PUBLIC EXECUTIONS [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Has not
the time come for Great Britain to prohibit the dreadful spectacle of public hangings in territories under our control ? There are wide differences of opinion as to the morality and efficacy of capital punishment, but surely there are very few decent-minded persons who can advance any justification for making of capital punishment a kind of holiday spectacle for thousands of people. In the district of Hoima (Uganda) two natives were convicted of murder and witchcraft, and it was decided to hang them in public. We are told that a concourse of four thousand people gathered to witness the execution. It involved the presence of a number of white British officials, accompanied by adequate forces of police and possibly troops. The visible presence of the " might and majesty " of British government must have given to the natives over a wide area the impression that British public opinion approved (which it assuredly does not) of making the death agonies of misguided persons an " educational " spectacle for thousands of people who may gloat over or enjoy it according to the depravity of their nature. Of one thing we may be hopefully certain, namely, that the whole scene must have been repulsive to certain British officials whose duty it was to superintend the carrying through of this public exhibition.—I am, Sir, &c.,
JOHN H. HARRIS.
Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, S.W. 1.
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