31 JANUARY
GENERAL – ‘THE INDIAN IS SIMPLY NOT FIT TO LEAD HIS MEN’
[ 31 January 1915 ]
On 31 January 1915, despite the hideous casualty rate suffered by commissioned British officers in the trenches of the Western Front, General Sir James Wilcox commanding the India Corps, refused to appoint Indian officers to lead his soldiers.
GERTRUDE BELL – ‘WE MUST BE LODGED’ BUT PITIES ‘THE LUCKLESS EJECTED ONES’
[ 31 January 1918 ]
On 31 January 1918, Gertrude Bell, acclaimed travel writer and an acting British political officer in Baghdad, wrote to her stepmother and father. She explained that ‘one of the worst drawbacks of the (British) occupation (of Mesopotamia), from the point of view of the inhabitants of the country, is the requisitioning of houses. I don’t see what’s to be done, for we haven’t time to build and we must be lodged, but it’s a terrible hardship to the luckless ejected ones.’1
UDA REMAINS LEGAL DESPITE MURDERS AND ILLEGAL ARMS STOCKPILES
[ 31 January 1973 ]
Today in 1973, The Daily Telegraph quoted Ulster Defence Association leader Tommy Herron admitting that ‘it is futile for us to try to stop them,’ referring to murders by Protestant loyalists.
POLL SHOWS JUST 2% BELIEVE BLAIR’S WAR ‘WILL MAKE THE WORLD SAFER’ CLAIM
[ 31 January 2003 ]
On 31 January 2003, an opinion poll in the Daily Mirror shocked the government, showing that just two per cent of the British public believed the claim by Tony Blair and other top officials, that a war with Iraq would ‘make the world safer.’ Unfortunately, the revelation of public disbelief had no impact on Blair’s determination to take Britain to war. On the very same day he flew to Washington to consult with president Bush on the final preparations for the illegal assault, which lacked any specific United Nations mandate.2
FOOTNOTES
- Gertrude Bell ( editor ), The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volume II, Ernest Benn Ltd., London, 1927, p. 443.
- Tom Bower, Broken Vows: Tony Blair: The Tragedy of Power, Faber and Faber, London 2016, p. 324.
© 2020 Alisdare Hickson All rights reserved
Please feel welcome to post comments below. If you have any questions please email alisdare@gmail.com