SIXTY years after the end of the Second World War and more than 80 years after the end of the First World War, Britain has still failed to correct a tragic injustice.

How can the country continue to refuse to pardon the young men who were executed as so-called cowards during the horrors which unfolded between 1914 and 1918?

They were boys who were being asked to walk to their almost certain deaths, many of them suffering from shell shock. But they were shot at dawn by their own side because they allegedly lacked courage.

There are some who argue that the officers who ordered the executions had no choice but to make an example of those who deserted their lines. It was the only way to stop the trickle becoming a flood.

But we have hopefully come a long way since those dark days, and as a society we should acknowledge the circumstances in which the likes of Durham Light Infantrymen Sergeant Joseph "Will" Stones, Lance Corporal Peter Goggins and Corporal John McDonald had their lives taken.

We therefore welcome the chink of light let in by yesterday's High Court ruling by Mr Justice Stanley Burton, indicating that the military authorities should not have imposed the death penalty on Private Harry Farr, of the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment.

We hope the chink becomes a shaft and that Britain is enlightened enough to accept that those executed during the First World War should at least be given the benefit of the doubt and granted posthumous pardons.