THE AUSTRALIAN EXECUTIONS.

Evening Star, Issue 11725, 7 April 1902, Page 6

THE AUSTRALIAN EXECUTIONS.

THE WAR OFFICE REPORT EXTENUATION NOT SUSTAINED. LORD KITCHENER'S OPINION. PICTON GIVES THE LIE TO PRO-BOERS. Prwt AnoeretJon—By Telegraph—CopyrijM. LONDON, April I

The War Office has published the tallowing statement re the shooting of <6cers:—ln July and August last year 4« Bush Veldt Carbineers were recruited W South Africa, inclnding other colonials, arj employed in tbt. wildest part of the Tranj vaai, known as Spelonken, and took a eer, tain number of prisoners. It came to tfy knowledge of the authorities in Octobej that there had been grave irregularities ori the part of certain officers during the previous three month''. An exhaustive inves ligation was ordered, and a Court of quiry assembled on October 16. The inquiry resulted in five officers being tried by a general court-martial at Pietersburg in Jajuary lavt, and found guilty, as principal or accessories, of twelve murders. Liew tenants P. J Handcock and H. H. Mow, were sentenced to death- The sentarus was coufinned and carried out The saxft officers were also charged with the maf tier of the Rev. C. Heese, German mi. sionary, on August 23. Although thei was strong suspicion that Handcock, in eiigated by Morant, committed the deed, the evidence was not sufficiently cortcfasm to justify conviction. Witton was found guilty of murder; and sentenced to death, but, being present under influence, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. Lieutenant H. Pieton was found guilty of manslaughter, and cashiered. Major Lenehan. commanding the Bush Vekit Carbineers,, who became aware of the crwnes subsequent to their committal, was convicted of culpable neglect, in omitting to report this. Thereon this officer was ordered to Australia, his dismissal being rendered unnecessary by the previous disbandment of the corps. No doubt exist* aa to the guilt of the accused, whose plea of extenuation that a member of their corps suffered 31tnatment at. the hands of the Boem was not sustained by the evidence at the triaL The sentences were such as would have been inflicted on any officers found «imilarly guilty. LORD KITCHENER'S MESSAGE. MELBOURNE, April 6. Lord Kilchener has cabled to Lord Hopetoon details of the shooting. These confirm the particulars already received through the War Office. Lord Kitchener says: "There were, in my opinion, no extenuating circumstances." THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY. EVIDENCE OF A PARTICIPATOR. LONDON, April 5. Lieutenant Pieton, who was cashiered in connection with the shooting, arrived by the steamer Canada. In the course of an interview wiih a 'Daily Mail' representative he stated that Captain Hunt's party of Carbineers attacked Barand at Viljoen's farm at Duivelss Kop m September. Caplain Hunt was left wounded on the verandah. Next day Morant and Handcock found Hunt's body stripped and brutally kicked about the face, the legs slashed with a knife, one eye gouged out, and the Deck broken. Mr Renter, the missionary at the station where Hunt was buried, so Pieton alleges, confirmed this. Morant and Handcock swore revenge,, and ordered that if the murderers were captured nr, quarter was to be given them. A Boer was caught dressed in Hunt's clothes, and he: got a short shrift. Later eight others were captured. A drrrmhead court-martial showed that they belonged to the same party. They were executed. Revenge, and not plunder, was the motive. He considered that the laws of war justified the execution*. The story about obtaining £20,000 from the Boer waggons was a lie. Mrs Schiel, wife of Colonel Schiel, who is a prisoner, proved that Handcock and Morant wpre at a farmhouse forty miles away on the night that Heese, the German missionary, was murdered. Morant, in has dying moments, protested! his innocence.

'THE TIMES' DEMANDS, DETAILS.

I/)NDON. Aptil 6,

' The Times' demand? information of the officers' crimes, and says that the detail* are meagre. The country has a right to know the exact truth. A SOLDIER'S ACCOUNT. LONDON, April 6. (Received April 7, at 9.30 a.m.) A soldier, writing from Pretoria under ♦jate February 27, says that Handcoek and Morant were convicted on thirty charges, including the shooting of fonr surrenderprs, whom they robbed of £4,000. Laier thev killed a sergpant for refusing to share the plunder, fearing that be would inform the ntrtborities.