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Britain's killing fields. Volume 1, Southern Nigeria 1900-1930

Igbino, John2023
Books
Britain's failure to collect and keep 'natives' casualty statistics was not an unconscious omission. Instead it was a deliberate policy because it placed considerably less value on the lives of 'natives' compared to European lives. It held that a drop of European blood was worth four times more than 'natives' blood. The death of a District Officer on active duty was worth the lives of up to 200 'natives' and it took 20 'natives' to service a Political Officer on the field. Additionally, it accepted the arguments of its top commander, Colonel Arthur Montanaro, that 'natives' were engaged in illegal resistance to His Majesty's Government, therefore while he had a duty to crush their resistance to the British Government he was not duty bound to account for their deaths.
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