4 DECEMBER

LORD MILNER ON HIGH DEATH RATE IN BRITISH CONCENTRATION CAMPS

[ 4 December 1901 ]

Lord Milner, Britain’s High Commissioner for Southern Africa, was charged with sorting out the concentration camps for civilian detainees during the Second South African Boer War, after the scandal of their inhumane conditions had been exposed in the press. In a letter, written on 4 December 1901, Milner admitted that any hope that the death rate would begin to decline, once the sickest children had died, was a mistake. ‘The theory that, all the weakly children being dead, the rate would fall off, it is not so far borne out by the facts,’ he confessed, adding that ‘the strong ones must be dying now and they will all be dead by the spring of 1903.’¹

Approximately 28,000 Boer civilians and 20,000 Blacks, mostly workers detained on Boer farms, died in British Army run detention camps between June 1901 and May 1902. Among the Boer population who perished in the camps, approximately 22,000 were children. Most of them succumbing to malnutrition related diseases caused by the inadequate diet, lack of proper shelter and overcrowding.²

FA CHIEF APOLOGISES TO THE NAZIS AND TOASTS HITLER

[ 4 December 1935 ]

On Wednesday 4th December 1935, the visiting German national football team had been invited to an after the match dinner reception at the Hotel Victoria in London.

ARMS EXPORTS PRIORITIZED OVER THE SURVIVAL OF BIAFRA’S FAMINE VICTIMS

[ 4 December 1967 ]

On 4 December 1967, Commonwealth Minister George Thomas urged Denis Healey, the Defence Secretary, to step up Britain’s military aid to the murderous Nigerian junta.

ARMS EXPORTS PRIORITIZED OVER HUMAN RIGHTS

[ 4 December 1995 ]

On 4 December 1995, Foreign Officer Minister James Hanley, replying to a parliamentary question, explained that ‘Her Majesty’s Government have no plans to link the UK’s trade and defence policies with Saudi Arabia’s performance in the area of respect for religious liberty,’ although he added that ‘the Saudi Government are well aware of our views on freedom of thought, conscience and religion and on the importance of inter-faith dialogue.’³

FOOTNOTES

1. Lord Milner cited in Paul Harris, ‘”Spin” on Boer Atrocities,’ The Guardian, 9 December 2001, accessed online at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/dec/09/paulharris.theobserver and also article at https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/women-children-white-concentration-camps-during-anglo-boer-war-1900-1902
2. Lord Milner cited in Paul Harris, ‘”Spin” on Boer Atrocities,’ The Guardian, 9 December 2001, accessed online at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/dec/09/paulharris.theobserver
3. Hasard, House of Commons, Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Saudi Arabia accessed online at url https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo951204/text/51204w20.htm

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