LIEUTENANT WITTON.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8094, 23 September 1904, Page 4

LIEUTENANT WITTON.

A CAPE M.P. SECURES HIS FREEDOM. WHAT HAPPENED AT DEVIL'S KLOOF. LONDON, August 12. The cables have already announced the release from Portland Prison of Lieutenant G. Witton, who in September, laui, . was tried at Pretoria, along with Lieu] tenant Morant, for the murder of several Boers in the Spelenken district of Northeast Transvaal, and was sentenced to imprisonment for life. At the time of his trial many in the Old Country thought, on the evidence which came to light, that Witton's sentence was a very harsh one, but nothing in the nature of a sustained effort to get his sentence reviewed was made, nor does it appear that the unfortunate man's Australian friends really "put their backs into" any attempt to got his punishment reduced. Happly, however, Witton had a staunch friend in the Hon. J. Logan, of the Cape Legislative Assembly, who gave expression to public opinion in South Africa by seconding a resolution in the Cape Parliament a couple of months ago, calling upon the Home Government to release Witton. That resolution failed to have any immediate effect, so Mr Logan travelled to England, and his personal representations to the Home Office were so effective that on Wednesday morning Lieutenant Witton, who had served two and a half years of his sentence, was released. Mr Logan himself went down to Portland to bring the young man back to London. Witton was greatly surprised when he heard that he was once more a free man. He had given up all hope of being released for many years. Now he is in Scotland with his good friend, Mr Logan, grouse shooting, and after working off the effects of prison life a little, he proposes to return to his native land. The lieutenant, who is a fine young fellow of 30, standing over six feet in his ■ocks, looks little the worse, be it said, for his experience in the huge convict establishment at Portland. Interviewed, whilst passing through London yesterday, he said: "Other people may have what opinion they like as to the justice of my punishment, but • for myself I have no vomplaint to make against the Govern'inent or anybody else. They saw fit to give me this punishment, and I have suffered it. lam very thankful to be free once more, and am looking forward to my dinner. . . . Since I have been in prison I have lost my father. That has >een a great blow to me. When I heard from my brother that my father was very ill, I petitioned the Home Office to be allowed to go and see him, but, of course, they could not allow that. Beyond this, I have nothing to complain about my treatment at Portland. I asked no privileges, and worked like any other convict." What are you going to do when you get back to Australia? was asked. "Well, I think I have had enough of soldiering, nnd shall enter civil life. My home is in Victoria, where I was a member of the Royal Australian Artillery when the war broke out." This led Lieutenant Witton to allow himself a brief recital of the facts which led to his conviction, "although," he added. "I don't want to rake up the past, and it is best to let thihgs die out." "I was one of those who volunteered their services in South Africa. I left Australia with the Australian Imperial Bushmen in, I think, May, 1901. We served fourteen months, and I was then j offered a commission in the Bushvelt ' Carbineers. It was then that I met Morant. The headquarters of the Carbineers was at Petersburg, where we arrived on July 13. 1902—1 think. From there a detachment of us was sent on to Speleniton. or Splonkcn, which was our farthermoat' outpost in tlie North-Eastern Transvaal, a desolate place, under the command of Captain Hunt. I arrived there on a Saturday evening, and n«ver saw Hunt alive. When I got to the camp Hunt was out on patrol. On Sunday evening we received news that he had been hrutally murdered by some Boers. The description we received of how his body had been • mutilated— for instance, his eyes had been stamped out of his head by hobnaited boots— naturally roused us, and Lieutenant Morant, who was in command in Hunt's absence, was terribly upset. He and Hunt had been schoolmates together, and the closest of pals. ' With feelings running high, we set out from camp, determined to punish the outrage which had occurred at a place called Devil's Kloof, fully eight miles from Spelenken. I can't remember exactly what happened, but I remember the night we «tarted out someone said — I won't give names — there was to be *Xo surrender.' It was, I think, -the following Thursday when we prot to Devil's Kloof, and, after r'ding hard, we came up with the Boers about sunset. They skedaddled, and. as they hod fresh horses and ours were tired out. they got away, all but one man, a Boar called Visser. Him we captured, ond Morant said we would shoot h*m. Well, there were some of us who didn't nuite like the idea, hut Morant said he had his orders from headquarters. Morant, Picton, and others held a conference, and I remember saying to Mornnt, after thinking about the matter. 'Loftve me ont of it.' The next mornina at dawn a firing party was detailed under the senceant-major. I was hanging about, when the serpeant.-niajor came to me and said, 'Some of the men don't like thp idea of this cold-blooded job.' Would I speak to Morant? I was pretty s ; ck of the uncertainty of the whole iob. Morant said ))■} had his orders — what could T nay? I was Mnrnnt's junior officer, but what I bolieve I actually said to th«> Bergeant-mftior was, 'Look here, I will shoot him myself.' To make an unhapnv story short, we shot Visser. He took his fnte stoically. I don't remember that th«»re was any seene — (I am not a journalist)—^and there you arc You know the rest as wall as I do."— N.Z. Times* London correspondent.