The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1880-02-06 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

THE EXECUTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN.  The following memorial was forwarded on Saturday to the Prime Minister by Sir Arthur Hobhouse, on behalf of the signatories :—'• My lord,—We have heard with surprise and grief the accounts of certain acts committed by the British army in Afghanistan, which we believed to be contrary to the practices of civilised warfare, and certain to be followed by disaster and dishonour. In proclaimingthat all who opposed the British forces would be tteated as rebels, that those who had instigated the resistence would be punished without mercy, and in offering rewards for any person who had fought against his troops, the -general in command took a course which cannot be justified either by public law or by the customs of civilised armies in ;the field. A national resiotance to invasion cannot with justice be converted into mutiny and insurrection by a proclamation of the invaders, much more so when the invaders have themselves destroyed the such government and organisation as previously existed in the country. We make no reference to anything that has been done during actual operations in the field, or to the execution of those who were fairly convicted of murder; but we desire to point out how grave a thing it is that soldiers on a campaign should deliberately put their prisoners to death on political grounds, and on a technical charge of rebellion. It appears that the general in command, having obtained possession of Cabul and the territory around it, instituted a systemetic search, not only those who had been accomplices in the attack on the British envoy, but for those who had taken an active part in the defence of their country. The accounts, published under a strict military censorship. inform us that in a series of public executions a considerable number of Afghans have been hung by the orders of British officers, with no military object but as a mere political vengeance. Against some of these we are told there was evidence that they had a share in the attack on the envoy. Others, and amongst them a chief priest, were put to death on the general ground of having fought in the enemy's ranks, or having been prominent in the defence. These executions took place at a time when there was no active resistance in arms, those executed were persons either _ _ . __ _ .. .. . .  previously taken in flight, or arrested m their homes. In some eases, at least, men were hung on thi  • spot, on the side evidence that their name*: were found on the list of particular regiments. 'We are told that after the bloody combats of • December the General, on retaking Cabot. returned to the system of hanging prisoners on political as distinct from mijitary grounds. A pardon has now teen innclaimed. ba this pardon rests on the principl, that those who defend their country from invasion are committing a crime; and it reserves the leaders of that defenee ice special punishment. Such proceeding are in violation of the practices of civilised warfare. They treat the invasion of an independent nation as if it were the sanguinary repression of a domestic Meowrection. They have inflamed the hostility of the Afghan people, and they must make it permanent. We ask her Majesty's Government to institute an inquiry into acts which affect the honour of the nation, of the army, and of the sovereign." Tin memorial is signed by the Duke of Westminster, the Bishops of Oxford and Exeter, Sir Arthur Hothouse, Sir C. E. Trevelyan, Sir C. P. Hothouse, Mr. Fronde, Professor Beesly, Revds. Stopford Brooke, J. L. Davies, Malcolm Mareoll, Sir A. IL Elton, and by the following members of Parliament: Sir Wilfred Lawson, Messrs. J. Chamberlain, F. Pemiington, NV. H. James, L. H. Courtney, G. Howard, C. H. Hopwood, and Justin McCarthy; also by Messrs. Humphrey, Sandworth, A. W. fluke, J. 'Hughes, Crompton, W. Morris, Arthur Arnold, and many others.