"LIONS led by donkeys" was the epigrammatic verdict of German World War One commander Colonel Max Hoffman on the British soldiers and the officer class.

It has come down through history as a telling comment on how the ordinary soldiers' bravery was squandered by their leaders.

Yet it was those same "donkeys," frequently far from the front and ruling their men with all the disdain that rank, privilege and the rigid class system of 80 years ago gave them, who decided which of them were cowards and deserters - and ordered them to be shot.

The injustice of this has long been known but it has never been redressed.

The basic fact that many of the executed men were given cursory trials, no opportunity to prepare a defence and no appeal against the death sentence is enough in itself to warrant the review that the government has now ordered of their cases.

But, much worse than this is the still-upheld official belief that men who obviously collapsed under the mental strain of the horrors of trench warfare were not sick, but selfish cowards deserving not compassion but a dawn firing squad.

What stinks is the still-prevailing World War One donkey mentality and its heartless disregard of the truth, fairness and the anguish of the dead men's families.

That the last government beat off moves to pardon these men was disgraceful.

That the new one acts so differently offers not only hope that pardons will at long last be given to those who deserve them - but also that the day of the elitist donkey class is finally over.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.