NUJ Supports SAD
In March 2001, the 33,000 strong National Union of Journalist's passed a motion of support for the SAD Campaign. David Baines, of the Newcastle Branch, spoke movingly on a motion which carried unanimous support. They are asking all their members to write to the Queen and the Prime Minister urging them to grant justice to those who were shot at dawn. This is what he said:-
"I'd like to share some good news with you today. My son celebrated his 16th birthday earlier this week. Looking around the room, I can see a fair number of my contemporaries who will also have teenage children. You'll know they can be a bit of a handful and can come up with the occasional bit of daftness. But it's all part of growing up.
Tony Blair knows that. It's not so long ago that Euan, then 16, was found lying paralytic in Leicester Square having been out with his mates celebrating the end of his GCSE's. Of course, he'll grow up. Jack Straw knows that. It's not so long ago his his teenage son was caught doing someone a favour with a bit of cannabis in a pub. Of course, he'll grow up.
I'd like to tell you about another 16-year-old. Herbert Burden. he didn't go on the pop in Leicester Square or indulge in a bit of minor criminality. Eighty-seven years ago, he'd turned sixteen, just as the world had plunged into that madness they called the Great War.
Kitchener told him: "Your Country needs You." And he answered the call. He was too young, but he lied about his age - added a couple of years - and the recruiting sergeant turned a blind eye. He went to war. Of course, everyone knew what war was. It was hell and glory. But in the past it came in short bursts. The great battle of Agincourt had lasted three hours. Waterloo lasted a day. But this was different. It was industrial warfare for the first time. It certainly was nothing like Herbert had imagined.
Tens of thousands were slaughtered in hours by machine guns. Tens of thousands were blown apart by high explosives. And tens of thousands were thrust forward to replace them so they too could die. Battles lasts days, weeks, months. Private Herbert Burden served at Belward Ridge at the Ypres Salient. His battalion was decimated, but he survived.
And, in the midst of the terror, the death, the inhumanity, he did a very human thing. He heard that a friend stationed nearby had lost his brother in the fighting, so he went to comfort him. He left his post. He was court-martialled for desertion. Other ranks weren't always allowed legal representation, so no one put his case. He was sentenced to death and shot at dawn - aged 17 years, three months.
Like Private Abraham Bevistein of the Middlesex regiment. On Christmas Eve, 1915, he was admitted to hospital suffering from wounds and shocks. A few weeks later he was back in the lines and shortly after that he was shot at dawn for cowardice. He was 17. Like Private Herbert Morris of the British West Indies Regiment. He enlisted in Jamaica, aged 16. He was shot at dawn on September 20, 1917. he had just turned 17. Like another three dozen children in the British Army.
The British shot over 300 of their own men. Men from all corners of the British Isles. From Canada, the West Indies, the Indian sub-continent, Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa. All corners of the Empire. It is our war crime.
The Shot at dawn campaign is led by John Hipkin, a retired teacher from Newcastle, who was a prisoner of war as a boy. He is here today in this hall. He is calling for a pardon for those men who were shot for cowardice, for desertion, for being shell-shocked. Children who were shot for being scared stiff.
Unlike Tony Blair's sons, Jack Straw's son, my son, your sons, they were never given the chance to grow up. This Government says they were dealt with in accordance with the law at the time. The law was wrong. This Government is wrong. I commend this motion."
The SAD Campaign would like to express its deep appreciation for this kind gesture of support from the NUJ.
