Lieutenant Witton.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7913, 21 September 1904, Page 5

Lieutenant Witton.

A Cape M.P. Secures His Freedom.

What Happened at Devil's ■■• Kloof.

LONDON, August 12. The cables have already told you. of the release frorii Portland Prison of Lieut. G. Witton, who in September, 1901, was tried at Pretoria, along with Lieut. 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 get his punishment reduced. Happily, however, Witton had a staunch friend in the Hon. J. Logan, oithe 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 tlie Home' Government to release Witton. That resolution failed to have any immediate effect, so Mr Logan travelled to England, arid 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 thirty, standing over six feet in his socks, looks little the worse, be it said, for his experience in the huge convict establishment at Portland. During an interview the question was asked: " What are you going to do when you get back to Australia ?" " Wells T think I have had enough of soldiering, and shall' enter civil life^' My! home is in Victoria, where T was -a- member of the Royal Australian Artillery when the war broke out." \ ;>;,.--. "..-••-■'••-. ■'.;.- '■■ .':.'.. '■■ .

~This led Lieutenant Witton Jo 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 things 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 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 13th, 1902,-1 think. From there a detachment of us was sent on to Spelenken, or Splonken, which was our farthermost outpost in the North-eastern Transvaal, a desolate place, under the command of Captain Hunt. I an-ived there on a Saturday evening, and never saw Hunt alive. When I got' to the camp, Hunt was out. on patrol. On Sunday evening we received news that he had been brutally 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 hobnailed boots-nat-urally roused us,- and Lieutenant Mprant, who was in command hrHunt's absence, was • .terribly-- upset. •• ;He arid Hunt had beeri-schoolniates' 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 started out someone said—lwon'tgivenames—there was to he.'No surrender.' It was, Ithink, the following Thursday when we got to Devil's Kloof, and, after hard riding, we came up with the-Boers about sunset. They skedaddled, and, as they had fresh horses, and ours were tired out they got away, all but one man, a Boer called Visser. Hinrwe captured and Morant said he would shoot' him. Well, there were some of us who didn't' quite like ' the .idea, but Morant said" he had his orders from headquarters; Morant, Picton and- others held, a conference, and I remember saying to Morant, after thinking about the matter, ' Leave me but of it.' . The next morning at dawn a firing party was detailed under the sergeant-major. I was hanging about, when- thesefgeaht-majpr. caiheto me'and: said, 'Some of the men don't like the idea: of -this coldrblpoded; job.': .-.Would Ispeak to Morant '?■ I was pretty sick of the uncertainty of the whole job. Morant said he had his. orders—what could I say ? I was Morant's junior officer, but what I believe I actually said to the sergeant-major was, 'Look here, I will shoot him myself.' To cut an unhappy story short, wo shot Visser. He took his fate stoically. I don't remember •that there was any scene —(I am not a journalist)—and there you are. You lcnow the rest as well as T do."