This book is dedicated to my fellow-citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia, in grateful recognition of their loyal, continuous, and successful efforts towards my release from an English prison.
I have not attempted to defend the doings of the ill-starred Bushveldt Carbineers, or the policy of those who employed them.
The methods of dealing with prisoners, which have been solely attributed to that corps, were in active operation before the so-called "Australian" officers went to the Spelonken district—a fact which the English press, and a large section of the Australian press, systematically ignored.
When I arrived in Australia, I found that the grossest misrepresentations had been made by those primarily responsible for the manner of the warfare which "staggered humanity," and that they had succeeded in linking the name of Australia with the most tragic and odious incidents connected with a mercenary and inglorious war.
If the publication of the truth will in some measure cause Australians, as a people, to take less on trust where their honour is concerned, and in future to demand the most searching enquiries and obtain definite proof before accepting the misdeeds of others as their own, then this record of an eventful experience will not have been written in vain.
Contents
I Volunteering to Fight "For the Empire"
II The Voyage to Africa
III Round About Beira
IV The Sick List
V The Australians in Cape Town
VI Commissioned in the Bushveldt Carbineers
VII The Origin of the Carbineers
VIII What Led to the Trouble
IX Death of Captain Hunt—Morant's Reprisals
X By Order—"No Quarter!"
XI Morant's Creditable Exploit
XII Ordered for Court-Martial
XIII Beyers—And the Flag he Slept On
XIV Further Proceedings of Court-Martial
XV Close of the Visser Case
XVI The Eight Boers Case
XVII The Second Court-Martial—Continued
XVIII In the Name of Justice!
XIX The German Missionary Case
XX Execution of Morant and Handcock
XXI "Imprisonment for Life!"
XXII Gaol Discipline and Prison Blunders
XXIII The Petition for Release
XXIV The Long Suspense
XXV Freedom at Last!
