Scapegoats of the Empire

During the Boer War in South Africa, Australian George Ramsdale Witton (1874 -1942) served as a lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers until he was sentenced to death for murder after the shooting of nine Boer prisoners.

Witton's scathing political indictment of the British Empire during the Boer War, originally published in 1907. The basis for the movie "Breaker Morant". Witton's main assertion, as indicated by the book's provocative title, was that he, Morant, and Handcock were made scapegoats by the British authorities in South Africa - that they were made to take the blame for widespread British war crimes against the Boers, and that the trial and executions were carried out by the British for political reasons, partly to cover up a controversial and secret "no prisoners" policy by Kitchener, and partly to appease the Boer government over the killing of Boer prisoners, in order to facilitate a peace treaty; the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed on 31 May 1902.