12.2.1902

Maeve Shaw

Student at St Andrews Anglican College

14/90 Beach Road, Noosa North Shore, Sunshine Coast, 4564, Queensland

Lord Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil

Prime Minister of Britain                                                               

10 Downing St, London SW1A 2AA, United Kingdom 

Headquarters of Her Majesty's Government

Dear Lord Gascoyne-Cecil,

I’m writing to you today because of the recent death of military officer Harry "Breaker" Harbord Morant, to inform you why his execution should be pardoned by you, the Prime Minister of Britain. Breaker Morant was court martialled and sentenced to death for shooting a group of eight Boer prisoners, Boer civilians and a German missionary named Heese along with Breakers partner Peter Hancock. I believe they are both innocent as well as another involved soldier, George Witton, who was jailed for life. I believe they are innocent because the young boys were just following written orders from the captain, also since they were so young and untrained they were too unexperienced to understand the situation and the boys were in a very deadly war, which is a state of armed conflict so killing wasn’t rare or unseen.

First of all, Breaker was given written orders by Captain Alfred Taylor and Major Robert Lenehan to take no prisoners so therefore he was to kill any instead. The fact Breaker was given orders by his captain should have been taken highly accounted in Breakers court trial but Captain A. Taylor lied saying that he hadn’t written such orders so Breaker was seen guilty. This was unfair because Morant just did what he was told otherwise he would have been threatened to be punished. So when Morant shot the prisoners of war he was just doing what his captain had commanded.

Another reason why, Breaker is innocent is because was only a young boy who had very limited training before battle. The soldiers fighting for Britain were not trained to handle specific situations under certain circumstances therefore Morant wouldn’t have been completely clear of what he was to do. Morant was actually quite brave and went through with killing the prisoners without confirmation with his actions. This is another reason he is innocent because he was too unexperienced to understand the conditions of the situation.

Lastly, this shooting was in the Second Anglo-Boer War which is one of the most deadly wars ever taken place in South Africa so killing wasn’t uncommon. Breaker was a soldier in war, which as I mentioned is a fight between countries with armed soldiers everywhere so killing isn’t something he hasn’t seen. Killing was actually so common, people would be dying around him so the thought that only a few prisoners of war would be killed probably didn’t worry him. Also in the ‘Rules of War’ murder isn’t obviously illegal so there was nothing he did against these rules or the orders he was given.

Overall, Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant is innocent for the killing of a group of eight Boer prisoners and a German missionary named Heese because of his inexperience, the order he was to follow and the fact that he was in war fighting for his country. Therefore you my Lord, should pardon his execution publically.

From yours sincerely,

Maeve Shaw.