SOUTH AFRICA

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXI, Issue LXI, 30 January 1911, Page 5

SOUTH AFRICA

LORD GLADSTONE EXPLAINS THE

PARDON

BY GABLE -PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT. CAPE TOWN, Jan. 28. The facts concerning the reprieved native show that the white woman and four children were living at Umtali, the husband being absent. A powerful native, who had previously been in the employ of the family, entered by the window at midnight, and was found in the bedroom, where a prolonged struggle took, place. Afterwards the native again entered the house, but the bedroom was barricaded. He had been drinking. Lord Gladstone, replying to Rhodesian protests, states that, after reviewing the evidence, he commuted the sentence of death to servitude for life, because there was a distinct doubt, and it was impossible to conclude that rape had actually been committed. Lord Gladstone's view is fortified by the judges' opinion, that they would have preferred a verdict of assault with intent. Lord Gladstone concluded that the crime was unpremeditated, and that the accused presumably had entered to get food and drink.