Two British officers heavily implicated in ordering Morant and his crew to shoot prisoners,
never faced the music. 1) Captain Hunt who was dead, and 2/.Captain Taylor, Lord Kitcheners intel officer.
St Clair, a notable and senior lawyer responsible for reviewing inquiries and proceedings involving
breaches of the Army Act was convinced by the evidence he reviewed against the accused,
including Captain Taylor. His findings about Captain Taylor are significant. He confirmed that
he as the superior officer of BVC officers and men, was responsible for issuing orders not to take prisoners.
Taylor and Hunt as British officers were superior to Morant and gave directions that they expected be
followed. Morant and his co-accused were merely irregular volunteer soldiers .It is also clear from St Clair’s
findings that it was Captain Taylor who took the initiative to issue orders not to take prisoners. It was not
at the instigation of Morant, who earlier had been reprimanded by Captain Hunt for refusing to obey the order.
Morant eventually followed the order when he found his friend Captain Hunt had been tortured/killed by Boers.
Major Thomas, Morants legal representative delivered this statement to the court concerning the accused persons
assigned task of dealing with guerrillas operating under no rules of engagement or protocols of laws of war:
" the prisoners’ defence is that, no matter in what way the charge against them has been, or might have been framed,
the action they respectively took in the summary execution of these eight Boers was justifiable, or, at any rate, not criminal’.
‘That which would be a crime, a felony, or a malicious act in time of peace may be quite justifiable in time of war, and doubly
so in guerrilla warfare, waged against men who cannot be regarded as lawful belligerents, but only as lawless bands of
marauders, who carry on desultory hostilities, combined with train wreckings and other uncivilised practices. Upon such an
enemy I maintain our troops are justified in making the severest reprisals, and are entitled to regard them, not as lawful
belligerents at all, but as outlaws."
