Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers

 

Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers by George Witton is an unfortunate book. Witton is not a writer, and has little sense of how to tell his story.  If you have not seen the 1980 Australian film, or are aware from another source of the war crimes that Witton, Morant and Handcock allegedly committed, this book would be completely cloudy.

In the end, this book does nothing to prove the crimes of Witton, Morant and Handcock were anything but that, crimes.  Even if orders existed to kill Boer prisoners, it was an unethical order, and should not have been obeyed.  Their defense that war on the Northern Transvaal was simply of this nature, irregular and total, is also no excuse.  This is like the defense that I am not culpable because all cars are traveling seventy in a fifty-five mph zone, I do not deserve to get a ticket if stopped.  The illegal actions of others is no excuse for my own illegal actions.

This case, and this book, really calls out for the dire need for a military to maintain discipline and order.  In the stress and turmoil of war, a lack of discipline is the slippery slope toward war crimes.