The British Empire didn’t come to be the largest hegemony in human history by accident. But its architects were always very careful to make it look that way.
One of their more cunning tricks was to make sure the atrocities were committed by related third parties.
Indians in Fiji, Malayans in Sri Lanka, you get the picture. When things got out of hand, or rare survivors blabbed, the proxy soldiers could receive some token discipline and the project could move on.
But when they came up against the rugged Boers on the South African Veldt they had a bit of a problem.
Even British regular soldiers weren’t up to the task so they cast around the globe for a more rugged model.
The young men of Australia were ready and willing for pretty much anything to get them out of Lismore in the summer.
And when the survivors blabbed there were, as usual, token executions to make people feel better, but only after the bloody work was done.
The Herald Sun reports that the National Boer War Memorial has had its design approved for the earmarked site on Anzac Parade.
President of the Boer War Memorial Association former Army Colonel John Haynes said a site for the striking Boer War Memorial had been approved in 2006 and it had taken five years to get a design approved.
The striking memorial will feature a 1.5 life-size section of four mounted troopers galloping through low bush of the high veldt landscape.
They will be cast in bronze by Melbourne sculptor Louis Laumen who created the statue of Saint Mary MacKillop that stands outside St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney and the “early game” Aussie Rules sculpture at the MCG.
Mr Haynes said the Boer War was the first time that Australian and New Zealand soldiers, later to be known as Anzacs following the Gallipoli campaign, fought together for King and country.
The memorial website which somehow manages to look older than the Boer War itself has an enthusiastic ticker running.
All that I’ve said above should not detract from the sacrifice of those who answered their nation’s call. The memorials are ideally about remembering loss, not glorifying the conflicts.