The
Royal Mint has chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of
the first world war with a £2 coin featuring Horatio Kitchener (the
Secretary for War in 1914) and his recruiting slogan "Your country needs
you".
The coin does nothing to commeorate the millions
of people who died in the war, or the millions more who were wounded,
traumatised, displaced, impoverished, imprisoned or bereaved.
Instead, the coin glorifies war by featuring the message of Kitchener,
who as both a general and a politician played a key role in policies
that contributed to a senseless waste of life. Kitchener was complicit
in atrocities in Sudan and South Africa prior to world war one,
including the Omdurman massacre of 1898.
The coin has already
been criticised by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (England). Other
groups, both religious and secular, are likely to add their voices soon.
We can mark the 100th anniversary of the first world war by remembering the dead and working to prevent war. We
call on the Royal Mint to withdraw this coin design and replace it with
one that truly commemorates those who died and suffered in the first
world war.
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