City awoke to leaflets, dropped by British aircraft, informing them that their homes would be blown up and that they had until 9 pm to vacate them. The astonishing pretext was the need to improve ‘health and sanitation,’ although the actual intention was to improve access for military vehicles and soldiers.1
COLONIAL DETENTION CAMPS IN KENYA WORSE THAN JAPANESE POW CAMPS
[ 16 June 1959 ]
Today in 1959, the Labour MP Barbara Castle read out a letter in parliament she had received from the former assistant commissioner of police in Kenya, Duncan MacPherson. He had attempted to clear up some of the human rights abuses committed by colonial police and prison guards ‘until in despair, disgust and disillusion, he decided he could no longer waste his time in Kenya.’2
FOOTNOTES
- Matthew Hughes, ‘The Benality of Brutality: British armed forces and the Repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936-39,’ Brunel University accessed online at https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/3202/3/Fulltext.pdf
- Barbara Castle MP cited in ‘Opposition Censure of Colonial Secretary,’ The Times, 17 June 1957, p. 4.
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