Waving the white f lag

QUESTION When was a white flag first used as a sign of surrender?

ANCIENT Roman chronicler Livy was the first to record the use of the white emblem of surrender in his History Of Rome, written between 27 and 9 BC.

He recorded an incident from 215 BC, the end of the Second Punic War between Rome and the Carthaginians: ‘As he was approaching it he was met by a vessel hung with bands of white wool and branches of olive.

‘In it there were the ten foremost men of the state, who, on Hannibal’s advice, had been sent as an embassy to sue for peace.’

In western warfare, white banners, or flags, became the symbol to initiate ceasefires and conduct battlefield negotiations.

White is the colour of death and mourning in China, so a white flag indicates sorrow in defeat.

The meaning of the flag was codified in the Hague and Geneva Conventions, which forbade armies from using it to fake a surrender and ambush the enemy.

Mike Ford, Durham.

QUESTION Are there bolt action rifles for left-handed soldiers?

FuRTHER to the earlier answers, almost all automatic rifles are built for right-handed users, but some have a small projection to ‘kick’ ejected cartridge cases forward rather than to the right.

Others are ambidextrous, with a mechanism that is reversible or throws the cases downward.

But this is less about making allowances for left- handed soldiers and more about making it easier for the majority of soldiers to shoot from the other shoulder when needed.

Chris Rogers, Edgware, Middx.