Why has the sinking of the SS Mendi in 1917 been portrayed by The Argus and MPs Des Turner and David Lepper as something for which the present Ministry of Defence should apologise?
Seamen being abandoned to their fate after a ship was sunk by accident or design was not unique to the SS Mendi.
Owing to the ever-present danger of German submarines in both world wars, many thousands of seamen were abandoned in a tragically similar fashion to those of the SS Mendi.
In fact, most captains, especially those in convoys, sailed with orders forbidding them to stop to pick up survivors.
Finally, to imply, however subtly, more than 90 years after the event and with the dubious benefit of hindsight, that the captain of the liner which sank the SS Mendi did not stop to pick up survivors because they were black is not only arrogant, it is also ridiculous.
Mr Turner and Mr Lepper seem to have conveniently forgotten that also drowning in the Channel that day with their black comrades were their white officers and also the crew of the SS Mendi, most of whom were white.
It is enough that in this present day every word, action or incident has to be dissected minutely for racial content without us having
to search through the pages of history for more such incidents.
-M W Wilson, Goldstone Villas, Hove
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