The British Government plans to seek Parliamentary approval of a par­don for more than 300 sol­diers exe­cut­ed for mil­i­tary offens­es dur­ing World War I. The announce­ment came just after a par­don was revealed for Private Harry Farr, who was exe­cut­ed at age 25 for refus­ing to fight.

Defense Secretary Des Browne said:

“I believe a group par­don, approved by Parliament, is the best way to deal with this. After 90 years, the evi­dence just does­n’t exist to assess all the cases individually.

“I do not want to sec­ond guess the deci­sions made by com­man­ders in the field, who were doing their best to apply the rules and stan­dards of the time.

“But the cir­cum­stances were ter­ri­ble, and I believe it is bet­ter to acknowl­edge that injus­tices were clear­ly done in some cas­es, even if we can­not say which — and to acknowl­edge that all these men were vic­tims of war.”

(The Guardian — online edi­tion, August 16, 2006; Press Association). See Clemency and Military Death Penalty.

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