Posted on 03/19/2008 8:59:15 PM PDT by george76
They came in their Sunday best — a sea of tweeds, brogues and blazers with gold buttons — and mingled politely opposite the Houses of Parliament. There was a lot of hip-hooraying and handshaking. It was the most British of protests.
But while the thousand retired Gurkhas who gathered in London yesterday were certainly British in heart and mind, theirs was a campaign to become British by law.
Last March, the Government said that all the Army’s Nepalese fighters who retired after 1997 would be entitled to pay and pension equal with the rest of the Army and would be allowed to settle in Britain.
For those who retired before 1997, their pensions remained six times less than their British counterparts and they still have no automatic right to stay in Britain. They are campaigning to be treated the same as the other Gurkhas.
“The British Government has always been a champion for equality. Now we want them to live up to what they preach,” said Indra Gurung, 44, who served with the Army for 25 years.
His army pension is £115 a month. His rent is almost twice that.
— More than 200,000 Gurkhas have fought for Britain around the world. Thirteen have been awarded the Victoria Cross
— About 43,000 Gurkhas died fighting in the two world wars
— The first Gurkhas were recruited into the British Army in 1815 after the Victorians identified them as a “martial race”, naturally warlike and aggressive. Gurkhas still carry into battle a traditional 18in curved knife, or kukri
— The name Gurkha comes from the hill town of Gorkha, from where the nation of Nepal expanded
— The motto of the Gurkha is: “Better to die than be a coward”
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Embarassing mistake by the London times since there were no “Victorians” in 1815. Queen Victoria did not assume the throne until 1837.
They also served with Prince Harry in Afghanistan.
What, the Queen of journalism make a mistake?
Picky, picky ….
Great catch! ;-)
Heck, Queen Victoria wasn’t even born until 1819.
I met a Gurkha once, a very interesting fellow who had settled in England with his British wife. Even in his declining years, he was a wiry fellow who could probably lop your head off at the shoulders before you could blink an eye.
-ccm
I am sure that the brass hats thought that no man could be more safe than amidst a platoon of kukri-carrying Gurkhas.
-ccm
“I am sure that the brass hats thought that no man could be more safe than amidst a platoon of kukri-carrying Gurkhas.”
-ccm
You could be right. The Gurkhas even impressed the Highlanders.
And vice versa.
Too bad we haven’t invited ALL the Gurkas and their families into America - instead of all the garbage we’re accepting.
If anyone ever deserved a bending of the rules, the Gurkhas do.
The Brits are wonderful people. However, they have a fundamental flaw - they are terribly resistant to change.
The Gurkha problem arose in the 1940’s. It was decided that Gurkhas serving in the British Army and those serving in the Indian Army should have pay parity. For close to sixty years, there has been no serious attempt to remedy that problem, until now. It was quite obvious that the situation was unjust, but the Brits adhered to it for the ‘sake of tradition’.
There are many illogical things the Brits do ‘for sake of tradition’. The unelected House of Lords is one, having Bishops on the House of Lords is another. Not having a written constitution is another. Insisting that a Catholic cannot be Prime Minister is the most extreme.
Sorry, but there is no such insistence. Since the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 the only offices still barred to catholics are the monarchy, the Lord Chancellorship (currently being abolished anyway) and certain now-defunct judicial positions in ecclesiastical courts. There has, however, been no Prime Minister as yet who has been a Catholic while in office, though of course Tony Blair announced his conversion shortly after his departure.
Some partisan protestant source have always argued that the wording of the 1829 Act would open the appointment of a Catholic Prime Minister to legal challenge, though this has never been tested in the courts.
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