Breaker Morant Page #4

Would you go on please,

Captain Robertson?

I had to reprimand Handcock here

for what l considered to be

a serious breach of the rules of war.

And what was that?

He placed prisoners of war in open wagons

in front of train engines.

They could have been shot at

by their own side.

Thank you. That'll be all, Captain.

Just hold your horses there.

Do you wish to cross-examine

the witness, Major Thomas?

Yes, sir, I do.

Now tell me... Tell us,

when you joined the Carbineers,

what were you told they'd be doing?

-Fighting the enemy.

-Yes.

I mean, how?

It was a new kind of corps, wasn't it?

That's right.

We had to fight behind the lines,

against the Boer commandos.

Commandos?

That's a new word.

That's a Boer word, isn't it?

What does it mean?

The commandos had to live off the land.

Use hit-and-run tactics.

Surprise attacks, that sort of thing.

The Boers did it,

so it was the only way we could fight back.

And it must have been very difficult

to maintain discipline

under these sort of conditions?

It was, with the Australians.

-But you tried?

-Aye.

Like when you reprimanded

Lieutenant Handcock

for putting the war prisoners

in the carriages in front of the engines?

I told him

we didn't do that sort of thing.

But in the Carbineers, I mean,

you were doing a lot of things

that you'd never done before.

That's right, but there's a limit.

What was Lieutenant Handcock's reason

for placing these carriages of prisoners

in front of trains?

The Boers had been mining the lines

and blowing up a lot of trains.

He thought it might stop them.

Did it?

Yes, they did stop blowing up the trains,

but I don't think that's the...

When you were in command at Fort Edward

before the late Captain Hunt

and Lieutenant Morant took over,

what did you do with Boer prisoners?

How do you mean?

Fort Edward's only a farmhouse.

There aren't any facilities for them there.

What did you do with them?

We sent them down here

under guard to Pietersburg.

I see.

How many of them

did you send down here to Pietersburg?

Fifty, seventy,

-I really couldn't say.

-I've been informed

that during your command

only 29 prisoners were sent to Pietersburg.

So what did you do with the others?

It's quite a discrepancy, isn't it,

-between 50...

-Objection, Mr. President!

-This man is not on trial.

-He bloody ought to be.

Extraneous comments prejudice your case,

Lieutenant Handcock.

-What in hell does that mean?

-Objection allowed.

Was there a policy

to shoot prisoners

in the Bushveldt Carbineers?

Mr. President!

The defending officer is attempting

to incriminate the witness.

Major Thomas, objection allowed.

The witness is not on trial.

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