7 JUNE

BRITISH TROOPS BURN HOMES AND DESTROY RICE STORES IN CEYLONESE VILLAGES

[ 7 June 1818 ]

On 7 June 1818, a short newspaper article in the Windsor and Eton Gazette carried an opinion piece on the latest reports from the British colony of Ceylon.

REPORTS OF THE BURNING OF THE NIGERIAN TOWN OF OGODO FIRST PUBLISHED

[ 7 June 1904 ]

On 7 June 1904, several British newspapers published a brief Reuters report on the burning of Ogodo, which was said to be ‘one of the largest Okpoto towns’ captured ‘after four hours constant fighting.’ Its many homes were put to the torch in retaliation for the death of two ‘white officers’ who had been ambushed while leading an earlier armed incursion into Okpoto territory in the Bassa Province of Northern Nigeria. The ‘punitive expedition’ was comprised of 300 soldiers of the West Africa Frontier Force under Major Merrick. Although it was well armed and equipped with two maxim machine guns, the resistance to the British assault was said to have been of ‘a stubborn character,’ but the date on which the town had been burned down was not considered sufficiently important to mention.¹ Nor was it the only town torched. A Press Association report in January had noted that during an earlier reconnaissance against the Okpoto in late 1903 ‘all the principal hostile towns on the line of the advance were destroyed.’²

PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE WHOLESALE FLOGGING OF EGYPTIAN VILLAGERS

[ 7 June 1919 ]

On 7 June 1919, the Egyptian Delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference said it was sending photographs showing the ‘wholesale flogging of villagers by the British’ to American President Woodrow Wilson in support of their appeal that he should reconsider his country’s recognition of the British protectorate. During an interview with the Paris correspondent of the Freeman’s Journal, the Egyptian delegates explained that ‘it has been stated that floggings, where they have taken place, have been confined to the Labour Corps. But here a whole village has been lashed, and it has occurred since America recognised the British protectorate.’²

FOOTNOTES

1. ‘African Treachery,’ The Daily Mirror, 7 June 1904, p. 3 and ‘Punishing the Oktopos,’ The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 7 June 1904, p. 7.
2. ‘Egyptians Flogged,’ The Freeman’s Journal, 10 June 1919, p. 5.
3. ‘Progress of the Punitive Expedition,’ the Belfast News-Letter, 18 February 1904, p. 7.

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